Inclusionary housing policy: a tool for re-shaping South Africa’s spatial legacy?

In South Africa, recent initiatives to restructure cities towards greater compaction and integration include the formulation of an inclusionary housing policy, where private property developers are expected to offer some affordable housing in their developments. This paper examines policy and practice in the City of Johannesburg where an inclusionary housing policy is intended to work together with a growth management strategy to direct infrastructural investment. However the policy has hardly been used. The paper examines the policy and its development, initiatives to use it, and the challenges it faces. Key constraints include: resistance by the property development industry and middle/upper-income residents; South Africa’s huge income inequalities and hence housing price cliffs; and institutional and legal issues. These concerns have in part underpinned the lack of supportive national policy. In this context, local policies have been confined to specific, deal-driven projects, but these have also been fraught with problems, and have delivered few affordable units. The potential of inclusionary housing policy for reshaping South African cities therefore seems limited, although it could play a small role if national policy with careful attention to implementation were formulated. An alternative form of mixed income developer-led housing seems to have greater potential, although it is focused on low/middle-income housing and relies to a significant extent on government subsidies, in contrast to inclusionary housing proper.     

The Economic Geography of South Africa’s Hotel Industry 1990–2010

Hotels are a neglected facet in economic and tourism geography as the majority of scholarship on hotels is produced from the perspective of hospitality management. This article examines the changing geography of hotels in South Africa during the period 1990–2010 as part of the country’s expanding tourism economy. The analysis confirms the importance of several locational influences, which have been isolated in existing literature, in particular the significance of spatial patterns of market demand related to international leisure travel, domestic business tourism, and of the hosting of mega-events. Since 1990, the South African hotel industry necessarily has adjusted to new market demands related to the vibrancy of international tourism growth as well as an expansion of domestic tourism including of a new black leisure and business tourism market. By 2010, the hotel industry and its spatial distribution reflects the enormous changes, which have take out place in the South African tourism sector since democratic change. The transformed geography of the hotel industry is a response to changing demands associated with South Africa’s rise as an emerging international leisure and business tourism destination, including for regional visitors from sub-Saharan Africa, the expansion of domestic business tourism, and the shifting domestic leisure tourism market, which incorporates an increasing share of black South African tourists     

Africa’s Urban Food Deserts

Since the mid-1990s, the concept of the ‘urban food desert’ has been extensively applied to deprived neighbourhoods in European and North American cities. Food deserts are usually characterised as economically-disadvantaged areas where there is relatively poor access to healthy and affordable food because of the absence of modern retail outlets (such as supermarkets). This idea has not been applied in any systematic way to cities of the Global South and African cities in particular. Yet African cities contain many poor neighbourhoods whose residents are far more food insecure and malnourished than their counterparts in the North. This paper reviews some of the challenges and difficulties of conceiving of highly food insecure areas of African cities as conventional food deserts. At the same time, it argues that the concept, appropriately reformulated to fit African realities of rapid urbanisation and multiple food procurement systems, is a useful analytical tool for African urban researchers and policy-makers. Although supermarkets are becoming an important element of the food environment in African cities, a simple focus on modern retail does not adequately capture complexity of the African food desert. In the African context, the food deserts concept requires a much more sophisticated understanding of over-lapping market and non-market food sources, of the nature and dynamism of the informal food economy, of the inter-household differences that lead to different experiences of food insecurity and of the Africa-specific conditions that lead to compromised diets, undernutrition and social exclusion. The papers in this special issue explore these different aspects of African food deserts defined as poor, often informal, urban neighbourhoods characterised by high food insecurity and low dietary diversity, with multiple market and non-market food sources but variable household access to food.     

