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Copyright of Urban Studies (Sage Publications, Ltd.) is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Understood as a direct claiming and remaking of vacant space by marginalized urban residents, occupations claim the right to housing and disrupt property relations, surfacing conflicting rationalities between different valorizations of land and infrastructure. We are interested in occupation as a reparative practice, intervening into the socio-material fabric of the city, with the potential to remake urban life-worlds. We draw inspiration from scholarship on infrastructural repair, conceived as the necessary labor of sustaining and filling in the gaps of fragile systems of provisioning that would otherwise be abandoned or left to decay. We situate our reflection in Cape Town, at the Cissie Gool House occupation, a former hospital that was vacant when it was occupied in 2017. In paying attention to the labors of endurance at CGH, this paper advances an expanded conceptual framework of repair, conceiving of occupations as a reparative urban infrastructure that includes material and affective practices. Our concern is with the enactment of more emancipatory forms of reparative practices that prefigure more hopeful futures. In thinking with CGH, we draw out a set of practices that can be read as central to sustaining, reclaiming, and future-making, naming these: infrastructural repair, prefiguration, defiant endurance, and refusal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The monumentalization of public space has received significant scholarly attention both globally and locally. In the South African context, this interest has been further heightened by the #Rhodes Must Fall campaign in 2015, which raised questions about the relevance of colonial statues in the post-transformation era. This campaign sparked extensive debates regarding monumentalization within the country's cultural landscape. Against this backdrop, the present empirical study aims to contribute to these discussions by examining the role of monuments, particularly their spatial characteristics, in shaping processes of memory and identity reconstruction within urban public spaces. The study employed cultural mapping techniques, including participatory GIS (PGIS) and semi-structured interviews, to generate data in the areas of Chatsworth and Durban Central. Additionally, the study draws upon Henri Lefebvre's (1974) conceptualizations of monuments and Proshansky's (1983) place-identity theory to explore the constitutive relationship between the spatiality of monuments and embodied memories in the production of spatial identities. The empirical findings of the study affirm monuments as sites for negotiating spatial identities, acknowledging the diversity and multiplicity of memories and identities that emerged. Furthermore, the study highlights the significance of the spatial context of monuments, including dimensions such as aesthetic appeal, geographic prominence, positionality, and discernibility, in influencing the symbolic value of monuments in memory-making and identity formation processes. In conclusion, the paper emphasizes the importance of reconfiguring the spatial context of monuments to ensure their efficacy in processes of memorialization and identity reconstruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From 1950 onwards, under the apartheid regime's Group Areas Act, hundreds of thousands of people were forced to leave their homes across South Africa's cities. While the removals from some areas, notably District Six in Cape Town, are well documented and memorialised, many others have largely been erased from public memory. In a context of burgeoning research into issues of spatial justice in Southern cities, this paper puts forward the argument that the concepts and practice of memory and memorialising in urban spaces deserve more attention. Specifically, we suggest that the relationships between space and memory, shaped by collective, public acts of remembering and forgetting, can expand our understanding of what constitutes spatial justice in our cities. Reflecting on a research project conducted in Lower Claremont, a racially mixed, middle‐class suburb in Cape Town that was declared White in 1969 and subsequently dubbed Harfield Village, we explore some of the ways in which remembering and forgetting take place on the urban scale, and their implications for imagining just cities. We ask, too, what possibilities exist for active remembering in this place and in similarly ordinary city spaces. Analysing oral histories from former residents and interviews with current occupants of the neighbourhood, we open up some of the complications in surfacing forgotten stories and creating landscapes of memory. In the final section of the paper we reflect on an art installation that formed part of the research project, and suggest some possibilities for active memory work in our urban spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of public space governance in delivering and managing qualitative public space in South African cities is inadequately documented from a municipal governance perspective. The article focuses on the governance of public space delivery and management in the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality to unlock the best urban design practices concerning creating and sustaining high-quality public space as an essential element of urban infrastructure. The paper argues that the delivery and management of high-quality public spaces in South African cities are underpinned by several essential governance prerequisites that influence the significance, nature and role of public space within these cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public participation is an integral part of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process, as it provides opportunities for interested and affected parties (I&APs) to participate in the decision making process. This process is part of the legislative regime in South Africa and recognized as the main instrument to ensure that the proposed development is sustainable from a triple-helix perspective (i.e., ecological, socially, and economically sustainable). Therefore, the paper describes a case