The South African Research Chair in Spatial Analysis and City Planning

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https://hdl.handle.net/10539/37292

The South African Research Chair in Spatial Analysis and City Planning is situated in the School of Architecture and Planning, at the University of the Witwatersrand and is headed by Prof Philip Harrison. This collection includes research outputs from the programme, including those under its previous name, the South African Research Chair in Development Planning and Modelling. For information on this collection content, please contact: Bongi Mphuti via email : Bongi.Mphuti@wits.ac.za or Tel (W) : 011 717 1978.

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A picture speaks a thousnd words: understanding women's migration in Johannesburg using visual diaries
(Routledge, 2010-09-23) Kihato, Caroline
Using the visual diaries of a group of African women migrants now living in Johannesburg, this article explores what is now termed "ferminization of migration". It does this less by drawing attention to the fact that women are moving than by using women's own images and narratives to reveal dimensions of that experience that have yet to be understood. Centralto the article's arguement is the assertion that images communicate to us in ways that can reveal not only the material conditions of groups that are often hidden from view, but also their own local political locations, and society's own assumptions about them. Women's visual diaries and their narrative reveal the ways in which they negotiate structural impendiments of asylum offialdom, police harassment, patriarchy, unemployment and poverty. The research argues that current understanding of the ferminization of migration fail to reveal the socio-cultural and political complexities of women's mobility on the African continent.
Back to the Streets; Exploratory research on pedestrian life and walking spaces in the Greater Johannesburg area
(South African Research Chair in Development Planning and Modelling, School of Architecture and Planning, University of the Witwatersrand., 2012) Cabaret, Alice
The aim of this exploratory research is to identify the different aspects and trends of the pedestrian practices in the Greater Johannesburg area. This has been achieved by the use of “street models” encapsulating the different socio-demographic profiles of pedestrians as well as their uses of space, based on site visits and social surveys....... This research aims at being exploratory and at providing a first understanding of pedestrian life and walking spaces in Johannesburg. It also looks at the challenges to their development, based on the comparative analysis of street models. The research provided provisional answers to questions posed, but also raised additional complex questions to be interrogated. The research method itself assumes that the findings cannot be perfectly representative: rather they serve as a base for preliminary conclusions and further research.
Does density drive development?
(South African Research Chair in Development Planning and Modelling, 2012) Msulwa, Rehema. Turok, Ivan.
There is growing interest among governments and researchers around the world in the contribution of cities to economic development. Several influential international organisations have argued that the spatial concentration of economic activity is necessary for faster economic growth. This paper examines whether the density of population and economic activity influences the rate of local economic growth in South Africa. Municipalities are the basic units of analysis and the time frame is 1996-2010. Contrary to expectations, no statistically significant relationship is found between density and growth across the full range of 237 local municipalities. However, searching hard for a relationship among particular kinds of municipality, some evidence does emerge. The influence of human skills on local growth is also examined and is found to be more robust than density. Several reasons are given for why the relationship between density and growth is generally weak or non-existent.
The impact of gated communities on spatial transformation in the Greater Johannesburg area
(Report Series produced by the South African Research Chair in Development Planning and Modelling, School of Architecture and Planning, University of the Witwatersrand., 2012-08) Landman, Karina; Badenhorst, Willem
Gated communities in south Africa have increased tremendously since the late 1990’s, with various types spreading across the urban landscape. they can broadly be divided into two groups, namely enclosed neighbourhood s and new security developments. Enclosed neighbourhoods refer to existing neighbourhoods that have been fenced or walled in and where access is controlled or prohibited by means of gates or booms erected across existing roads. New security developments are private developments in which the entire area is developed by a private developer. these areas/buildings are physically walled or fenced off and usually have a security gate or controlled access point, with or without a security guard. this type can include large security estates, gated townhouse clusters/complexes and gated apartment complexes. these three sub-types are predominantly residential. new security developments can, however, also include gated offi ce parks and gated mixed-use developments (Landman 2012). As a signifi cant contributor to urban spatia l transformation, there is a need to understand the current extent and impact of different types of gated communities in the greater johannesburg area and implications for urban restructuring and sustainable development.
