Urban policy in the Johannesburg region: the case of Eldorado Park and Ennerdale
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Date
1991-08
Authors
Lupton, Malcolm
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Abstract
Although urban policy is investigated here, this paper should not be misconstrued as a
document in which policy is formulated. Rather, policy itself is subjected to a critical
analysis. Changes in urban policy are examined, nationally and locally, with specific
reference to Eldorado Park and Ennerdale, two predominantly working-class coloured
suburbs in the Johannesburg metropolitan region. Eldorado Park, built since the
mid-1960s during a period of relative growth and stability, is largely an expression of
socialised housing produced by an in erventionist state. The construction of the suburb
appears to fit all too well within the theory which sees collective consumption in terms
of the reproduction of labour power. However, confronted by a deepening economic
and political crisis since the mid-1970s, the South African state withdrew from the
provision of socialised consumption. Construction of the new town of Ennerdale
occurred within a context of a new market-oriented urban policy of privatisation and
austerity. Evidence from Ennerdale suggests that, during economic crisis, urban policy
is oriented toward widening and creating new zones for profitable accumulation. This paper, as well as the broader research project upon which it is based, was born of wonder
and astonishment at the incredible event of unprecedented levels of mass struggles shaking an
apparently immobile apartheid regime to its very foundations. Moreover, it is a contribution to the
new tradition of urban research in the country. The tremendous upheaval and conflict of the 1980s,
felt most acutely in our cities, has led to the emergence of a body of radical urban research in South
Africa. A deteriorating economy and intensified ideological and political conflict between the state
and the dominated classes, manifested as an urban crisis, has provided the context for the rise of this
rich body of urban studies.
Description
African Studies Seminar series. Paper presented August 1991
Keywords
Urban policy. South Africa. Johannesburg. History