The Right to the City

Bibliographic Data

ID3258325
AuthorsAbdoumaliq Simone (0000-0002-1630-1997, Goldsmiths University of London, corresponding author)
Year2005
Volume7
Issue3
Pages321-325
Publication date2005-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueInterventions (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1369-801X • E-ISSN: 1469-929X
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13698010500268189
OpenAlexW1987997371
LanguageEN
Citations received25

The apartheid city is typically touted as a negative role model for urban planners in other parts of the world, largely because of the fragmentation that apartheid social engineering imposed on the lives of urban residents. Under apartheid, the lines of fragmentation were forcibly racialized. This institutionalised racialization has been demolished, while other sites of splintering remain. Yet the aspiration to a wholly unified and orderly city is not necessarily desirable, or attainable. This article argues, somewhat controversially, that the persistent legacy of fragmentation which marked the apartheid city offers unforeseen opportunities to those who live in the cities now and are engaged in daily struggles for survival and mobility. Ironically, such multiple and discrepant orders of urban life can be seen to characterize, increasingly, many cities around the world today

Political economy · Political science · Racialization · Sociology · Gender Studies · South African History and Culture