South Africa’s City Regions: A Call for Contemplation... and Action

The paper explores and explains the phenomena of city growth and city regions in the South African context. It reflects on the process of urbanisation and city region growth in South Africa in an attempt at contributing towards the development of a discourse and analysis that better appreciates city region areas as crucial components of the growth, development and well-being of the nation as a whole, including communities living in rural areas of the country. The paper also raises questions around the increasing challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality, as well as the growing ecological dilemmas that city regions in South Africa are faced by. The paper is based on a study and analysis of quantitative data on urban areas and more specifically ‘city regions’, aptly called the ‘National Spatial Trends Overview (2008)’, for the South African Cities Network, the national Department of Provincial and Local Government and The Presidency. The innovative spatial analysis and data platform used enabled the identification and comparative analyses of a wide range of settlements based on their functional urban areas. It is argued that regardless of where on the contentious scale city regions are viewed as positive or negative, they are important for the country as a whole. Taking cognisance of benefits as well as costs of city region areas, the paper concludes that an appreciation for city region planning dynamics will be crucial for the achievement of the South African Government’s national developmental goals and objectives.

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Does Gibrat’s law for cities hold when location counts?

According to Gibrat’s law, the growth rates of cities are expected to be independent of their sizes. In this study, we hypothesize that growth rates do depend on population size, but that the direction of the relationship depends on location, i.e., in unfavorable loci, growth rates are positively related to size, while the relationship is reversed in favorable loci, i.e., places with several location advantages. The present study examines that possibility, using 1990–2000 population growth data for two levels of geographic resolution—4,667 local administrative units (i.e., municipalities) and 2,189 contiguous urban areas in 40 European countries. According to our findings, when individual localities are considered, ‘proportionate’ growth (expected under Gibrat’s law) emerges at the aggregate (system-wide) level, but ‘dissipates’ when the settlement system is disaggregated into two urban sub-systems, formed by well-positioned localities and poorly positioned ones. Concurrently, for urban areas, a strong positive association between population size and growth emerges both before and after controlling for location attributes. However, this association between population size and growth is not especially strong, if favorably and unfavorably located urban areas are looked at separately.     

Men’s experiences of state sponsored housing in South Africa: emerging issues and key questions

In South African cities, millions of men and women living informally are being rehoused through the state-directed provision of formal houses to poor beneficiaries. This intervention is reshaping their lives, and innovatively targets beneficiaries with dependents, where over half are women. Aiming to redress the historical context of gendered inequality in housing ownership and house the very poor, these policy and implementation changes necessarily impact on men in terms of their power, resources and employment but in complex ways including positive and negative. The home remains significant for many men’s desires for authority and identity. Using the lens of masculinity, this paper considers the ways in which men are experiencing this housing intervention, revealing a complex mix of outcomes in terms of their sense of identity, their relationships and their financial pressures and income generation. It draws on empirical work in South Africa to illuminate the importance of focusing on men in relation to housing and offers key questions for future research.     

Can global cities be ‘age-friendly cities’? Urban development and ageing populations

Understanding the relationship between population ageing and urban change has become a major issue for public policy. An emerging theme has concerned the need to develop supportive urban communities for older citizens. This paper provides a critical perspective on what has been termed the development of ‘age-friendly cities and communities’ by exploring such policies in the context of urban change arising from globalisation, urban regeneration and austerity. A key argument is that research and policies on age-friendly cities require stronger integration with analyses of the impact of global forces transforming the physical and social context of cities. This theme is developed by examining: first, the arguments behind the development of the ‘age-friendly’ approach; second, the pressures affecting urban environments, and their relevance for the ‘age-friendly’ debate; and third, challenges for improving the urban environment for older populations. The article concludes by discussing the need to combine a conceptual model of ‘age-friendliness’ with analysis of the economic and social forces transforming urban environments.     

Are small communities at risk of population loss?

Small communities almost universally worry about out-migration and the negative effects of out-migration on community viability. Using Oregon community-level data and applying the threshold estimation method of Hansen (Econometrica 68(3):575–603, 2000), we are able to identify population thresholds that distinguish small communities from their larger counterparts based on significant structural differences in factors affecting net migration. Our results suggest that smaller communities are more at risk of population decline than larger ones. After controlling for spatial spillovers from neighboring communities, the average net migration rate is 3 % in the larger communities (roughly above 5,000 population), 2 % in the mid-sized communities (roughly between 1,250 and 5,000) and $-3$  % in the smallest communities (roughly less than 1,250). Other things equal, geographic isolation from large cities and low wage rates provide some protection from net out-migration for the smallest communities, but even for the smallest places, a larger population base lowers the risk of net out-migration.     

