Flooding and intersectional vulnerability in Setswetla informal settlement, Johannesburg

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorMathevula, Delani Angel
dc.date.accessioned2022-07-28T09:00:38Z
dc.date.available2022-07-28T09:00:38Z
dc.date.issued2021
dc.descriptionA dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of M.Sc. in Geography, School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, 2021en_ZA
dc.description.abstractThis study aimed to explore the link between vulnerability to natural disaster hazards (flooding) and broader indicators of social vulnerability among a sample group of individuals living in the informal settlements of Setswetla, on the outskirts of Johannesburg. The study has drawn on the concept of intersectionality, to think about how vulnerability to environmental hazards are exacerbated for particular groups of people as a result of their citizenship, race, and gender profile. To understand how residents of Setswetla both conceptualize and respond to vulnerability in their everyday lives as a general condition, I have drawn upon data gathered from semi-structured interviews, observational and participative fieldwork in the neighborhood for several months, as well as document reviews, media, and secondary academic literature. Two themes namely the ‘Angry Female rain’ and ‘The intersectionality of vulnerabilities’ emerged from the collected data to characterize the vulnerability as per the lived experiences of Setswetla. The primary finding of the research is that fatalism -i.e. a general sense of reduced agency and inability to plan for the longer-term -becomes the means through which residents can make sense of their vulnerability. In this way, it might be argued continuing to live in an area that is vulnerable to potential disaster is not irrational. Flooding to the extent that people lose lives and livelihoods occurs perhaps once every few years, whereas everyday violence and vulnerabilities like gender-based violence or petty crime threaten people every day. Setswetla is an impoverished community whose livelihoods are more urgent than the fatalistic rain that falls in two years, and they have no control over it. Women are marginalized and disempowered and experience a similar disempowerment or fatalism towards the brutality of rain and floods thus women, of Setswetla have a philosophical attitude towards the drastic vulnerability caused by living in the flood zone of the rivers. There is a long-standing history of people's memories, as well as the documentation of the residents' crisis. People's understanding of recent disasters in Setswetla indicates that they have learned from previous incidents and are well aware of what to expect from them in the future. There is an intersectional network of ordered threats that affect settlement choices of occupying the riverbank of the Jukskei River in Setswetla. These findings indicate that a relational or intersectional interpretation of vulnerability is contrasted with a more technological understanding used by policymakersen_ZA
dc.description.librarianCK2022en_ZA
dc.facultyFaculty of Scienceen_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10539/33067
dc.language.isoenen_ZA
dc.schoolSchool of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Sciencesen_ZA
dc.titleFlooding and intersectional vulnerability in Setswetla informal settlement, Johannesburgen_ZA
dc.typeThesisen_ZA
Files
Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
Delani Mathevula_Thesis_ Final Submission.pdf
Size:
2.11 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.71 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description:
Download
Collections
ETD Collection