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.

scholarly journals Faith-based action and urban regeneration

2018 ◽  
Vol 74 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephan F. De Beer
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Urban Regeneration ◽  
Urban Transformation ◽  
Spatial Justice ◽  
African Cities ◽  
Faith Based ◽  
Urban Problems ◽  
Urban Spirituality ◽  
South African Cities

After describing the challenges, myths, exclusions and opportunities of urban regeneration, this article explores the potential interface between faith-based action and different forms of urban regeneration. Focusing on different South African cities, it considers how faith-based action could participate in regenerative urban work. Faith-based action will refer to the varied responses of churches and faith-based organisations to urban challenges and transitions. It interrogates whether faith-based action only represents many similar approaches that address urban problems superficially without mediating long-term, systemic change, or whether it indeed contributes to urban transformation in the sense of radical inclusivity and socio-structural spatial justice. Finally, it considers socio-theological sources that could potentially ground urban faith-based action theologically – such as an urban spirituality, an understanding of regeneration as integral liberation and mobilising socio-spiritual capital – whilst making a distinctive contribution to the processes of socially inclusive urban regeneration.

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 Socially Embedded Character of Informal Channels of Remittances: ‘Omalayisha’ in the South Africa/Zimbabwe Remittance Corridor

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vusilizwe Thebe ◽  
Sara Mutyatyu
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Community Relations ◽  
The South ◽  
Strategic Networks ◽  
African Cities ◽  
Urban Livelihoods ◽  
Historical Movement ◽  
South African Cities ◽  
Peasant Economy

In this article, we cast some doubts on contemporary initiatives to formalise remittance channels by focusing on particular dynamics of the informal ‘malayisha’ system on the South Africa/Zimbabwe remittance corridor. We stress the socially embedded character of ‘omalayisha’ in some rural societies by demonstrating that the system is built on strong social and community relations of friendship, neighbourhood, kinship and referrals, and the development of strategic networks of state officials. We also seek to draw parallels between the historical movement of remittances from the cities to rural societies and the contemporary system of ‘omalayisha’. Our argument suggest that ‘omalayisha’ are inherently part of the contemporary worker-peasant economy after the relocation and expansion of urban livelihoods to South African cities, and that their position in these societies extends beyond mere labour reproduction to accumulation and survival questions.

scholarly journals A Community of Practice Approach to Planning Water Sensitive Cities in South Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 110-121
Author(s):  
Kirsty Carden ◽  
Jessica Fell
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Community Of Practice ◽  
South African ◽  
Resource Constraints ◽  
Training Programme ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Integrative Approach ◽  
African Cities ◽  
Skills Shortages ◽  
South African Cities

As South African cities urbanise alongside climate change, resource constraints, and socio-economic challenges, water sensitive (urban) design (WSD) is slowly gaining traction as a framework to address water security goals and entrench resilience. This article reflects on the progression of WSD in South Africa and discusses the broadening of its initial association with stormwater and physical infrastructure to include critical governance and institutional arrangements and social engagements at the core of a water sensitive transition. The approach is  being adapted for the socio-economic challenges particular to  South Africa, including basic urban water and sanitation service provision, WSD related skills shortages, a lack of spatial planning support for WSD, and the need for enabling policy. Since 2014, a national WSD Community of Practice (CoP) has been a key driver in entrenching and advancing this approach and ensuring that the necessary stakeholders are involved and sufficiently skilled. The WSD CoP is aimed at promoting an integrative approach to planning water sensitive cities, bridging the gaps between theory and practice and blending the social and physical sciences and silo divisions within local municipalities. Three South African examples are presented to illustrate the role of a CoP approach with social learning aspects that support WSD : (1) the “Pathways to water resilient South African cities” interdisciplinary project which shows the institutional (policy) foundation for the integration of WSD into city water planning and management processes; (2) the Sustainable Drainage Systems  training programme in the province of Gauteng which demonstrates a skills audit and training initiative as part of an intergovernmental skills development programme with academic partners; and (3) a working group that is being established between the Institute for Landscape Architecture in South Africa and the South African Institution of Civil Engineering which illustrates the challenges and efforts of key professions working together to build WSD capacity.

Spaces of Democracy: Remapping the Apartheid City

1998 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 533-548 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Robinson
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Local Government ◽  
South African ◽  
Democratic Politics ◽  
Political Identities ◽  
Democratic Culture ◽  
African Cities ◽  
Chantal Mouffe ◽  
South African Cities ◽  
Transitional Phase

Democracy is associated with particular kinds of spatialities. In this paper I address two aspects of the spatiality of democracy through an assessment of transitional arrangements for local government in South African cities. Political identities, as well as spatial arrangements, involved in democratic politics are associated with instability, uncertainty, and ongoing contestation. In democracies, the contestation both of identities and of spaces is institutionalised and this implies the generalisation of particular spatialities. Drawing on a spatially informed interpretation of the work of Ernest Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, I argue that the transitional phase in the emergence of democracy in South Africa has involved the growth of a democratic culture—even in situations where substantial compromises have been made to keep recalcitrant white interests on board. I question the assertion of a nonracial politics which seeks to erase the possibility of ethnically based political identities and argue that the failure of the left to hegemonise their perspective of a nonracial political project and a nonracial postapartheid city may have ironically assisted in extending the possibilities for democracy. A key conclusion is that democracies are associated with different spatialities which facilitate contestation and representation. A politics of space, given the radical undecidability of spatial boundaries, is supportive of the extension of democracy.

From Main Reef to Albertina Sisulu Road

2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 31-50
Author(s):  
Natasha Erlank
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Public Space ◽  
South African ◽  
The Public ◽  
African Cities ◽  
Masculinity And Femininity ◽  
Street Naming ◽  
South African Cities

Public space in South Africa often feels overwhelmingly male-focused. Nevertheless, some municipalities, in the wake of post-apartheid transformation, have consciously attempted to commemorate women in the renaming that has taken place since 1994. In this article I examine some of these impulses, and their implication for the public commemoration of women in South Africa. I am interested in two aspects of this: how ideas about gender are represented in public memorialization (ideas about both masculinity and femininity); and how these ideas have changed, if at all, over the last twenty years. In order to do this I examine the phenomenon of memorialization via street names, in particular the street naming controversies that have erupted in key South African cities over roughly the last ten years.

Legal Perspectives on Ecosystem Services Protection for Water Security in South African Cities

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maricélle Botes ◽  
Rochine Melandri Steenkamp
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
South African ◽  
Regulatory System ◽  
Water Security ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
African Cities ◽  
South African Cities ◽  
Substantial Effort

In the last couple of years, South African cities have exhibited extreme water stresses, despite there being a strong regulatory system for the management of said resources. The pressure to meet human demand for freshwater resources, accompanied by a wide array of other challenges, has largely led to a deterioration of ecosystems. Given the ongoing and widespread loss of ecological services, water protection requires a substantial effort to reverse the current decline in both the state of the ecosystems and the services they provide to society, and the country’s shared sense of governance of these significant resources. Achieving water security and the sustainable management of water resources will, therefore, require overcoming strategic challenges related to protected areas, water infrastructure, economies, human settlements and water quality, sanitation and health, as well as the protection of ecological infrastructure. This article argues that ecosystem services protection can add value to the protection and management of water resources in attaining water security in South Africa, as ecosystem services and water security are inextricably linked. The article further determines how the legal framework in South Africa makes provision for water security and ecosystem services protection, to assess what role local government can and should take on. The authors conclude the discussion with some observations on ecosystem services protection for water security in policies and by-laws of the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality.

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