of public engagement in Xolobeni, located in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, as well as the environmental politics that evolved from arguments that favoured development over environmental conservation. The proposed mining project was known as the Xolobeni mining development project. The Department of Minerals and Petroleum Resources announced in 2005 that an Australian company, Transworld Energy and Minerals (TEM), would establish a mining development project in Xolobeni to mine red sand dunes contained within five blocks, each named after the river that runs through it on its southern border. The Department of Minerals and Energy is the exclusive custodian of mining licences and thus the only Department that issues them, according to the Minerals and Petroleum Resources Development Act (Act 28 of 2002). When seeking mining rights, it also requires corporations to consult with local populations. The Amadiba Crisis Committee filed a mining licence appeal based on a lack of consultation. One of the complications was also brought about by the divided community. TEM's solicitors sent a redacted copy of the mining right application to the community on 3 February 2016. The community was informed that drilling would begin on February 22nd, and that force would be employed if access was not granted. Following the receipt of the mining rights copy, an objection was lodged under section 10 of the MPRDA. The people resisted because they did not want their land, to be taken away. The community also opposed the proposed mining because they were concerned about the negative social, economic, and environmental effects. The land in Xolobeni was also used by the community for agriculture, or tourism and they did not want to lose that. The community also resists the migration of foreigners who wish to dwell in their village, fearing that they will overrun their way of life and impose a social lifestyle commonly connected with mining activity. The preceding study highlights the potential for conflict when communities reject the establishment of mining enterprises. As a result, the goal of this study is to see if incorporating community agreement into South Africa's legal requirements for granting a mining licence could help to reduce community unrest. The High Court ruled in favour of Xolobeni residents in this mining rights case [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In South Africa, young men are generally considered to generate many of the risks associated with informal settlement life, yet their own vulnerability in these environments is seldom considered. Seeking insights into male susceptibility in these impoverished urban spaces is methodologically challenging. How does one encourage poor marginalised young men to speak with candour about their insecurities and challenges? The research methods used, while facilitating openness, should also build their confidence as they reflect on the challenges of everyday life. This paper describes the methodological journey undertaken in a study of young Black men living in informal settlements in Cape Town, South Africa, revealing how they perceive their vulnerability in these environments. It demonstrates how a suite of methods gradually developed through trial and error, with the young men themselves assisting in the adaptation of tools, ranging from interviews using adapted participatory methods to non‐prescriptive diary‐writing. Together they delivered deep and penetrating insights into the lives of the young men, and the nature of their vulnerability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities and public spaces are changing. Many movements such as 'Black Lives Matter' are questioning the meaning of public space in post-colonial contexts. This paper focusses on the decolonization of public space in South Africa as a strategy to achieve spatial transformation. Drawing from seven years of in-depth research, the discussion explores the concept of decolonization and proposes a 3-stage process for decolonizing public space, supported by examples and implications for spatial practice. The paper shows that although fundamental spatial transformation necessitates radical mental transition, decolonization should move beyond the decoloniality of the mind towards physical intervention in public space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the United Nations in 2015, aspirations towards creating more inclusive and sustainable cities became global standards of urban development. This presents an almighty challenge for policymakers and urban planners, particularly in the rapidly developing cities of the global South, which have historically been known to possess higher levels of segregation and inequality. This article focuses on an analysis of patterns of accessibility, created through different systems of transport, in relation to potential opportunities they may provide for interaction between different social and racial urban population groups, using Cape Town in South Africa, as the primary case study. It examines the relationship between specific social and spatial variables and the geographic positioning of stops and stations of the public Railway, MyCiti Bus Rapid Transit systems and the paratransit, privately-owned Minibus Taxi system. A relational approach was required in order to address both the physical and social aspects of this paper, thus drawing on the discursive and analytical techniques offered by space syntax. The Minibus Taxi system, born out of the informal sector in South Africa, has widely been stigmatised as "chaotic" and "haphazard", however the empirical evidence shown by this analysis of accessibility, suggests that it possesses an inner spatial and social logic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Johannesburg, which is South Africa's largest city and economic center, is still influenced by patterns of inequality of the past. Although spatial transformation has been rapid since 1994, spatial divisions along class lines are still prevalent long after the apartheid era. This is despite the fact that societal values such as inclusivity, spatial justice and equal access to resources have become the core goals of Johannesburg's spatial and urban development. This is particularly true when addressing housing, public