School of Architecture and Planning

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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.
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.
Architectures of visibility and invisibility: a reflection on the secret affinities of Johannesburg’s cross-border shopping hub
(Anthropology Southern Africa, 2019) Zack, Tanya; Govender, Thireshen
The inner city of Johannesburg, South Africa, is the site of an intense wholesale and retail trade in fast fashion. Here mostly migrant entrepreneurs supply billions of rand worth of Chinese apparel to local and cross-border shoppers from across sub-Saharan Africa. The retail phenomenon pulsates from the incrementally adapted interiors of modernist office buildings. The buildings now host secret shopping centres, with mini retail outlets and coffee shops transforming dormant interior corridors and stairwells into lively internal streets. This compressed urban environment caters exquisitely to the ambiguous needs of being both visible and invisible — to display and to conceal — in this urban context. Walter Benjamin’s musings on the architectures and social positioning of mid-nineteenth century Parisian arcades offer insight into how adaptive, rogue architectures respond to mass consumption in contemporary Johannesburg. They support the argument that the arcades of “Jeppe” are deliberate, responsive architectures.
Between fixity and flux: Grappling with transience and permanence in the inner city
(Wits University Press, 2014) Dinath, Yasmeen.
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.
Between the ordinary and the extra-oridnary: socio-spatial transformation in the South of Johannesburg
(South African Geographical Journal, 2014-06-16) Harrison, Philip. Zack, Tanya.
A recent discourse on ‘ordinary cities’ represents cities as unique assemblages rather than as imperfect representations of an ideal such as the ‘world city’. The ‘ordinariness’ of cities is, however, constructed at the intersection of the ‘ordinary’ and ‘extraordinary’. We use the case of the ‘Old South’ of Johannesburg to show how the ordinariness of everyday life has been shaped by continually shifting transnational, or extraordinary, flows and relationships. Strong locally inscribed spatial loyalties emerged historically in the Old South, although these were always overlain by ethnic territorialities. Recently, new socio-spatial configurations have emerged in the context of post-Apartheid migration flows. The emergent identities and territorialities associated with these flows remain fragile and ambiguous, but may offer pointers towards our new urban futures.
Beyond Invented and Invited spaces of participation: The Phiri and Olivia Road court cases and their outcomes
(HRSC Press, 2015) Smith, Laila. Rubin, Margot.
249 requires methods of public engagement that the local authorities responsible for delivery seldom have the knowledge or experience to carry out (as pointed to in Bénit-Gbaffou’s opening chapter). The result has been an increasingly frustrated public that is getting neither access to essential services nor the opportunity to engage meaningfully with the state (Bénit-Gbaffou & Oldfield 2011). The process of the public turning to the courts to hold the state to account for its enactment of socioeconomic rights has been a fascinating terrain where these governance and service delivery battles have merged into a single front. Classical legal theory argues that litigation is sought by groups because of fundamental belief in the ‘direct linking of litigation, rights, and remedies with social change’(Hunt 1990: 309). Ethnographers, such as Merry and Silbey (1984), argue that citizens turn to the law ‘when their situations or their personal, community, or economic problems seemed entirely intractable, unavoidable, and intolerable’(Merry 1990; Merry & Silbey 1984). Political opportunity theorists argue that if channels to decision-making are ‘closed’then citizens and residents will find, or invent, other methods to ensure that their voices are heard and that they are able to engage in some way with the decision-making process (Hilson 2002).
Beyond variegation: The territorialisation of states, communities and developers in large-scale developments in Johannesburg, Shanghai and London
(Urban Studies Journal, 2022) Robinson, Jennifer; Wu, Fulong; Harrison, Philip; Wang, Zheng; Todes, Alison; Dittgen, Romain; Attuyer, Katia
Large-scale urban development projects are a significant format of urban expansion and renewal across the globe. As generators of governance innovation and indicators of the future city in each urban context, large-scale development projects have been interpreted within frameworks of ‘variegations’ of wider circulating processes, such as neoliberalisation or financialisation. However, such projects often entail significant state support and investment, are strongly linked to a wide variety of transnational investors and developers and are frequently highly contested in their local environments. Thus, each project comes to fruition in a distinctive regulatory context, often as an exception to the norm, and each emerges through complex interactions over a long period of time amongst an array of actors. We therefore seek to broaden the discussion from an analytical focus on variegated globalised processes to consider three large-scale urban development projects (in Shanghai, Johannesburg and London) as distinctive (transcalar) territorialisations. Using an innovative comparative approach, we outline the grounds for a systematic analytical conversation across mega-urban development projects in very different contexts. Initially, comparability rests on the shared features of large-scale developments – that they are multi-jurisdictional, involve long time scales and bring significant financing challenges. Comparing three development projects, we are able to interrogate, rather than take for granted, how a range of wider processes, circulating practices, transcalar actors and territorial regulatory formations composed specific urban outcomes in each case. Thinking across these diverse cases provides grounds for rebuilding understandings of urban development politics.