Does density drive development?
(Report Series produced by the South African Research Chair in Development Planning and Modelling, School of Architecture and Planning, University of the Witwatersrand., 2012-08) Msulwa, Rehema; Turok, Ivan
There is growing interest among governments and researchers around the world in the contribution of cities to economic development. Several influential international organisations have argued that the spatial concentration of economic activity is necessary for faster economic growth. This paper examines whether the density of population and economic activity influences the rate of local economic growth in South Africa. Municipalities are the basic units of analysis and the time frame is 1996-2010. Contrary to expectations, no statistically significant relationship is found between density and growth across the full range of 237 local municipalities. However, searching hard for a relationship among particular kinds of municipality, some evidence does emerge. The influence of human skills on local growth is also examined and is found to be more robust than density. Several reasons are given for why the relationship between density and growth is generally weak or non-existent.
CHANGING LAND USE ON THE PERIPHERY; a case study of urban agriculture and food gardening in Orange Farm
(Report Series produced by the South African Research Chair in Development Planning and Modelling, School of Architecture and Planning, University of the Witwatersrand., 2012-08) RICHARDS, Robin; TAYLOR, Sue
This study was undertaken after funding was received under a call for short-term consultancies to investigate a range of topics related to urban spatial transformation. the call was issued by the school of Architecture and Planning of the University of witwatersrand under the nRF sARcHi initiative. this study investigates peri-urban food gardens and the role that food gardening plays in orange Farm in addressing poverty and in improving food security. the study specifi cally looks at the effects of available open space on urban agriculture and food gardening in orange Farm. It was hypothesised at the outset of the study that, being located on the peri-urban periphery of the city, orange Farm is not yet densely populated or short of land for food gardening to be excluded as a livelihood option. this abundance of open land could, therefore, become an asset in an agriculturally-based strategy to target poverty in this priority region of the city.
Renegotiating Space; Arts on Main, 44 Stanley + Johannesburg
(Report Series produced by the South African Research Chair in Development Planning and Modelling, School of Architecture and Planning, University of the Witwatersrand., 2012-08) Bahman, Dirk; Frenkel, Jason
currently, there is a proliferation of urban, middle class, creative and alternative developments in Johannesburg that are typifi ed by 44 stanley and Arts on main. these developments are a relatively new phenomenon in the city and a critical investigation is required as to the reasons for their current popularity, as well as their impact and infl uences on the city. As ‘encoded’ texts that refl ect the identities and desires of a segment of our society (Van eeden2005:39), their analysis has the potential to shed light on the intricacies and nuances of the re-development of Johannesburg as a whole.
Renegotiating Space; Arts on Main, 44 Stanley + Johannesburg
(2012-08) Bahmann, Dirk; Frenkel, Jason
Currently, there is a proliferation of urban, middle class, creative and alternative developments in Johannesburg that are typified by 44 Stanley and Arts on Main. These developments are a relatively new phenomenon in the city and a critical investigation is required as to the reasons for their current popularity, as well as their impact and influences on the city. As ‘encoded’ texts that reflect the identities and desires of a segment of our society (Van Eeden2005:39), their analysis has the potential to shed light on the intricacies and nuances of the re-development of Johannesburg as a whole.44 Stanley is an alternative, boutique shopping venue on the urban edge of the city of Johannesburg. It is a walled, post-industrial, low-rise space that consists of a number of interconnected outdoor courtyards of various sizes. The clientele are primarily wealthy, creative people from the Northern Suburbs and the neighbouring universities (University of Johannesburg and the University of the Witwatersrand). As such, 44 Stanley is integrally stitched into its immediate urban fabric. It is part of the Milpark district in Braamfontein Werf, which contains a number of spatially isolated, self-contained developments, each owned by separate developers, including residential lofts, offices, film schools and a shopping mall. It was established in 2003 and represented and catered for a desire for northern suburbanites to re-engage with the urban.