Urban underground space: Solving the problems of today’s cities

The world-wide trend of increased urbanisation creates problems for expanding and newly-developing cities alike. Population increase leads to an increased demand for reliable infrastructure, nowadays combined with a need for increased energy efficiency and a higher environmental awareness of the public. The use of underground space can help cities meet these increased demands while remaining compact, or find the space needed to include new functions in an existing city landscape. In many cases, underground solutions to urban problems are only considered if all other (above ground) options have been exhausted. When underground solutions are considered and evaluated from the planning or initial project stages onwards, more optimal solutions will become possible.Use of the underground is not limited to large scale infrastructure projects. This paper also shows innovative use of the underground for commercial and residential use, storage, water conveyance and treatment, and heritage conservation, and highlights how use of underground can bring more optimal solutions for urban development.     

Conceptualizing ‘the Urban’ Through the Lens of Durban,South Africa

Contemporary urban theory raises many questions about how ‘the urban’ is being conceptualized in a fast changing world that is approaching an urban epoch. Evolving debates about what it means to be urban, including the similarities and differences between so-called northern and southern cities, the future of cities, the way to manage and sustain cities, and cities’ relationships to the new Urban Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals, reveal the need for urban theory that can explain and provide insights into contemporary urban governance, processes, and outcomes. This special issue uses Durban as a lens to provide insight into the changing nature of cities in the Global South and Africa in particular, which encapsulate and reflect both formality and informality; tradition and modernity; uneven and unequal growth and social transformation; environmental crises and ‘resilience and sustainability’. This paper reflects on the dominant processes shaping the development of the city, revealing the challenges, tensions, and opportunities that emerge as the city assembles new ways of being urban, through the rationalities, knowledge, experiences, practices and actions of the state, citizens, and the private sector.     

Resurgent European cities?

European governments are tending to perceive cities as sites of renewed economic dynamism and physical renaissance, and as places that can help to resolve social and environmental challenges. The paper presents three propositions for why the fortunes of cities in advanced economies may have improved. It then offers evidence from across Western Europe to assess whether they have done so, both in comparison with their past trajectories and in relation to smaller urban and rural areas. One finding is that cities in aggregate have experienced continued prosperity rather than decline and revival or accelerated growth. Another is that their overall position relative to smaller settlements does not seem to have changed greatly. Looking in more detail, however, there is more evidence of resurgence, as well as the opposite. National variations seem important and cities in Finland, Sweden, Ireland, Britain and Spain show signs of substantial economic improvement over the last decade. In contrast, cities in Germany have experienced a marked slowdown, albeit from a position of comparative prosperity at the outset.     

Informal settlement upgrading in South Africa: beneficiaries’ perceptions over nearly twenty-five years

Research on informal settlement upgrading tends to focus on one-off case studies. This article investigates the changing experiences, over nearly 25 years, of people living in an upgraded informal settlement. We sought to determine how the perceptions of the residents of Freedom Square changed. Our latest survey (2014) included responses from 199 household representatives and followed earlier surveys. Firstly, we find that the upgrading of Freedom Square represents a first step towards ensuring the housing rights of black people in urban South Africa. Secondly, spatial infilling and locational advantage continue to play valuable roles. Thirdly, dweller control, in terms of which residents themselves are able to design extensions to their houses, remains important. Fourthly, social cohesion among community members is proving to be more important than access to a stand. Fifthly, urban management remains an important long-term requirement. Lastly, elements of informality persist in the area.     

Urban climate change mitigation and adaptation planning: Are Italian cities ready?

