Looking down on Johannesburg: an exploration of rooftop spaces in the regenerated city
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Date
2015-08-31
Authors
Kajee, Jahaan
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Abstract
Exclusive rooftop spaces in Johannesburg have become popular within
the city, particularly owing to the ongoing processes of regeneration occurring
within it. Their existence is based on the need for the upper to middle classes
to experience what it means to be in the city. By attending events at rooftop
spaces in the areas of the Maboneng Precinct and Braamfontein, I sought to
read the city from above, in order to understanding how these spaces
contribute to how the city is experienced. The four chosen field sites of
Dukes, Seascape, the InterUrban Rooftop and the Open Air Cinema all
enable a different reading of what it is to be in the city. The process of
research revealed an interesting discussion about the temporal entry into the
city, the new forms of gated communities, the capitalisation of the deep house
genre of music at rooftop spaces, the right to the city, and the surprisingly
profound role that social media plays in how the virtual and real worlds
manifest in order to promote rooftop spaces as popular places to visit. These
themes along with an insight into how the experiences and views of each field
site enables one to reflect on the city of Johannesburg are explored. Overall,
it can be said that rooftop spaces enable the middle to upper class a
subjective experience of city life, one that posits Johannesburg as an object
over which to gaze.
Description
Research report
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of
a Masters of Arts by Coursework and Research Report
in Social Anthropology
University of the Witwatersrand
Johannesburg
28 May 2015