Race and Space in the Postcolony: A Relational Study on Urban Planning Under Racial Capitalism in Brazil and South Africa

Abstract

This article analyzes two planned cities—Belo Horizonte (Brazil) and Bloemfontein (South Africa)—to investigate connectivities across geographies and temporalities and reveal the role of urban planning in racial capitalism. Early works in urban sociology underscore the color line in producing differentiation in capitalist development. But color-blind analyses of capitalism have undermined the role of race in the urbanization process and formation of value—of places and people—and how the modern triad—colonial, racial, and capital—is deeply implicated in power modalities. Based on policy analysis, we historicize political choices in discuss urban planning and national developmentalist schemes after redemocratization that produced racial-spatial inequalities. We argue that color-blind urban policies still neglect the role of race in the production of Brazilian and South African cities under the guise of “planning innocence.” This discussion expands our understanding of urbanization and capital accumulation as a dialectical process of black dispossession and the protection of white property in the postcolony.

Area-level deprivation and individual-level socioeconomic correlates of the diabetes care cascade among black south africans in uMgungundlovu, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

“…It should also be acknowledged that although on average, these wards may be less deprived at the area level, it is likely that the Black Africans living in these areas are segregated to the least desirable and most unsafe living conditions, leading to disproportionate exposure to environmental pollutants, overcrowding, and crime [61][62][63][64]. Although steady progress has been made to de-segregate South Africa since the fall of Apartheid, vast neighborhood-level socioeconomic inequities persist [65][66][67][68][69][70]. Research from the United States, another country with a long history of institutional racism and marked racial segregation, has been investigating for some time the contemporary health impacts of racial segregation that was enacted into policy under the Home Owners' Loan Act in 1933.…”

Postscript: Four Ways Race and Capitalism Can Advance Urban Sociology

“…Revising the historical context of urban studies on race and inequality gets more complicated when looking beyond the U.S. context, as Melgaço and Pinto Coelho (2022) did in their article in this issue. This raises the question of whether the racial capitalism framework is best for producing “general” social theory versus more specialist, regional, or context-specific theory.…”

“…Collective research enterprises might entail focusing on refining methodological approaches to linking the past with the present, as well as understanding processes of historical change by studying the sequencing or cumulation of events. Studies by Baker (2022), Faber (2020), and Muller (2012) Revising the historical context of urban studies on race and inequality gets more complicated when looking beyond the U.S. context, as Melgaço and Pinto Coelho (2022) did in their article in this issue. This raises the question of whether the racial capitalism framework is best for producing "general" social theory versus more specialist, regional, or context-specific theory.…”

“…Melgaço and Pinto Coelho’s (2022) analysis of how urban planning justified various forms of racial oppression in Brazil and South Africa raised important questions about the ways racial capitalism is embedded in U.S.-based urban social science. This troubling intersection is another potentially fruitful research enterprise for the study of racial capitalism as, to date, much of the work on the disturbing consequences of urban social science have come from historians, journalists, and activists.…”

Introduction: What Does Racial Capitalism Have to Do With Cities and Communities?

“…While Rucks-Ahidiana (2021) and Petersen (2022) situate their work within the United States, Lorena Melgaço and Luana Xavier Pinto Coelho (2022) consider the planning practices of Belo Horizonte in Brazil and Bloemfrontein in South Africa. They discuss urbanization and capital accumulation as a dialectical process that uses planning innocence to dispossess Black property and protect White property.…”