Accommodation and tenuous livelihoods in Johannesburg's inner city: The "rooms" and "spaces" typologies
Date
2014-09-03
Authors
Mayson, Simon Sizwe
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Abstract
Rooms’ and ‘spaces’ are two closely linked forms of accommodation where the unit
of occupation and exchange is a portion of a larger building or property, within which
services and facilities are shared. ‘Rooms’ and ‘spaces’ in the inner city represented
two of very few typologies research participants were aware of that allowed them
access to the livelihood opportunities Johannesburg had to offer. Through participant
observation and qualitative interviews this study explores two buildings featuring
informal rooms and spaces and one building featuring formal rooms and spaces in
Johannesburg’s inner city. While formal rooms represented the most stable support to
those specific occupants, there were several ‘barriers to entry’ including the prerequisite
of a stable income. There was much to be learnt from the flexibility and
diversity of rooms and spaces on the informal market, which enabled occupants to
cope with insecure livelihood opportunities. The research demonstrated the incredible
resilience of occupants in the face of an extreme shortage of affordable
accommodation in Johannesburg’s inner city (Tissington, 2013). However, the
findings suggested an adverse relationship between accommodation and livelihoods
demonstrated by the three ‘forms’ of rooms and spaces, where the only form available
to people with the least secure livelihoods is that which, in turn, subjects them to the
greatest insecurity.