BACK TO THE STREETS; Exploratory research on pedestrian life and walking spaces in the Greater Johannesburg area
(Report Series produced by the South African Research Chair in Development Planning and Modelling, School of Architecture and Planning, University of the Witwatersrand., 2012-08) Cabaret, Alice
In order to conduct an analysis of the different street types and the social profi les of pedestrians in the greater Johannesburg area, a typology based on social and urban analysis has been defi ned: this research focuses on 6 models of the different street types identifi ed in the greater Johannesburg area.
Does density drive development?
(South African Research Chair in Development Planning and and Planning, University of the Witwatersrand., 2012-08) Msulwa, Rehema
here is growing interest among governments and researchers around the world in the contribution of cities to economic development. Several influential international organisations have argued that the spatial concentration of economic activity is necessary for faster economic growth. This paper examines whether the density of population and economic activity influences the rate of local economic growth in South Africa. Municipalities are the basic units of analysis and the time frame is 1996-2010. Contrary to expectations, no statistically significant relationship is found between density and growth across the full range of 237 local municipalities. However, searching hard for a relationship among particular kinds of municipality, some evidence does emerge. The influence of human skills on local growth is also examined and is found to be more robust than density. Several reasons are given for why the relationship between density and growth is generally weak or non-existent.
The impact of gated communities on spatial transformation in the Greater Johannesburg area
(South African Research Chair in Development Planning and Modelling, School of Architecture and Planning,University of the Witwatersrand., 2012-08) Landman, Karina; Badenhorst, Willem
The main research question relates to the impact of gated communities on urban spatial transformation in the greater Johannesburg area. This translated into three objectives, namely: 1. To determine the extent of different types of gated communities in the City of Johannesburg. 2. To determine the impact of gated communities on spatial transformation in relation to processes of social, economic, environmental, institutional and political change. 3. To identify the implications for spatial restructuring and sustainable urban development in the City of Joburg.
CHANGING LAND USE ON THE PERIPHERY; a case study of urban agriculture and food gardening in Orange Farm.
(South African Research Chair in Development Planning and Modelling, School of Architecture and Planning, University of the Witwatersrand., 2012-08) RICHARDS, ROBIN; TAYLOR, SUE
This study was undertaken after funding was received under a call for short-term consultancies to investigate a range of topics related to urban spatial transformation. The call was issued by the School of Architecture and Planning of the University of Witwatersrand under the NRF SARCHi initiative. This study investigates peri-urban food gardens and the role that food gardening plays in Orange Farm in addressing poverty and in improving food security. The study specifically looks at the effects of available open space on urban agriculture and food gardening in Orange Farm. It was hypothesised at the outset of the study that, being located on the peri-urban periphery of the city, Orange Farm is not yet densely populated or short of land for food gardening to be excluded as a livelihood option. This abundance of open land could, therefore, become an asset in an agriculturally-based strategy to target poverty in this priority region of the city.1.......... This study was undertaken after funding was received under a call for short-term consultancies to investigate a range of topics related to urban spatial transformation. The call was issued by the School of Architecture and Planning of the University of Witwatersrand under the NRF SARCHi initiative. This study investigates peri-urban food gardens and the role that food gardening plays in Orange Farm in addressing poverty and in improving food security. The study specifically looks at the effects of available open space on urban agriculture and food gardening in Orange Farm. It was hypothesised at the outset of the study that, being located on the peri-urban periphery of the city, Orange Farm is not yet densely populated or short of land for food gardening to be excluded as a livelihood option. This abundance of open land could, therefore, become an asset in an agriculturally-based strategy to target poverty in this priority region of the city.1...... The study was guided by two key research questions, namely: 1. What interest do Orange Farm residents have in urban agriculture and food gardening; and can this interest be used as a spatial planning element as the settlement undergoes increased formal development? 2. Are there spatial, land ownership, socio-economic and attitudinal constraints that currently affect the implementation of food gardening projects and urban agriculture in Orange Farm and, if so, which of these is the greatest obstacle to current and future urban agriculture and food gardening?
The power of mining: the fall of gold and rise of Johannesburg
(Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 2012-10-17) Harrison, Phillip. Zack, Tanya.