open spaces, transport and social infrastructure embedded in a suitable land-use mix. However, despite the adoption of numerous policies by government, this research indicates that even recent urban development projects such as Fleurhof and Waterfall are falling short in delivering those objectives. Based on a case study analysis, we show that significant dysfunctionalities become evident when evaluating these two projects, despite their meeting relevant indicators of spatial inclusion on paper. Tensions are identified between theoretical approaches and the implementation of societally relevant policy goals. These include inclusivity and spatial justice by mostly privatized provision of housing and services, and deficiencies in public maintenance of infrastructure. The research reveals, that 'ticking-the-boxes' behavior on policy and project level does not produce equitable, inclusive neighborhoods and urban spatial patterns, but rather reproduces spatial inequalities of the past. If these policies are to result in real spatial change and improvement in the lives of Johannesburg residents, a more proactive approach by the public sector at different levels will be necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers an apparent paradox in South Africa: the share of single‐person households increased after the end of apartheid despite the ending of apartheid's racial laws that restricted 'African' families from living together, the postapartheid state's building of around four‐million low‐cost houses for families, the economies of scale offered by multiple‐person households in a country where poverty remains prevalent and the reduced significance of some of the longstanding sites of single‐person households—including mining compounds and hostels for men. Bringing together quantitative and qualitative data, we argue that solo dwelling remains associated with persistent rural–urban spatial divisions, increased migration and urbanization, continued declining marriage rates and the nature of employment. These arguments are supported by quantitative data that show an increase in solo dwelling, its greater occurrence among men and working‐age African men, in particular, its concentration in certain urban spaces and the way it fluctuated in the 2000s according to changing labour market conditions. We also draw on a township survey and interviews that show how, as apartheid restrictions collapsed, new areas of land suitable for solo living became available in the 1990s and provide examples of unmarried and married adults living alone, including to access work opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The health and wellbeing of residents in South Africa's towns and cities are currently threatened by the burden of disease, high incidences of crime/violence, and increasing economic, social, and environmental inequality. The impact of past and present spatial exclusion has exacerbated high levels of poverty and ill health, and the rapid rise in urbanization has put further pressure on already strained urban systems. While significant progress has been made, poor levels of service delivery, neglected infrastructure, and a lack of social amenities continue to pose a challenge. A further concern has been the prioritization in policy and literature on the 'hard' traditional elements of health over 'softer' dimensions (wellbeing aspects). The field of medical geography in South Africa has also remained relatively peripheral, with most geographical and human settlement research on health being driven by public-health scholars. This special issue brings together the voices of researchers working on health and wellbeing in South Africa's urban spaces to address these and other concerns. Several key findings have emerged including the need for governance models that focus on overall wellbeing, the importance of interdisciplinary approaches, the role that wider socio-economic context and history play, and the importance of access to open space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One consequence of the COVID-19-induced changing consumer travel preferences is growing demand from urban residents for open spaces and the experiences of rural destinations. This re-focuses attention on the challenges of rural tourism firms and of issues of developing rural tourism destinations. In extant international scholarship only limited studies have been undertaken for sub-Saharan Africa. This paper contributes to research debates on rural tourism change in the Global South and more particularly around COVID-19 and the development prospects for rural tourism in South Africa. Using 25 qualitative interviews undertaken in the rural Thaba Chweu Local Municipality of Mpumalanga province it is shown that the challenges facing rural tourism relate to weaknesses in the local institutional environment that have existed for the past two decades. The core constraints on expansion on rural tourism surround issues of the local government mismanagement and corruption. The consequence has been limited provision of basic services and maintenance of critical infrastructure, most especially roads, water and power supplies, which are essential for successful rural tourism development. It is concluded that the leading challenges facing rural tourism firms in South Africa are markedly different from issues which are highlighted in scholarship concerning rural tourism in the Global North. