ABSTRACT
Stellenbosch, a major university town in the Western Cape of South Africa, aims to position itself as a leading and innovative African city-region. As an investigation of the particularities of how this urban living laboratory (ULL) has been designed and facilitated, this chapter explores its roots in sustainability science and transdisciplinary research at Stellenbosch University (SU). It describes the cultivation of a space of intermediation and learning that shaped the Rector-Executive Mayor Forum (REMF) as a hybrid space or "learning agora", conducive to innovation and experimentation. Recollections by forum members of the relationships between the university and the municipality preceding the establishment of the REMF are of it being a distant, mistrustful and often antagonistic one. The chapter explains the evolution of the Stellenbosch ULL in terms of how the REMF, the Infrastructure Innovation Committee (IIC) and the Integrated Planning Committee (IIP) unfolded between November 2013 and April 2015.