The City of Johannesburg has developed through the entire life-cycle of the mining industry. In its early years, its development was tied to the varying, but generally upward, fortunes of the mining industry. During this time, gold mining in Johannesburg, and along the Witwatersrand, propelled the growth of South Africa’s national economy into a phase of self-sustained development, and created an integrated labour market across southern Africa. It also played a key role in shaping the racial oligarchy that dominated South Africa until the fall of apartheid in the 1990s. However, gold was eventually to decline, first in the areas around Johannesburg, and then elsewhere. The growth of Johannesburg, however, continued and the urban economy became increasingly diversified and flexible. This growth seemed divorced from mining but was, in fact, deeply rooted in the history of mining. The mining industry played an intimate role in the development of the manufacturing sector and also in the emergence of financial services; which is currently the leading economic sector in Johannesburg. These economic changes are represented in continuous evolution of the spatial form of the city. Currently the physical legacy of mining is understood mainly in terms of its deleterious environmental consequences, including acid mine drainage, with the long and profound impact of mining on the patterning of urban growth largely forgotten.
Strategy and Tactics: Chinese Immigrants and Diasporic Spaces in Johannesburg, South Africa
(Journal of Southern African Studies, 2012-12-14) Harrison, Phillip. Moyo, Khangelani. Yang, Yan
Migration studies in South Africa have partially taken the spatial turn, giving some attention to questions of territoriality and spatial relationships. Recent literature has drawn on de Certeau’s distinction between the strategies of the powerful and the tactics of the subordinate, revealing for example how migrants occupy hidden spaces to evade control and social hostility. Within the broad aegis of de Certeau’s work, we engage the historical and contemporary spaces of the Chinese diaspora in Johannesburg. We describe a highly differentiated grouping of migrants that has deployed, and continues to deploy, varying tactics over time and across space. There are, for example, processes of clustering and processes of dispersal. There is also the use of visibility and cultural marking as a spatial tactic, as well as of invisibility and hidden spaces. We also reveal that the spatial practices of the Chinese migrants do not only relate to the strategies of the powerful but are also a response to the competition and threats posed by other subordinate individuals and groupings in society, including other Chinese migrants.
Migrant Women of Johannesburg: Life in an in-between City
(Wits University Press, 2013) Kihato, Caroline.
Johannesburg is filled with many migrants from across Africa and the world, seeking opportunities in the ‘city of gold’. In this book, Caroline Wanjiku Kihato, who began her life in South Africa as a street trader, uses narratives and images to explore the lives of women from Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo Brazzaville, Nigeria, Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe, now living in Johannesburg. Using their stories of love, illness, fears, children, violence, family and money, she explores women’s relationships with host and home communities, the South African state, economy and the city of Johannesburg.
Clearly blown away by the end of the morning's drama: spectacle, pacification and the 2010 world cup, South Africa
(The Journal of the Society for Socialist Studies, 2013) McMichael, Christopher
The massive security assemblages surrounding major sporting events and political summits embody two layers of spectacle. On the one hand, security operations are central to the governance of entertainment and media imagery. Simultaneously these security measures are profoundly theatrical and calibrated for the maximum visual impact: the spectacle of security itself. Some critical thinkers have described this dual spectacle as indicative of a contemporary state-corporate obsession with image and perception management, an obsession which detracts from ‘valid’ security concerns. By contrast I argue that spectacle and theatricality are in fact highly functional components of the pacification projects of state and capital. With reference to Guy Debord’s conception of ‘spectacle’, this article highlights how mega-events reveal, in highly dramatised form, the logic of pacification. Using the 2010 FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) soccer World Cup as a case study, the article demonstrates how police and military power are mobilised to secure accumulation, to enforce social control and to extend the power and arsenal of the state security apparatus. What is truly spectacular about mega event security is not just the incorporation of media templates into the working of state forces. Rather, the rhetoric and concept of security itself becomes a form of spectacular power as it serves to both obscure and justify how mega events are ultimately projects of class power.
