From “contravention of laws” to “lack of rights”: redefining the problem of informal settlements in South Africa

Huchzermeyer, Marie

doi:10.1016/s0197-3975(03)00058-4

Cited by 47 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…According to Hofmann et al (2008), informal settlements are defined (1) as areas where groups of housing units have been constructed on land that the occupants have no legal claim to or occupy illegally and (2) as unplanned settlements and areas where housing is not in compliance with the current planning and building regulations (unauthorized housing). Studies by Huchzermeyer (2004) and Richards et al (2006) have shown that in developing countries, informal urban areas are there to stay for the next decades and beyond.…”

Section: Challenges In the Informal Urban Areasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Review of studies on outdoor thermal comfort in warm humid climates: challenges of informal urban fabric

2019

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In warm humid climate regions where majority of the population spend most of the time outdoors, an adequate outdoor thermal environment is crucial. A number of studies on outdoor thermal comfort in warm humid climates were carried out in the past decade. However, most of these studies focused on the formal urban fabric and left the informal urban fabric, where typically 30 to 85% of the population in developing countries resides, unattended. Theoretically, the informal urban fabric structure of towns/ cities poses many outdoor thermal environmental challenges, such as lack of air movement, high thermal stress and discomfort. This paper reviews previous research on outdoor thermal comfort in warm humid climates, and, particularly, it focuses on the relationship between outdoor thermal comfort and urban fabric as well as human thermal perception. Regarding the formal urban fabric, this review asserts that the thermal comfort range is higher in warm humid climates than in temperate climates and that thermal indices alone cannot predict thermal comfort; behavioural and psychological adaptation have proven to have a big impact on thermal perception. As for the informal urban fabric, only few studies have investigated the influence of the urban geometry and none has studied people's thermal perception of the outdoor thermal environment. To conclude, the article highlights practical challenges posed by the informal urban fabric in contrast to the formal urban fabric in terms of structure (morphology). Keywords Outdoor thermal comfort. Warm humid climates. Thermal indices. Informal urban fabric. Informal settlements. Acceptable index temperature limits * Modest Maurus Baruti

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Section: Challenges In the Informal Urban Areasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Review of studies on outdoor thermal comfort in warm humid climates: challenges of informal urban fabric

2019

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“…Political and residential changes have opened literal and figurative space for various kinds of urban encroachment, including the occupation of urban land for informal settlements (Saff, ; Huchzermeyer, ; Huchzermeyer & Karam, ) and the ‘hijacking’ of inner city residential buildings (Murray ; Wilhelm‐Solomon ). Lefebvre and Bayat have each been used to explain and agitate toward change in South African cities (Benson & Meyer, ; Cirolia et al ., ; Desai, ; Goebel, ; Huchzermeyer, ; Maharaj, ; Parnell & Pieterse, ; Pieterse, ; see Benit‐Gbaffou & Oldfield, on troubling the use of RttC) .…”

Section: Agonistic Transgression In South African Citiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Provincializing urban appropriation: Agonistic transgression as a mode of actually existing appropriation in South African cities

Lawhon

Pierce

Makina

2017

Singap J Trop Geogr

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Urban appropriation is a key dimension of both Lefebvre's widely hailed 'Right to the City' and Bayat's concept of 'quiet encroachment'. For Lefebvre, appropriation is a (generally unrealized) claim by those who do not 'have' the city of a right to 'take' it. Bayat, in contrast, characterizes actually existing appropriation as motivated by everyday needs, not aimed at wider social change. While both theorizations may be useful, we argue that a third mode of appropriation is apparent in South African urban contexts. Actors often act in ways that could be characterized as appropriative, yet do not work to consolidate an abrogated appropriative right or durable permission. Nor are they adequately explained as apolitical or individualistic; the logic used to justify them similarly is based neither on rights nor needs. We label such appropriation 'agonistically transgressive'. We argue that agonistically transgressive appropriations are particularly evident in post-apartheid South Africa, in part because of changing urban conditions and consequent renegotiations of spatial regulation. Using examples of urban land appropriation for housing in South Africa, we briefly illustrate how thinking pluralistically about urban appropriation might help better understand its actually existing forms in-and beyond-the global South.

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“…They would often say things like “I don’t want a boyfriend in Town Two” because “the old people will see” or “people will talk.” Life in a township has the potential to compromise both physical and social privacy (Huchzermeyer 2004; Amuyunzu-Nyamongo et al 2007). In Town Two, young women most often lived in households and even shared bedrooms with family members.…”

Section: The Meaning Character and Trajectory Of Sexual Partnershipsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Cape Town boyfriend and the Joburg boyfriend: women’s sexual partnerships and social networks in Khayelitsha, Cape Town

Swartz

Harrison

2016

Social Dynamics

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In South Africa, young people’s “multiple” or “concurrent” partnerships have been increasingly prominent in public health discourses – as drivers of HIV transmission. Multiple partnerships are typically framed in moralising, negative terms and depicted primarily as male-driven, within a broader framework of women’s vulnerability and use of sex for survival and material gain. Based on ethnographic fieldwork with adolescents and young adults in Khayelitsha township near Cape Town, this article investigates young women’s partnerships by exploring their complex interpersonal and social dynamics. We unpack women’s multiple motivations for, and careful management strategies of, both sexual and social relationships in a broader context of socioeconomic exclusion, threats to health and wellbeing, social obligations and relationships of care. The meanings and practices associated with young people’s relationships are more than the sum of individual sexual behaviours, rigid cultural scripts or simply a locus of “risk.” The data presented here highlight some of the limitations of “prevention” approaches that do not take into account this nuanced and multilayered view of such relationships. The affective and empathetic dimensions of young peoples’ relationships, as well as the socioeconomic contexts in which they occur should also be considered. Without accounting for this context, standard “prevention” approaches are less likely to succeed.

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From “contravention of laws” to “lack of rights”: redefining the problem of informal settlements in South Africa

Cited by 47 publications

References 7 publications

Review of studies on outdoor thermal comfort in warm humid climates: challenges of informal urban fabric

Review of studies on outdoor thermal comfort in warm humid climates: challenges of informal urban fabric

Provincializing urban appropriation: Agonistic transgression as a mode of actually existing appropriation in South African cities

The Cape Town boyfriend and the Joburg boyfriend: women’s sexual partnerships and social networks in Khayelitsha, Cape Town

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