Paper short abstract:

Reflecting on an undergraduate human geography module, this paper highlights the role of learning through mundane mobility and encounters. Using autoethnographic student essays, this paper considers the link between the theory and practice of encountering publics in an African city.

Paper long abstract:

This paper reflects on pedagogies of urban encounter in an undergraduate human geography module at the University of the Western Cape called GES225 Space, Place and Mobility in Southern Africa. While the module focuses on mobilities theory and its application toward understanding the shaping of space, place and subjectivity, the broader aim of the module is to engage students with the contemporary African city, its complex fabric and diverse publics. Teaching and learning activities include student-generated knowledge through reflections on everyday mobility in the form of autoethnographic essays. Using examples from teaching and learning activities in the module, this paper considers the role of mobile diaries as a link between theory and practice, where the latter serves as a means of illuminating and demystifying the former. Results from learning activities exemplify the innate understanding of critical concepts in mobilities studies, including the experience of movement, its meanings, and practices within the context of the African city.