The Indifference of Transport

Comparative Research of “Infrastructural Ruins” in the Gauteng City-Region and Greater Maputo

Bibliographic Data

ID22018236
AuthorsMargot Rubin (0000-0002-9330-8308, University of the Witwatersrand), Lindsay Blair Howe (0000-0001-6206-5625, University of Liechtenstein), Sarah Charlton (0000-0003-0625-723X, University of the Witwatersrand), Muhammed Suleman (0000-0003-4643-7702, University of the Witwatersrand), Anselmo Cani (Eduardo Mondlane University), Lesego Tshuwa (University of Cape Town), Alexandra Parker (0000-0003-3946-1587, Institute for Voluntary Action Research)
Year2023
Volume8
Issue4
Publication date2023-12-07
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueUrban Planning (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2183-7635 • E-ISSN: 2183-7635
PublisherCogitatio (PUBLISHER • PT)
DOI10.17645/up.v8i4.7264
OpenAlexW4389440026
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited33

States in the Global South have consistently invested in large-scale, vanity infrastructure projects, which are often not used by the majority of their residents. Using a mixed-method and comparative approach with findings from Greater Maputo, Mozambique, and the Gauteng City-Region exposes how internationally-supported and expensive transport projects do not meet the needs of lower-income urban residents, and meanwhile, widespread, everyday modes of commuting such as trains, paratransit, and pathways for walking deteriorate. State-led development thus often generates an infrastructural landscape characterised by “ruin” and “indifference.” These choices are anachronistic, steeped in a desire for a modernist-inspired future and in establishing narratives of control. In the cases of Gauteng and Maputo, whether or not the infrastructure is “successfully” implemented, these choices have resulted in a distancing of the state from the majority of urban residents

Anachronism · Cartography · Distancing · Economic growth · Economics · Economy · Geography · Narrative · Paratransit · Political science · Regional science · Socioeconomics · Sociology · Train · Legal Issues in South Africa · Medicine · South African History and Culture · Urban and Rural Development Challenges