scholarly journals Problematising concepts of transit-oriented development in South African cities

Urban Studies ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 004209802110337
Author(s):  
Astrid Wood
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Urban Politics ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Spatial Transformation ◽  
Transit Oriented Development ◽  
African Cities ◽  
Policy Mobilities ◽  
South African Cities ◽  
Density Development ◽  
Universal Mechanism

Transit-oriented development (TOD) is generally defined as planned high-density development containing a mixture of residential, retail, commercial and community uses around a transit hub and surrounded by a high-quality urban realm that prioritises the pedestrian (and more recently the cyclist) over the automobile. This article analyses the steps taken in Cape Town and Johannesburg to develop TOD schemes. In so doing, it problematises both the concept of TOD as a universal mechanism in which all cities apply a similar set of guidelines as well as the specific planning practices in South African cities. Drawing on the policy mobilities literature and specifically the emerging discussions of policy mobilities failure, I note the challenges and delays in implementing TOD in South Africa. It is not so much that TOD has been applied incorrectly as that it has been unable to stick in the local context. Rather than furthering the debate on whether a city should or should not promote TOD, viewing their planning through a policy mobilities lens highlights the urban politics of policymaking. Accordingly, the article presents a fine-tuned analysis of TOD as both a conceptual framework as well as a process for actually doing transport planning. Such a critical reading of the intertwined and overlapping practices of policymaking provides insights into the process of urban development and spatial transformation in (South/ern) Africa as well as across cities of the global south.

scholarly journals Discerning a theological agenda for spatial justice in South Africa: An imperative for sustained reconciliation

2016 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephan De Beer
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Spatial Transformation ◽  
Spatial Turn ◽  
Spatial Justice ◽  
African Cities ◽  
The Past ◽  
Theological Discourse ◽  
Spatial Consciousness ◽  
South African Cities

A spatial turn has occurred in various disciplines over the past decades. This article holds that it has not occurred in a similar decisive manner in theological discourse and not in South Africa in particular. After considering the necessity of a spatial turn and spatial consciousness, the article examines the concept of spatial justice against the backdrop of how injustice was and is spatially expressed in South African cities. Considering the way in which South African cities have evolved since the Native Land Act of 1913 – the segregated and apartheid city and the (post)apartheid city – the article then argues that deep and sustained reconciliation will be impossible should current spatial patterns of segregation, exclusion and injustice continue. It advocates theological and ecclesial participation in a national agenda for spatial transformation, to be fleshed out in relation to four interconnected challenges: land, landlessness, housing and home; the ‘creative destruction’ of neighbourhoods, gentrification and the displacement of the poor; participation in city-making (from below) and transformative spatial interventions; and close collaboration with social movements working for spatial justice. It concludes by asserting that such a trans- and/or postdisciplinary agenda for spatial justice would participate with the Spirit to mend the oikos of God.

YOUTH WELLBEING IN SOUTH AFRICA: WHAT DIMENSIONS SHOULD WE MEASURE?

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dabesaki Mac-Ikemenjima
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Health Education ◽  
Young People ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
South African ◽  
Time Use ◽  
Economic Relationships ◽  
African Cities ◽  
South African Cities ◽  
Selection Of

There is growing interest in the development of measures and indexes of youth wellbeing. However, there has been a limited discussion on indicators to measure and select them. This paper reports on the results of a qualitative study on the selection of indicators to measure the wellbeing of young people in South Africa, and reflects on the relevance of the content of their values in choosing indicators for measuring their wellbeing. The data used in this analysis is based on telephone (9) and email (6) interviews conducted with 15 young people (male=5, female=10) aged 22 to 32 from five South African cities during July 2010. In the interviews, participants were asked to identify five issues they considered important to their lives, after which they were asked to rank them in order of importance. The issues indicated by the participants are described and discussed in six dimensions: economic, relationships, spiritual and health, education, time use and material. The indicators developed from this study are discussed in terms of their relevance for use in a measure of youth wellbeing in South Africa.

Urban history in the new South Africa: continuity and innovation since the end of apartheid

Urban History ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 288-315 ◽  
Author(s):  
VIVIAN BICKFORD-SMITH
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Urban History ◽  
Rapid Growth ◽  
New South ◽  
New Work ◽  
Small Field ◽  
African Cities ◽  
South African Cities

The Soweto uprising of 1976 confirmed to most observers that the anti-apartheid struggle (in contrast to anti-colonial struggles in many other parts of Africa) would be largely urban in character. This realization gave impetus to a rapid growth in the hitherto small field of South African urban history. Much new work predictably sought to understand the nature of conflict and inequality in South African cities and its possible resolution.

Migrant Entrepreneurship and Informality in South African Cities

Mean Streets ◽  
2015 ◽  
pp. 1-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Crush ◽  
Abel Chikanda ◽  
Caroline Skinner
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
African Cities ◽  
Migrant Entrepreneurship ◽  
South African Cities
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