Impacts of urban regeneration in Johannesburg's inner city: a study of Maboneng in relation to Jeppestown

Abstract

It is evident that urban regeneration has been able to revitalize the Johannesburg inner-city and improve its urban environment. The project has been able to bring investment and people back into to inner-city, however it is important to analyse what type of investment is returning as this has a bearing on who is being attracted back to the city. The study examines neighbourhood in Jeppestown in order to assess the urban contestations over space as well as the impacts of urban regeneration on the lives of the people in Jeppestown. A significant part of the literature covers the process of urban regeneration and the factors existing in cities which lead to it being needed to improve the urban environment. The second part suggests that urban regeneration causes exclusion and forced evictions of pre-existing lower- income residents in the effort to make way for the middle class leading to undesirable social problems such as urban marginality and segregation. The study finds that Jeppestown and Maboneng can develop a symbiotic relationship provided that there is a connection between the two.