Urban Planning in Post-Apartheid South African Cities: The Case of Johannesburg

Abstract

This paper reflects on the question of urban growth in South Africa to understand the consequences that new urban dynamics have on the effective rights to the city and on quality of life; and, in the context of urban studies, on the southern turn and on the effective possibility of applying the paradigms produced by the Global North to the countries of the Global South and emerging economies. There is a growing interest in analyzing the reasons behind the cultural and organizational differences that typify African cities. In this scenario, the contribution of urban studies is crucial to understand how cities work, the needs of their residents and the changes that take place, especially in cities like Johannesburg whose urban fabric still shows traces of racial segregation and class division stemming from apartheid. By considering Johannesburg as a case in point, this paper sets out to investigate whether the diversity and differentiation of the urban spaces that characterize South African cities as seemingly unreadable, chaotic and difficult to understand and govern reflect on the one hand the role of the social forces that shape the built environment and urban planning, and on the other hand social and racial inequalities, the actual enjoyment of the right to the city, the identity-defining features of urban space. In other words, the article intends to investigate the outcomes of the interaction between the superficial layers of the urban landscape (for example, the transformations of the built environment) and the deep structural forms that are rooted in the local history and memory.