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents findings from a study exploring children's participation and protection rights. The research was conducted by the International and Canadian Child Rights Partnership (ICCRP) – a multi-sectoral partnership, involving academic institutions, non-government organisations, and young people in five countries. Although funding came from a Canadian federal agency, partners adopted a decolonial approach to break down inequitable power dynamics. This approach ensured the usage of contextually relevant methods and that children's voices were heard. This paper reports on findings in Brazil, China, and South Africa, where participatory methodologies were used, to explore how young people and adults conceptualise the experience of 'participating together.' Our findings show that there is no single conceptualisation of participation that fits the different contexts where the ICCRP worked. In China, the emphasis is on education and respect for parents' decisions about their lives; in South Africa, it is on respect and duty to elders and community; while in Brazil, participation relates to 'protagonism' where there is a rhetoric of young people's autonomy in public policy. However, in all cases, intergenerational relations are dynamic and evolve over time. Additionally, individuals who experience meaningful participation in public spaces, change their attitude to participation in the private sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Critical African Studies is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Traditional rondavel building patterns, designs and materials have changed due to urbanisation, economic status, globalisation, and modernisation. There is limited understanding of how the architectural change has impacted the utilisation of rondavel space. This study uses the concept of habitus to understand whether the changing design of traditional rondavels has influenced their utilisation, based on a case study of the Mbhashe Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape province, South Africa. The data was collected using semi-structured interviews. The findings reveal the habitus of the AmaXhosa people on how they utilise traditional rondavels (family house) for childbirth, placing a deceased's coffin, sleeping, seating, food preparation, serving and storage, keeping the spear, hosting ceremonies, communicating with ancestors, and interacting with the living. While the influence of contemporary architecture has changed the construction of rondavels, the inhabitants have not resisted changes to the architecture or cultural values as they have found different ways to adapt. Certain old dispositions are adaptable to contemporary structures, but some people are uninterested in adapting elements to the contemporary rondavel. Some habits of utilising traditional rondavels cannot be adapted to the contemporary rondavel because of health and medical innovations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Landscape architecture is not formally affiliated with environmental justice in South Africa. This is concerning given that the country is the most socio-economically unequal worldwide and that local cities contain dire urban realities and climate-related risks with degraded and unsafe green open spaces. We explored the potential within local professional praxis for addressing inequities related to green open spaces in the urban environment. Narratives were collected via 25 in-depth interviews from a diverse sample. We found that though landscape architects have yet to be exposed to 'environmental justice' as a term and as a movement, practitioners have an implicit awareness of environmental inequity as a lived reality. We argue that these professionals have the potential to actively promote environmental justice, evidenced by how practitioners currently address justice concerns and challenges. We call for more active and authentic engagement around environmental justice within the profession here and internationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Engineering Field Testing Platform (EFTP) was designed to provide an opportunity for technology developers (TDs) to test non-sewered sanitation prototypes in the eThekwini Municipal Area (Durban), South Africa. Between 2017 and 2020, 15 sanitation systems were tested in informal settlements, peri-urban households, and other 'real world' settings. This paper illustrates the lessons learned from establishing and managing this testing platform. Costs and timelines for testing are dependent on several factors, including the aims of testing, the development stage of the prototype, whether testing takes place in a community or household setting and if a testing site is shared between prototypes. Timelines were routinely underestimated, particularly for community engagement and commissioning of prototypes to reach steady-state operation. Personnel accounted for more than half of the EFTP's costs. The presence of the municipality as a platform partner was vital to the success of testing, both for gaining political support and for enabling access to testing sites. It is noted that working in communities, with test sites in public spaces, requires technical and social sensitivity to context. It was important to ensure testing supported future municipal decision-making on service provision, as well as longer-term development within communities. The high number of stakeholders, locally and internationally, raised management challenges common to any large project. However, the EFTP added value to TDs, the eThekwini Municipality, and communities requiring improved sanitation services; this was amplified through the platform approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the impact of educational mobilities on the lives of university students from an urban working-class township in South Africa. In highly unequal urban contexts, these mobilities provide access to valuable material resources and engender subjective transformations that facilitate access to higher education spaces. Based on fieldwork with students from Khayelitsha, a black urban township in Cape Town, it argues that these mobilities are shaped histories of racial segregation, demands of globalizing labour markets, and students' personal readings of changing urban environments. Drawing on the concept of mobility capital, the paper suggests that even as these movements enable access to educational opportunities, they do not automatically generate the forms of capital required for social mobility. While students used mobilities to access higher education, they struggled to develop the social networks, embodied dispositions, language skills and cultural competencies that would provide social advantage. Rather, their experiences on campus reveal how mobility capital is structured by material and symbolic inequalities, which are frequently alienating and exclusionary. Finally, the paper emphasizes the importance of everyday movements and attachments between home and university spaces to the formation of student identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Exposure to green spaces has been suggested to improve mental health and may reduce the risk of depression. However, there is generally limited evidence on the association between green spaces and depression originating from low-and middle-income countries and Africa in particular. Here, we investigate the association between proximity to public green spaces and depressive symptoms among residents of Gauteng Province, South Africa. Methods: We used data from the 2017/2018 Gauteng quality of life survey. We included all individuals aged 18 years or older residing in the nine municipalities of Gauteng Province that completed the survey (n = 24,341). Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire-2. Proximity to public green spaces was defined as self-reported walking time (either less or greater than 15 min) from individuals' homes to the nearest public green space. To assess the association between access to public green spaces and depressive symptoms, we used mixed-effects models, adjusted for age, sex, population group (African, Indian/Asian, Coloured (mixed race), and White), educational attainment, and municipality. We additionally performed stratified analyses by age, sex, educational attainment, and population group to evaluate whether associations differed within subgroups. Associations are expressed as prevalence ratios (PR) and their 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). Results: We observed a 6% (PR = 0.94, 95%CI = 0.92–0.96) prevalence reduction in depressive symptoms for individuals who reported that the nearest public green space was less than 15 min from their homes as compared to those who reported > 15 min. After stratification, this inverse association was stronger among females, individuals aged 35–59 years,those with higher levels of educational attainment, and Coloured individuals as compared to their counterparts. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that public green spaces close to residential homes may be associated with a reduction in the occurrence of depressive symptoms among urban populations in resource-constrained settings like South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public-sector urban planners are essential role-players in the development of sustainable cities. However, there is relatively little understanding of their perceptions of sustainability generally and how or where they obtain information and knowledge around urban sustainability, especially in the Global South. This study, therefore, adopted a mixed-methods approach, employing both an online survey (34 valid respondents) and eight in-depth interviews (together spanning 31 different municipalities), to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and worldviews (based on the New Ecological Paradigm scale) of public-sector planners in South Africa. Generally, the planners held ecocentric worldviews and acknowledged the importance of sustainable urban development and the need to understand urban ecological dynamics and principles in planning and urban greening. However, they also identified a range of factors that hinder their ability to plan for sustainable futures, including institutional flaws, politics and misaligned development goals. Most felt that the extent and distribution of urban green infrastructure in their municipality was below what they deemed as ideal, although the majority were unaware of national guidelines in this respect. Consequently, perceptions and worldviews appeared to bemisaligned with what is prioritized and implemented. Therefore, environmental issues and ecological principles need to be better communicated to public-sector urban planners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Town & Regional Planning is the property of University of the Free State and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose: This study aims to investigates the contribution of the informal sector towards secure livelihoods. Using a case study design, the study focusses on Mandela park, situated in Khayelitsha Township, Cape Town, in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Khayelitsha is predominantly an old township established by the apartheid government using unjust segregation laws to foster spatial planning that isolated people of colour in areas with insufficient infrastructure and informal economic activities. Therefore, informal trading became a survival strategy in Khayelitsha, attracting an increasing number of informal traders in public spaces within the township in pursuit of livelihoods. Informal activities are generally conducted to generate income and secure sustainable livelihoods. Design/methodology/approach: This study uses a qualitative research design, incorporating structured interviews instrumental in data collection and in-depth thematic analysis. Findings: The study findings reveal that the informal sector positively contributes to the sustainable livelihoods of those involved in the informal sector and the relatives of those through income generation, family support, wealth creation, source of employment, business incubation and innovation and creativity. Originality/value: The study concludes that given the increasing unemployment rate in South Africa, caused by the stagnant economic growth rate, policymakers should rethink their policies on the informal economy, acknowledge the sector's relevance and support the sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of an already large treatment gap in South Africa, this study aimed to examine how Covid-19 and the related lockdown measures affected the availability, accessibility, quality, and continuity of mental health services in the Western Cape province in South Africa. A mixed-methods design was employed, using narrative surveys, quantitative surveys, and qualitative semi-structured interviews, with 17 public mental health providers, and secondary data from the District Health Information System. We analysed and combined the data using descriptive statistics, template analysis and methodological triangulation. Results showed that Covid-19 and the lockdowns had negative impacts on mental health service provision at all levels of care, such as reduced access to services, increased stigma and discrimination, disrupted medication supply, increased workload and stress for providers, and