Bringing the Global to the Local: the challenges of multi-level governance for global policy implementation in Africa
(International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development, 2021-08-12) Croese, Sylvia; Oloko, Michael; Simon, David; Valencia, Sandra
The New Urban Agenda (NUA) and Agenda 2030’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) recognise the key role of ‘sub-national entities’, including cities, in achieving sustainable development. However, since these global policy agendas were agreed and signed by national governments, implementing them at the local level requires a process of localisation to fit local realities. This paper analyses the national guidance (or lack of) and the resultant collaborations emerging between various levels of government in the implementation of these agendas in African cities, namely Kisumu, Kenya and Cape Town, South Africa. It argues that effective implementation of the SDGs requires a strong framework for multi-stakeholder engagement and coordination at all levels of governance, which is possible if both top-down and bottom-up approaches are used concurrently and harmonised.
Capacity in motion: comparative COVID-19 governance in India and South Africa
(Routledge, 2022-12-20) Chatterji, Tathagata; Götz, Graeme; Harrison, Philip; Moore, Rob; Roy Souvanic
With the COVID-19 pandemic, critical questions have surfaced in several countries regarding the capacity of the state to respond with agility to the crisis, and to use the crisis in a transformational way over the longer term. These questions are addressed in a comparative study of the State of Kerala in India and the Province of Gauteng in South Africa. The study contributes to two partial gaps in the literature: (1) inadequate attention to the subnational dimensions of crisis governance; and (2) the temporal dimension of state capacity, noting historical and contextual factors conditioning capacity, with shifts through the course of a crisis and beyond. While both territories showed significant agility in response to the crisis, Kerala strengthened its capacities in a way that Gauteng did not, and this had significant implications for the abilities of these governments to both manage the pandemic and leverage the pandemic for longer term benefit.
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.
Co-producing urban expertise for SDG localization: the history and practices of urban knowledge production in South Africa
(Routledge, 2022-05-27) Croese, Sylvia; Duminy, James
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are used as an entry point to consider issues and questions surrounding the forms of urban expertise that are required to achieve transformative and sustainable urban development. The article builds on the authors’ experiences as researchers working co-productively with South African municipalities through the African Centre for Cities, an interdisciplinary research hub at the University of Cape Town. Insights from the literature on urban policy mobilities are deployed alongside those from an emerging literature on transdisciplinary research and knowledge co-production for global policy implementation. The aims are, first, to identify emerging kinds of urban expertise that are produced and mobilized by constellations of actors involved in the advancement of global development policies at the city scale and, second, to examine the role of city-university partnerships in producing particular forms of urban expertise to support SDG localization. Locating this work within a longer genealogy of urban governance reform in South Africa, it is shown that the conditions under which effective co-productive relationships can be built and institutionalized are highly context specific and geographically uneven. Understanding and assembling such conditions will enable cities to benefit from the forms of expertise these can engender.
Contesting adaptation synergies: political realities in reconciling climate change adaptation with urban development in Johannesburg, South Africa
(Spring-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2016-07-25) Hetz Karen
Strategies to promote synergistic responses to both urban development issues and climate change adaptation have become central to policy advice on adaptation. However, the empirical evidence for the effective utilisation of adaptation synergies in planning practices is insufficient. Taking urban planning in Johannesburg as a case study and using the risks of flooding as an illustrative example, this qualitative study explores how adaptation synergies can be realised in planning practices. In this specific case, significant synergy possibilities in planning practices are not observed. Instead, political challenges of reconciling adaptation measures with planning responses to the considerable developmental challenges of urban divide and multiple urban risks in Johannesburg substantially limit the response space for adaptation practices, including those achievable through synergies. Insights gained in this study underline the necessity of giving greater attention to the empirics of observed synergies. The study provides initial indications that it may be necessary to adjust elements of the conceptual arguments concerning adaptation synergies and related policy advice.
