Briefing Paper No.11. Social differentiation and urban governance.
Abstract
Based on Working Paper No. 11: Jo Beall, Owen Crankshaw and Susan Parnell, 'Social differentiation and urban governance in Greater Soweto: a case study of post-apartheid reconstruction'. It is intended to provide a summary of the principal findings, and an indication of the implications these may have for debates over policy.
This paper explores the historical and contemporary terrain of local level struggles in post-apartheid Meadowlands, a township in Greater Soweto. It looks at the implications for urban governance of increasing social differentiation and suggests that social polarisation mitigates against sustained levels of public action. It traces social differentiation along the axis of different housing-types: homeowners, tenants in backyard shacks and hostel dwellers. Social relations, along with ethnic and political conflict in the past, constitute a crucial dimension of urban governance in Meadowlands today. Equally critical is to understand social relations based on gender and generation.
Citation
Briefing Paper No.11. Social differentiation and urban governance, 003, London, UK; Crisis States Research Centre, 2 pp.
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