the closure of psychosocial and therapeutic services. Innovations used by providers to mitigate these impacts included telehealth, online training, peer support groups, and community outreach. The study concludes that Covid-19 and the lockdowns exposed and exacerbated the existing gaps and challenges in mental health service provision in South Africa. Key recommendations for policy formation and response to future pandemics in the public mental health sector include: classifying psychological treatments as essential services, establishing an intersectoral mental health emergency response plan, involving mental health care users in the development of pandemic responses, creating policies for managing health emergencies in psychiatric facilities, and increasing resources for the mental health sector in South Africa. These recommendations are relevant for South Africa and other LMICs in ensuring adequate mental health care during public health emergencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Occupying urban spaces for queer women, often shaped by implicit and explicit forms of regressive heteropatriarchy, has been understood as a challenge for queer women. As a result, queer women struggle to inhabit, live and feel safe in urban spaces. However, further scholarship is needed to consider how queer women may also find strategies to overcome such challenges. Such work can then add productively to, and right an imbalance within, existing scholarship on sexuality and urban space by exploring, acknowledging and giving voice to the lived experiences of queer women especially in urban Africa. Drawing on a PhD study that deployed in-depth interviews with 23 queer women, this intervention looks specifically at how black queer women have found creative ways to create communities with each other in challenging contexts, in the city of Johannesburg. This intervention shows how black queer women resist various forms of oppression by creating safe spaces for themselves (and others) within the city. An appreciation of these strategies by black queer women can then help further discussions as to how we come to understand how queer women occupy and make urban spaces their own through socialisation and support in ways that may also have applicability across the wider continent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study argues that Vision 2030 and social housing should consider the elements of the sociocultural dimension of urban design (SDUD) to alleviate urban poverty-induced feelings. By examining public spaces in the context of Vision 2030 and the implementation of social housing projects, this study aims to provide a theoretical framework that may assist city policymakers in rethinking the role of public spaces in alleviating poverty-related feelings. A review of the relevant literature explores the SDUD elements and builds an index to measure poverty through bibliometric and content analysis. This index was used to analyze the gaps in Vision 2030 in South Africa, Kenya, and Egypt, which we randomly chose. It focused on SDUD elements, social housing, and public spaces. We empirically examined the role of public spaces in alleviating poverty-related feelings using the SDUD index. We applied episodic narrative and interview-based storytelling techniques to a limited group of poor residents in the Al Asmarat Housing Project in Mokattam, Cairo, Egypt. This interview discusses the role of public spaces in reducing poverty-related feelings. The results focus on exploring the four SDUD elements of poverty and examining how public spaces alleviate poverty-induced feelings. Vision 2030 revolves around SDUD elements, social housing, and public spaces. Urban design policies can alleviate poverty in development projects for the poor. Integrating urban design policies into Vision 2030 makes city dwellers in developing countries feel less inferior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Initiatives to support adherence to HIV treatment in South Africa are often centred on service delivery thereby avoiding key challenges to adherence: stigma and poverty. In contrast, this study aims to demonstrate the strength of an inclusive research and programme approach to improving the lives of people living with HIV and simultaneously ARV adherence. Methods: Participatory Action Research combined with a visual participatory method (Photovoice) was used by postpartum women to share their experience of taking ARVs. The research was analysed from an interpretative and critical paradigm where both the women and a non-governmental organisation collaborated in the data collection, analysis and interpretation of the findings. Together, they then disseminated the findings and used a community-led approach to create a programme addressing these barriers effectively. Findings: Two main barriers to ARV adherence emerged: the anticipated stigma associated with issues of disclosure and poverty epitomized by alcohol abuse, gender-based violence and hunger. The women and the NGO staff successfully presented their findings at conferences and collaborated to develop a programme of support for all women living with HIV in the area. The programme addresses each of the issues raised by the co-researchers and is run via a community-led process where the participants lead on design, implementation, and monitoring and ultimately will revise the programme as needed. Discussion: The inclusive approach of this study enabled these postpartum women to portray the intersectional nature of both HIV stigma and poverty that affects their lives. By working with the local NGO to develop a programme based on these insights, they were able to tailor specific interventions to the issues women living with HIV face in their area. In doing so, they aim to improve the lives of people living with HIV by demonstrating a more sustainable way to impact ARV adherence. Conclusion: Currently, health service insistence on measuring ARV adherence does not address the core barriers to taking ARVs and misses the opportunity to focus on the long term health and well-being of people living with HIV. In contrast, locally targeted participatory research and programme development based on inclusivity, collaboration and ownership do address the fundamental challenges of people living