Climate Action Planning is one of the top priorities of cities in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and strengthening climate-resilience, as pointed out by the New Urban Agenda and the Paris Agreement.This study aims at assessing the development of climate change mitigation and adaptation planning in Italian cities. To this end, we analysed the availability of Local Climate Plans (LCPs) in 76 cities, which are included in the Eurostat Urban Audit (UA-2015) database. In a further step, we analysed the content of the urban climate change mitigation and adaptation plans available in a smaller sample of 32 Italian cities of 2007 Eurostat Urban Audit database (UA-3), looking at the single actions undertaken for addressing mitigation and adaptation to climate change. Results show the almost total absence of comprehensive and stand-alone urban climate change adaptation plans in Italy (except for two cities, Ancona and Bologna), whereas we found that in 61 out of 76 cities municipal civil protection plans are the instruments that deal with local emergencies associated to extreme weather events. On the other hand, 56 out of 76 urban climate change mitigation plans (i.e. Sustainable Energy Action Plans) are being developed in the framework of the Covenant of Mayors, which is a transnational network of local governments created by the European Union (EU) in 2012. The results obtained on the mitigation side point out that, in absence of a national law that imposes Italian cities to develop LCPs, transnational networks are an effective boost to voluntary commitment to reach EU climate and energy objectives.     

Transforming South Africa’s low-income housing projects through backyard dwellings: intersections with households and the state in Alexandra, Johannesburg

South Africa’s ‘housing programme’ transfers a fully-funded serviced site and house to qualifying beneficiaries with aims of progressively addressing poverty through homeownership. Despite delivering close to 3 million houses since 1994, informal housing persists, featuring even in some of these new neighbourhoods. This paper focuses on the intersection between a particular mode of informal housing, backyard dwellings, and state-subsidised low-income housing projects. Backyard dwellings arguably contradict state housing objectives by symbolising informality and disorder; a symptom of inadequacy that the housing programme strives to overcome. We consider first the views and experiences of landlords (owners of state-subsided houses) and tenants (occupiers of privately-provided backyard dwellings) in a section of Alexandra, Johannesburg. We then reflect on the potential of backyard accommodation within post-apartheid housing delivery, arguing that despite challenges, the phenomenon of planned, state-led infrastructure generating secondary accommodation represents an opportunity rather than an example of failed modernity. South Africa’s backyard dwellings resonate with similar forms of self-funded and managed rental stock across the global South. As a quick, flexible and regenerative housing asset, cumulative acceptance of such rental markets is necessary—along with viewing the driving actors as astute innovators in shelter and livelihood provision.     

Is it safer behind the gates? Crime and gated communities in South Africa

Gated communities have long been seen as a rational response to rising crime levels, yet very little is known about the extent to which residing in a gated community actually reduces an individuals’ risk of criminal victimisation. In this study, we use location quotients to compare the extent of burglary in gated communities with burglary across the entire city of Tshwane, South Africa, as well as compare burglary in gated communities with burglary occurring within a series of buffer intervals immediately surrounding these communities. Finally, we identify what physical characteristics of gated communities differentiate between high and low burglary in these enclaves. Prior to expectations, we found that gated communities (and their immediate surrounding areas) are associated with increased levels of burglary. There are, however, a number of physical characteristics of gated communities which are associated with much lower burglary levels. The implications of our work from a crime prevention and development planning perspective are discussed.     

Are we planning for resilient cities in Ghana? An analysis of policy and planners' perspectives

This paper sets forth a set of four principles that define and operationalise the concept of urban resilience. Using these four principles, 105 registered planners with the Ghana Institute of Planners were interviewed and five most recent and relevant national planning documents (four legislation, and one policy) were evaluated to determine how well planning practice advances resilience planning. Findings indicate limited appreciation of the concept amongst planners, despite the national planning documents stating an intention to integrate urban resilience. In addition, these national planning documents do not provide balanced support for all four urban resilience principles, as they advance some principles significantly more than others. More importantly, there is a disconnect between these national planning documents on the one hand, and planning practice on the other, as planning actions are not consistent with the legislation and policies. This paper recommends education of planners on urban resilience issues, credentialing of the concept in the local context, and reconsideration of international agencies' role in resilience planning in Ghanaian cities.