Corridors of Freedom: Analyzing Johannesburg’s Ambitious Inclusionary Transit-Oriented Development
(Journal of Planning Education and Research, 2019) Harrison, Philip; Rubin, Margot; Appelbaum, Alexandra; Dittgen, Romain
In 2013, the Mayor of Johannesburg announced the ambitious Corridors of Freedom (CoF) initiative to transform the city’s socio-spatial structure. The CoF were constructed to be an inclusionary form of transit-oriented development (TOD). Using a 1,200 respondent survey, over 75 interviews, documentary analysis, and attendance at public participation interventions, the paper questions the possibilities for, and constraints on, the practice of inclusionary TOD. Using six criteria—spatial transformation, mobility, affordable accommodation, jobs and livelihoods, social integration, and participation—we demonstrate the mixed outcomes of inclusionary TOD.
The creation of sustainable human settlement through informal settlement upgrading: the case of Ivory Park, Johannesburg
(2010) Nethavhakone, Mukondi Esther
The states that participated at the Second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat 11), held in Istanbul, Turkey from 3 to 14 June 1996, adopted Habitat Agenda which binds them to the pledge to achieve sustainable human settlements. South Africa, as one of the countries that adopted Habitat Agenda, raised the need to investigate if the adoption of Habitat Agenda in South Africa led to the creation of sustainable human settlements. From the Habitat II it was established that sustainable human settlements can be achieved through informal settlements upgrading. Therefore, this research investigates whether the creation of sustainable human settlements is achieved through the informal settlements upgrading in South Africa, using the case study oflvory Park, Johannesburg. To undertake this investigation a qualitative research method was utilized, whereby the researcher investigates the object of the case study in depth using a variety of data gathering methods to answer research questions. To gather data, three research tools were used namely; in depth interviews, observations and document study. In-depth interviews were conducted with Ivory Park councilors and data from documents and observations were used to support information gathered from interviews. The key finding in this research is that the upgrading process oflvory Park did not lead to the creation of a sustainable human settlement. This is because all elements for the creation of sustainable human settlements have not been fully addressed through the upgrading process of Ivory Park. Many reasons contribute to this situation, however, in the literature it has been stated that the achievement of a sustainable human settlement requires that all elements for the creation of sustainable human settlements are met. However, the informal settlements intervention approach adopted in the upgrading oflvory Park namely 'phased in situ' upgrading approach provides for the achievement of sustainable human settlements. The process of upgrading Ivory Park is slow and it is delaying the transformation to sustainable human settlement. Therefore, the conclusion is that Ivory Park is not yet a sustainable human settlement and if they continue with the same informal settlements intervention approach it will eventually become a sustainable human settlement.
DETECTING ASH MIDDENS USING REMOTE SENSING TECHNIQUES: THE CASE OF SOUTHERN GAUTENG, SOUTH AFRICA
(South African Archaeological Bulletin, 2022-12) Siteleki, Mncedisi
South Africa is home to thousands of architectural remnants such as stone-walled structures and ash middens from the Late Iron Age (AD 1300–1800). Ash middens reflect the political and economic lifeways of Iron Age communities. However, the process of identifying and mapping ash middens with traditional survey techniques can be time-consuming and difficult due to dense vegetation. This report aims to assess the performance of two supervised classification techniques, Maximum Likelihood Classification (MLC) and Support Vector Machine (SVM), in detecting ash middens on two multispectral satellite images – GeoEye1 and SPOT5 – in Gauteng, South Africa. The objective is to also assess the ability of the sensors in capturing the spectral signatures of the ash middens. The high reflectance of ash middens relative to other land-cover classes indicates that they have distinct spectral signatures. GeoEye1 is better than SPOT5 in the detection of ash middens because its high spectral and spatial resolution allows for more detailed and accurate mapping. SVM, although advanced, is not a significantly better classification technique for detecting ash middens compared to MLC. This report presents a promising avenue for detecting archaeological ash middens in this part of the world using remote sensing techniques.
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.
