3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
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Item Newtown: a cultural precinct - real or imagined(2011-07-06) Shand, KateThe Newtown Cultural Precinct came about as one of government’s interventions to turn around Johannesburg’s Inner City degeneration as a result of big business’s migration to the North in the nineties when urban management and land use controls collapsed. Government’s approach to culture-led urban regeneration was by means of large public sector capital development. The research covers the history of the concept of Newtown as a cultural precinct and how it came into being. It explores the criteria for cultural precincts in terms of international best practice and whether Newtown meets these requirements. It determines whether what was planned for Newtown by government has been achieved, and is being implemented. A review of strategies, business plans, projects and activities related to the development of Newtown as a cultural precinct was undertaken, as were interviews with key stakeholders, in order to establish why the notion of a cultural precinct took root when it did, and whether it is a success or not.Item Environmental justice in the context of sustainable urban renewal / regeneration: the case for heritage at Constitution Hill(2010-04-07T12:01:50Z) Van der Merwe, Clinton DavidSince the birth of democracy in South Africa, Urban Geography has experienced many paradigmatic and epistemological shifts; within Human Geography 'planning' faces various challenges in the new Millennium. Environmental management, in light of the emphasis on sustainable development, sees many urban planners and politicians strive to reconcile environmentalism with development that is equitable. The emergence of the environmental justice discourse is significant, since inter-generational justice (as enshrined in sustainable development) is a key issue, this research report used heritage as a lens to explore this complex relationship in regard to urban regeneration. Using a case study approach this report shows the nature and context of postmodern urban environmental management. Special reference to the significance and impact of environmental justice on the cityscape of Johannesburg is made, as this report suggests that environmental justice is a useful conceptual framework to give depth and meaning to sustainable development, in urban regeneration as a policy objective. The use of Constitution Hill as a case study placed the project in a post-apartheid South African context.Item City regeneration and the making of an urban experience : The Nelson Mandela bridge as sculpture(2008-10-20T11:51:04Z) Stevens, Cheryl“Nation building without city building is a senseless exercise” - Tomlinson et al (eds.) 2003: x. What is the nation in the 21st century and how is it represented in the urban built environment? This question underlies an anthropological investigation into the meanings of the Nelson Mandela Bridge project - a simulacrum for the making of a particular Johannesburg experience. The multi-million Rand fantasy of the urban imagineers showcases a post-apartheid inner city revival through the personification of a mayoral dream for a world-class city. The city’s textured socio-cultural and political-economic urbanity, its haphazard mining town origins and the aggressive apartheid urban politics, filter into its post-apartheid urban reconfiguration. The artful juggling of socio-cultural, political and economic elements launches the project as physical and symbolic entry-point into a new urban and historical era – a new urban frontier. The project’s technological innovation and slick excesses mirrors 21st century capitalist thinking – a packaging of local experiences into a marketable landscape commodified for moneyed consumption and participation. The privatisation of public space through modes of urban gentrification elicits elitist urban engagement in a partitioned and generic urban space. The latter conflicts with the project’s official branding as: “[being]‘for the good of all’. This research interrogates the adaptation of international best practices, the machinations of trans-nationalism in setting up urban experiences that contest individual constitutional and democratic rights. Contrasted here are the un-narrated voices of the city’s dark underbelly, the uncertainties of a marginalized majority struggling for a meagre existence in the inner-city in the face of the grand-scale urban regeneration project.Item Downtown: the experience of memory/retreat/celebration(2008-10-14T10:49:02Z) Wright, Eric CharlesNo abstract.Item Item The role of ethnic enclaves in urban regeneration: Fordsburg as a case study(2007-02-19T12:47:28Z) Mahomed, EbrahimThe aim of this research report is to determine the viability of the hypothesis that ethnic enclaves have the potential to contribute positively to urban regeneration. This research is motivated by the importance that is placed on regenerating cities at present and by the fact that many cities around the world, including Johannesburg, are intensely diverse and are composed of a significant number of ethnic minority groups. The Johannesburg Inner City area of Fordsburg has been chosen as a case study. The area has for many years been closely associated with the Indian community of Johannesburg and appears to be showing signs of renewed interest and rejuvenation. Secondary research has been employed as a means to structure the theoretical base of the report and to explain current debates regarding urban regeneration and ethnic enclaves. Quantitative and qualitative criteria have been applied in analysing the findings regarding the scenario in Fordsburg. According to the theory, even in the modern contemporary metropolis, members of society still ascribe to ethnic identities and organise themselves spatially into ethnic enclaves within cities. It is also revealed that urban regeneration can be achieved through several means and that initiatives that target and include ethnic minorities have the potential to produce coherent and desirable results. This includes meaningful input from public sector, private sector and members of community. In analysing Fordsburg, it is shown that the area could definitely be considered as an ethnic enclave and is undergoing a certain amount of regeneration. This regeneration has been mainly driven by the private sector and members of community who identify with the Indian/South Asian enclave. While public sector input has been less significant in Fordsburg’s regeneration, it is nevertheless asserted that ethnic enclaves do have the potential to positively promote urban regeneration.