Sporting Mega-Events and South-to-South Security Exchanges: A Comparative Study of South Africa and Brazil
(The Hague Journal of Diplomacy, 2013-03-26) McMichael, Christopher
The FIFA World Cup and the Summer Olympics are the most prestigious major sporting events in the world, and host governments implement security measures to match this stature. While global concerns about terrorism have led to a dramatic upsurge in the extent of security measures, the perceived threat of urban crime is becoming an increasingly prominent cause for apprehension. This has been of particular importance to South Africa’s recent 2010 World Cup and for the unprecedented sequential hosting of both the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics in Brazil. In both contexts, security has been used as a statement of intent: the respective states have instrumentalized mega-events as an international platform to signal their ability to secure urban environments. This article will focus on a comparative study of areas in which the respective security preparations for the World Cup in Brazil have overlapped with the measures deployed in South Africa. Using examples of how Brazilian authorities have sought advice from their South Africa counterparts, it will suggest that both countries have adopted comparable risk aversion strategies.
RE-IMAGINING POST-APARTHEID YEOVILLE BELLEVUE; the journey and reflections of a resident activist/activist resident
(South African Research Chair in Development Planning and Modelling, School of Architecture and Planning, University of the Witwatersrand., 2013-12) SMITHERS, MAURICE
I fi rst began to work in Yeoville Bellevue in 1997/8. Fifteen years later, I’m refl ecting in this research report on what I and my fellow Yeoville Bellevueites have managed to achieve, individually and collectively, in that time. It is my own personal account and I accept that others may have a different story to tell. I hope it’s interesting and that we can all learn something from it. I hope even more fervently that it will, in some way, take the fi ght for a better Yeoville Bellevue (and a better inner city) forward. Looking back in my archives, I found a table which I drafted in November of 1997 1, setting out matters that I thought needed attention. Amongst these were that: • Yeoville Bellevue was in urgent need of a socio-economic development policy • The Community Forum had collapsed and had not been replaced by a credible civic structure • Parks in the area were unmanaged and in need of proper attention • There were a number of illegalities and by-law infringements taking place
Soweto: A study in socio-spatial differentiation
(Wits University Press, 2014) Harrison, Philip. Harrison, Kirsten.
A mix of respected academics, practising urban planners and experienced policymakers offer compelling overviews of the rapid and complex spatial developments that have taken place in Johannesburg since the end of apartheid, along with tantalising glimpses into life on the streets and behind the high walls of this diverse city. The book has three sections. Section A provides an overview of macro spatial trends and the policies that have infl uenced them. Section B explores the shaping of the city at district and suburban level, revealing the peculiarity of processes in different areas. This analysis elucidates thelarger trends, while identifying shifts that are not easily detected at the macro level. Section C is an assembly of chapters and short vignettes that focus on the interweaving of place and identity at a micro level. With empirical data supported by new data sets including the 2011 Census, the city’s Development Planning and Urban Management Department’s information system, and Gauteng City-Region Observatory’s substantial archive, the book is an essential reference for planning practitioners, urban geographers, sociologists, and social anthropologists, among others.
Alexandra
(Wits University Press, 2014) Harrison, Philip. Masson, Andrian. Sinwell, Luke.
A mix of respected academics, practising urban planners and experienced policymakers offer compelling overviews of the rapid and complex spatial developments that have taken place in Johannesburg since the end of apartheid, along with tantalising glimpses into life on the streets and behind the high walls of this diverse city. The book has three sections. Section A provides an overview of macro spatial trends and the policies that have influenced them. Section B explores the shaping of the city at district and suburban level, revealing the peculiarity of processes in different areas. This analysis elucidates the larger trends, while identifying shifts that are not easily detected at the macro level. Section C is an assembly of chapters and short vignettes that focus on the interweaving of place and identity at a micro level. With empirical data supported by new data sets including the 2011 Census, the city’s Development Planning and Urban Management Department’s information system, and Gauteng City-Region Observatory’s substantial archive, the book is an essential reference for planning practitioners, urban geographers, sociologists, and social anthropologists, among others.

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