with HIV. In doing so, it can have a greater impact on their long term well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the design-research of the white, South African, left-wing, liberal architect Elizabeth "Betty" Spence (1919–84) during early spatial apartheid. Building on Spence's fragmented archive of publications and interviews, we explore how she worked for and with disenfranchised Black township inhabitants on materializing alternative housing options. Spence's approach included careful observation of how different inhabitants—particularly women—used interior spaces. While her work responded pragmatically to distinct South African social, economic, and racial challenges, this article shows that her design-research was indebted to both European design thinking on the optimization of domestic space and American-South African debates on "race relations." Her concern with incremental housing, self-construction, and the process of building and homemaking in the townships, we argue, should be understood as a form of political action that enabled self-determination within the framework of modern urban life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Johannesburg and South Africa's history and contingencies of colonisation, apartheid and a complex transition to democracy shaped different iterations of Pieter Roos Park. I argue that the dynamics and contingencies of the park in turn played a role in shaping those same histories. Using public space as a lens into history is revealing of how the formation of different publics and their resultant conflicts have produced a public culture of contestation that is embedded in Johannesburg. These dynamics were refracted and reflected in Pieter Roos Park, the development, management and use of which contributed to the changing public culture of the city. Lefebvre's spatial triad helps reveal how different drivers, motivations and processes interact to produce space, cutting through different levels of complexity and temporality in the interactions between public space and spatial (in)justice. Based primarily on archival research and interviews, this article shows how historical contestations that shaped the production of space at Pieter Roos Park demonstrate its shifting potential for publicness and spatial justice. This offers new insight into the micro-level realities of tensions and opposing sentiments that shaped public space and public culture during apartheid and the transition to democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

KwaPoyinandi was the Zulu term for the Local Health Commission (LHC), a unique but now little-remembered form of local authority that governed the freehold community of Edendale and contiguous farms, townships, and informal settlements from 1942 to 1974. Its early mandate was to rehabilitate the once prosperous community within the social medicine paradigm (primary health care attentive to the social determinants of health) and with the promise of transition to self-governance. Through to the late 1950s, 'monumental work' toward that mandate was achieved, including a multiracial advisory board with an African majority and an African chair. KwaPoyinandi also bucked the national apartheid trend for longer than most, if not all, major urban centres in South Africa, with a racially diverse population well into the 1970s. The experiment was hamstrung and ultimately shut down due to its incompatibility with apartheid. I argue that Africans' active engagement with KwaPoyinandi in diverse and complex ways was an important factor in its early relative success and that this history provides insights pertinent to current debates around the revitalisation of peri-urban communities around South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Civic‐led banishment, a fundamentally spatial punishment, is an understudied phenomenon in South Africa and beyond. We define it as "a punitive spatial practice, enacted by non‐state actors in response to alleged criminality or deviance, which attempts varying degrees of socio‐spatial expulsion over time". This definition lays the framework for a socio‐spatial analysis of punishment, and yields insights into the exercise of socio‐spatial control in public and private space. We emphasise the specific challenges associated with banishment, together with the relationship between space, punishment, public authority, and sovereignty. We demonstrate how "negotiations" around banishment trade off two forms of intersecting precarity: those faced by residents in informal settlements and the potential precarity of public authorities. Finally, we argue that an exploration of all forms of punishment through the lens of socio‐spatial expulsion enables us to tap into conversations around penal abolitionism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have seen a rising interest in peri‐urban spaces, urban frontiers and new suburbanisms, including in African contexts. However, given the scale of urban growth and the extreme diversity of formations emerging on the geographical edges of African city‐regions, a deeper understanding is needed of the drivers of peripheral urbanisms and the lived experiences of urban change in these spaces. Based on a comparative research project in South Africa and Ethiopia, this article draws out the epistemologies of researching African urban peripheries and presents a new conceptual framework. It offers a language for interpreting processes of peripheral development and change, highlighting five distinct but overlapping logics which we term speculative, vanguard, auto‐constructed, transitioning and inherited. Rather than describing bounded peripheral spaces, we argue that these logics can co‐exist, hybridize and bleed into each other in different ways in specific places and at different temporal junctures. Centring our methodological practices of comparative analysis, and privileging the voices of those living in urban peripheries, the article employs critical readings of urban scholarship before exploring how these five logics illuminate the complex processes of urban peripheral evolution and transformation. Formulating these logics helps to fill a lacuna in urban conceptualization with potential relevance beyond African contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]