‘Ethnic Enclave of a Special Sort?’ Mozambicans in La Rochelle, Johannesburg
(Journal of Southern African Studies, 2015-01-19) Khangelani Moyoa, Erma Cossaa
Although Mozambican migration to South Africa has a long history, it is only recently that scholarly literature has begun to shift slightly from the defining albatross of the contract labour migration system to provide a much more incisive analysis of the everyday circumstances of individual migrants. Focusing on the suburb of La Rochelle in Johannesburg, we argue that, while this shift represents an important insight for migration research, it remains particularly thin on matters of urban space and migrant spatial decision-making. We look at the spatial presence of Mozambicans in La Rochelle, use property-ownership and interview data to engage in the global discourse on ethnic enclaves, and discuss the peculiar circumstances of the development and life cycle of Johannesburg’s La Rochelle ethnic enclave. Our findings suggest that the Portuguese language has remained central to the development of La Rochelle as an ethnic enclave, though the suburb has taken an atypical trajectory since the end of apartheid that hardly fits the traditional ethnic enclave classification. Importantly, immigrants who move into ethnic enclaves often establish a permanent presence, but the Mozambicans in La Rochelle have forms of permanence in aggregate terms only, as the individual migrants remain transient within La Rochelle and the greater Rosettenville area
Experiences and outcomes of government-funded energy efficiency interventions for low-cost housing in South Africa:case study of Gauteng and Western Cape Provinces
(2021) Seipobi, Phumzile Maseko
SANS 10400-XA is the 2011 amendments to the National Building Regulations aimed at enforcing energy efficiency for new buildings in South Africa. Using a case study approach, this study appraised the outcomes and effectiveness of the implementation of the regulations in low-cost housing in the country since 2014. Primary and secondary data collection methods were used with reference to local and international case studies. By appraising the German and Dutch energy efficiency policies, the study identified how implementation of well-developed policies contributes to their respective effectiveness and impact. This was then applied in guiding the study of South Africa’s scenario based on the two case studies of Clayville (in Gauteng Province) and Joe Slovo Park (inWestern Cape Province). In order to understand the effectiveness of the regulations in South Africa, primary data were gathered from the two housing-developments case studies as well as from the respective provincial departments as the policy implementing agents. Analyses of primary data show significant compliance with the regulations thus indicating that the energy efficiency regulations in low-income housing were adequately planned for and implemented in both projects. Primary data, in the form of interviews, from low-income housing occupants indicates mixed outcomes and also highlights critical issues for improvement. In terms of key findings, the study concludes that the positive outcomes of the energy efficiency regulations in low-income housing contribute towards basic household energy needs. However, one key finding is the existence of a performance gap in relation to the expected outcomes of the regulations. This gap is identified as poor installations of geysers and poor geyser effectiveness in winter. The study has thus identified areas for additional interventions. The study further recommends the specification of highpressure solar geyser systems for the Western Cape to ensure reliability in access to hot water. Finally, the study also recommends more stringent oversight during construction to minimize the performance gap of installed interventions such as ceiling insulation and solar geysers
Financing urban development, three business models: Johannesburg, Shanghai and London
(Elsevier, 2020-10-07) Robinson, Jennifer; Harrison, Philip; Shen, Jie; Wu, Fulong
There has been growing interest in the expansion of global investment in urban areas, and the financialisation of urban development, both of which bring new business logics into the production of the built environment and shape urban outcomes. At the same time, mega urban projects have continued and spread as a significant format of urban expansion and renewal, often strongly linked to transnational investors and developers. Nonetheless, the distinctive regulatory and political contexts within which transnational actors must bring such projects to fruition matter greatly to outcomes, with territorialised governance arrangements both shaping and being shaped by transnational dynamics. However, there has been little systematic comparative consideration of these diverse regulatory contexts in their own right, rather than as contributors to wider circulating processes such as neoliberalisation. As a result, the implications of different regulatory regimes for urban outcomes have not been effectively assessed. In this paper we therefore broaden the discussion from globalised processes of “financialisation” to consider three large-scale urban development projects from the perspective of their distinctive “business models”, including their place in achieving wider strategic objectives at national and metropolitan scales, their agile and often bespoke institutional configurations, and their different forms of financing, taxation and land value capture. Our cases are Lingang, Shanghai (one of nine planned satellite cities), the Corridors of Freedom project in Johannesburg (a linear transport oriented development seeking to integrate the racially divided city), and Old Oak and Park Royal in north-west London (under a mayoral development corporation, associated with significant new metropolitan and national transport investments). We observe that the business models adopted, notably in relation to financial calculations and income streams associated with the developments, are a result of strongly path dependent formats of governance and income generation in each case. However we want to move beyond seeing these as residual, as contingent and contextual to wider accounts of urban development focussed on globalised financial flows and calculations. Using a comparative approach we initiate a systematic analytical conversation about the implications of different business models for the form and socio-economic potential of mega-urban development projects.
Footprints of Islam in Johannesburg.
(Wits University Press, 2014) Dinath, Yasmeen. Patel, Yusuf. Seedat, Rashid.
As the dynamo of South Africa’s economy, Johannesburg commands a central position in the nation’s imagination, and scholars throughout the world monitor the city as an exemplar of urbanity in the global South. This richly illustrated study offers detailed empirical analyses of changes in the city’s physical space, as well as a host of chapters on the character of specific neighbourhoods and the social identities being forged within them. Informing all of these is a consideration of underlying economic, social and political processes shaping the wider Gauteng region. 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.

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