Dr Jan Lorenz Wilhelm just arrived from Germany to start his seven-month research project at the School of Public Management and Administration (SPMA). Together with Dr Mary Mangai from the SPMA, he will work on a comparative research project in the field of violence and crime prevention in the Western Cape and Gauteng provinces focusing on co-creating safety and security knowledge. 

Dr Mangai has conducted research in the past on the design format of crime prevention councils and order partnerships, as well as the requirements for security governance in Germany and co-production of neighborhood security in Johannesburg.

During his stay, Dr Wilhelm is looking forward to conducting field research, organising round tables and seminar discussions with various stakeholders about their knowledge on safety and crime prevention strategies and to share his experiences with the SPMA students through holding seminars.  Dr Wilhelm will spend most of his time however in the field.

Dr Wilhelm’s professional journey
Dr Wilhelm is an academic staff member at the Institute of Environmental Sciences and Geography at the University of Potsdam, Germany. His research is focusing on the challenges and benefits of collaborative urban development using systemic and system-theoretical approaches. 

In his research, Dr Wilhelm works with decision makers in both municipalities and ministries at national and provincial level. In 2021, together with Prof Dr Manfred Rolfes, he published the Potsdam lodestar approach, a process model for collaborative urban development. 

In recent years, he has been researching violence and crime prevention in particular. This includes the participatory development of a prevention strategy in the German city of Wilhelmshaven, the development of a model for neighborhood-based cooperative security production, and the analysis of successful knowledge communication in prevention work in Saxony. 

All these research projects address the overarching question of how to organise good crime prevention and deal with the complex challenges involved. A core challenge is that violence and crime prevention must be coordinated and negotiated between different organisations and citizens if it is to be successful. Prevention work is a cross-sectional task that is often carried out under the leadership of municipal or police departments and, especially in larger municipalities, is accompanied by crime prevention committees. 

Dr Wilhelm’s research stay at SPMA aims to deepen the existing insights on violence and crime prevention and to identify South African solutions for co-creation of knowledge.