Search

In post-conflict and divided cities where urban spatial injustice is reinforced by enduring divisions, the frameworks of spatial intersectionality and transformative justice hold significant potential to address inequity through urban planning. All cities can be considered divided in some way and these divisions often represent spatial injustice or inequitable access to resources and space. However, in post-conflict and divided cities these divisions may be entrenched and may transgenerationally maintain conditions of inequity and violence. This paper presents spatial intersectionality and transformative justice as frameworks for urban planning that have the potential to address inequity and divisions in all cities, but particularly in cities catergorised as divided due to violence or conflict. I propose a set of guiding questions for transformative justice informed urban planning. • Spatial intersectionality can help identify how structures of inequality restrict movement and use of cities. • Applying transformative justice to urban planning can address the roots of social and structural inequity. • The two frameworks are complementary and can broaden the scope of urban planning to address inequity, violence, and division. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Viable alternatives to paratransit corporatization and contracting exist. • Alternatives appear much more affordable to the City, but offer less service quality control. • Small-scale interventions could provide quick QoS wins and build trust between government and industry. Cities across the Global South are seeking to improve public transport services, but the presence of large numbers of independent paratransit operators complicate reforms. City officials often seek to eliminate paratransit services in favor of scheduled services; but such reforms have proven impossible to achieve. Cape Town is one such city, whose planning officials are now reconsidering the approach to 'industry transition'. Realizing that the transition and operating costs of new scheduled services are unsustainable, the City has acknowledged a continued role for paratransit services. The question this raises is how paratransit should be integrated and, more specifically, how paratransit should complement scheduled services at transfer points. This paper reports on findings from a stated choice survey administered to paratransit drivers to understand opinions on potential reforms that the City might use to address issues of mismatched service span and long off-peak headways in service provided by paratransit operators. The research seeks to assist operators in sharing their perspectives outside of a City-structured engagement process and to assist City officials in understanding what reform paths will be most feasible based on driver acceptability and cost to the City. Results show that alternatives to the corporatization of paratransit services are viable and appear to be more affordable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A sociocultural approach to the analysis of migrant identity and multilingualism. • A qualitative study of Congolese youth in Cape Town. • Young multilingual migrants, their peer and sociocultural networks and practices. • Analysis demonstrate how language, identity, and vulnerability are stylized. • Illustrates sociocultural stylization of language and identity interactions. This paper takes a sociocultural approach to the analysis of migrant identity and multilingual negotiations among young Congolese migrants in Cape Town. The data for this study draws on a qualitative interactional study of Congolese youth in Cape Town, South Africa. These youth form part of a migration class that have shaped immigration sociolinguistic practices in the Global South. They arrived in South Africa at a young age with their parents and have to date been significantly exposed to the local sociocultural dynamics of language and identity practices and negotiations. In this paper we demonstrate that the task faced by these young migrants is to immerse in education, peer and cultural networks and practices that help shape their new identities in the host country, and sustain links to their country of origins (Congo). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper provides an assessment on the structural living conditions of selected government-subsidized low-cost housing settlements in the City of Cape Town and the associated health conditions of the inhabitants. Almost all of these houses have one or more informal dwellings in the backyard. Four subsidized housing communities were selected within the City of Cape Town in this cross sectional survey. Structured interviews were administered in 336 dwellings on 173 plots. Data was obtained from 1080 persons with a response rate of 100%. The vast majority of the main houses had two (38%) or three (48%) structural problems and 99% of the home owners could not afford repairs to the home. The integrity of the walls of the dwelling structure was problematic, showing large visible cracks. None of the walls were plastered causing rainwater to penetrate during rainstorms. During an inspection of the sanitation facilities in the home, 58% of toilets were non-operational, 66% of the bathrooms did not have toilet paper but had a supply of old newspaper instead, while 82% of the bathrooms did not have soap available to wash hands. At present the design of these low-cost housing schemes contribute to an increased risk of communicable diseases, rather than an improvement. The recipients of these houses were previously disadvantaged and their sanitation behaviour is inter alia shaped by the amenities at their disposal. The designers of low-cost houses should take serious note of the pathways of disease created by the provision and layout of sanitation-associated structures. The design of low-cost housing should not force the inhabitants of such houses into unsafe habits because of poor provision or poor layout of basic amenities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A map is not a product, the temporary representation of reality, but rather the most visible component at the surface of an ongoing and often contested mapping process. This significant epistemological recognition directs our attention towards the linkages between ‘mapped space’, ‘everyday space’, and ‘spaces of knowledge building and decision-making’. Applying an organizational ethnography and critical cartography, this paper argues that a shift in the production and circulation of spatial knowledge concerning coastal set-back lines occurred in Cape Town. It describes the shift, interrogates how it came about, and what the implications are. As a governance instrument to promote risk-averse decision-making concerning dynamic coastal ecosystems and coastal infrastructure exposed to storm surges and sea-level rise, the set-back line discursively and materially re-shapes people's realities. But its delineation and the linked multi-actor discussions led by the City of Cape Town's Coastal Management Unit (CMU) also emerge from a specific context. Caught in a constant balancing act between varying interests, sources of knowledge and epistemologies on map-making, the CMU engaged in strategic negotiations and counter-mapping. Effectively acting as ‘champions’, or ‘bureaucratic activists’, local government officials enabled the transition towards a reflexive, iterative and inclusive delineation process, departing from a technical knowledge building model according to which coastal engineers and consultants still dominate the intellectual space regarding coastal risk governance in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: A city’s transnational airline connections are one measure of its globalization since such links are integral to globalization. In this paper, we use airline networks to (i) map the position of African cities in the global transnational urban network, (ii) explore the inter-urban relationships of major African cities and, (iii) to contribute to the literature on the globalization of African cities. We find that whereas many African cities have poor airline interconnectivity among themselves as well as internationally, and are thus ranked low on global transnational urban networks, some cities such as Johannesburg, Cairo, Cape Town, Nairobi, Durban, and Casablanca have developed relatively good international air connectivity and are thus relatively well integrated into the global transnational urban network. In particular, South African cities, especially Johannesburg, have substantially increased their air connectivity and place in the global transnational urban network since the advent of majority rule in South Africa in 1994. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: HIV was first diagnosed within South Africa in 1982. Homosexual transmission of HIV-1 dominated the epidemic within the country in the early stages of the 1980s. Currently heterosexual transmission of HIV-1 is responsible for the majority of HIV cases in South Africa with subtype C HIV-1 being responsible for an estimated 95% of infections. Only a few papers have been published on non-subtype C HIV-1 detection within South Africa. This study characterized subgenomic and near full-length sequences of non-subtype C HIV-1 viruses from the Cape Town area. Amplification and direct sequencing characterized partial gene fragments of 11 samples. Phylogenetic analysis of the sequenced data, with online subtyping tools (REGA and jpHMM) and the drawing of NJ-trees revealed the presence of subtypes A1, B, and F1 as well as recombinant viral forms such as AD, AG and AC. Near full-length genome characterization of 4 of the 11 samples was performed. Analysis of sequenced data with the use of subtyping, recombination identification, and tree drawing tools revealed one subtype B and one A1 isolate. The other two isolates were identified as AC and AD recombinants. The data that was gathered will greatly improve our knowledge of non-subtype C isolates circulating within South Africa. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]