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This chapter provides a critical examination of the urban renewal process currently taking place in inner-city Johannesburg. It evaluates the effects of an approach to providing social housing which blends commercial, market-based practices with state intervention and regulation and discusses the implications these competing imperatives have for the area and academic understandings of urban renewal.

Findings are based on a qualitative research process, carried out over 9 months in inner-city Johannesburg. Research involved interviews with property developers, housing providers, government officials, and tenants living in renovated social and affordable housing developments.

The process is contradictory and overburdened, and attempts to fulfill competing goals and agendas. Some developmental ambitions are being realized as the supply of social and affordable housing is expanding. However, the benefits are limited, as poor communities are being displaced and, in many cases, commercial concerns trump social and developmental considerations.

Findings highlight the ways in which a range of political circumstances, policy decisions, and spatial conditions combine to create an approach to renewal which is neither entirely neoliberal nor developmental. The case study complicates narratives which stress the global dominance of neoliberal approaches to urban renewal and demonstrates that alternative developmental ambitions exist alongside commercial practices.

The chapter highlights the ambiguity and hybridity of localized approaches to housing provision. In doing so it adds nuance to debates about urban processes around the globe and draws attention back to the uncertainty, agency, and diversity which are continuously shaping urban societies.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the economics of providing well-located housing in the inner city of Cape Town. The paper emphasises the need to maintain an appropriate balance between the viability and affordability of the product offered to the market and overcoming the value versus cost challenges. While developers have limited influence over value, they do have influence over cost structures through the development approach that is chosen. Moreover, local authorities influence the viability of projects through standards and regulations. The conclusion drawn from the research has considerable implications for the formulation of market-driven housing policy interventions.

In addition to the review of urban economics theory and the literature on the drivers and costs of inner-city, higher-density residential development, a series of interviews with inner-city residential developers was conducted to access current property development cost data and to identify the parameters that determine the viability of inner-city, high-density residential development.

Cape Town, like other South African cities, suffers from being inefficient and inequitable largely due to its low density and sprawling nature. As a result, most planning- and housing-related policy interventions advocate the provision the higher-density, more affordable residential housing in well-located areas such as the inner city. However, to date, these policies have, on the whole, been unsuccessful in achieving these outcomes. This paper argues that this is because these policies largely do not take urban economics into account and fail to address the value versus cost tension that needs to be overcome to allow for the provision of such accommodation. Based on the viability calculations provided, the research illustrates the main cost drivers associated with higher-density, inner-city residential development and makes certain recommendations as to how these cost barriers can be reduced.

Financing arrangements and taxation implications have not been accounted for as these are often specific to the developer and thus cannot be generalised.

The solutions put forward by the paper offer lower-income households the ability to successfully compete with higher-income households and other land uses for well-located space in Cape Town’s inner city.

The findings of this research illustrate the type of interventions that the public and private sectors can consider to improve the viability and affordability of affordable housing units in city centres located in emerging countries.

While traditional urban economic concepts are drawn upon, the paper contributes to addressing the challenge of providing higher-density, more affordable accommodation in South African inner cities. It does this by applying these well-known concepts to the inner city of Cape Town and draws on current data and developer views to accurately diagnose the problem and, in turn, to offer pragmatic solutions.

It is now widely recognised that gradual renewal policies have failed to keep pace with the deterioration of the older housing stock. Commentators and critics are now calling for an increase in clearance and redevelopment. A policy debate is developing around a range of technical, resource, social and political issues. While it is generally agreed that a return to the slum clearance programmes of the 1960s would be unacceptable the future direction of clearance policies is unsettled. The paper considers three broad approaches to clearance which reflect divergent assumptions and political positions.

This paper aims to examine the housing experiences of Fijian migrants in Auckland, New Zealand, in response to recent calls for greater attention to be given to the housing experiences of a wider range of migrant groups. The paper seeks to extend the understanding of the housing experiences of a migrant group that have the economic and social resources that are likely to see them achieve housing outcomes beyond the usual “niche” and limited segments of the housing market usually available to migrants.

This paper used a questionnaire survey designed to uncover the housing experiences and levels of satisfaction of Fijian migrants living in Auckland. Developing on the works of literature that have addressed ethnic residential segregation and migrant housing outcomes, this paper addresses the housing experiences of a well-established migrant community that possesses significant human capital (skills, education, English language proficiency) but occupies a hybrid cultural identity.

The majority of the 84 respondents had attained homeownership. Homeownership was prized for conveying a sense of “independence” and was aligned with notions of Fijian Indian culture. Both homeowners and renters expressed high levels of satisfaction with the locational attributes of their homes. While the majority of renters aspired to homeownership, a lack of affordable housing was noted. Homeowners recognised that they had benefitted from accessing homeownership when house prices were more affordable and believed that current and future migrants would struggle to buy a house in the Auckland housing market.

In the absence of a sampling frame, this research employed a purposive sampling technique that distributed questionnaires among Fijian migrant community groups and ethnic businesses. As the first study of its kind into the housing experiences of Fijian migrants in Auckland, the sample size (84 respondents) and geographical distribution of respondents was deemed sufficient to offer insights into the community’s housing experiences. The findings of this research could be used to develop a larger-scale analysis of the housing experiences of Fijian migrants in Auckland.

While considerable attention has been given to documenting the locational distribution of migrants in Auckland, this is the first study to examine the housing experiences of Fijian migrants. The paper adds to the understandings of the variety of migrant housing outcomes by focussing on the experiences of a well-established migrant group that possesses significant human capital and occupies a distinct ethnic position within Pacific migration flows.

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate whether the leading argument of construction firms, which have been active in the mass production of housing for the past 10 years in Istanbul, that in addition to the features of the house itself, the position of the house in the city, in other words its location, the new lifestyles the house offers and the social reinforcements the house provides are of great significance is valid or not. This was done by analyzing the contents of the advertising copies of houses present in the printed media.

In this study, the printed advertising copies of the projects realized by the mass housing construction firms which have carried out at least six projects in Istanbul housing market, have been analyzed and assessed by “content analysis”, one of the qualitative research methods of social sciences. As it can be observed from the results of the analysis, the house, while being regarded as a product and marketed via its features, also has become a product presented to the consumer as a result of its position in the city, in other words its location, the new lifestyles it offers and the social reinforcements it provides.

As this study has demonstrated, marketing strategies based on attracting the attention of the customer by making use of means of communication are also valid for housing in Istanbul housing market. Housing is marketed not only according to its features as a product but also according to the urban area where it is situated, new lifestyles and social reinforcements it presents. In this marketing process, the features of the housing itself; its size, construction technology, quality of the fine materials, earthquake resistance, etc. as well as the urban area where the housing is situated, the location of it, opportunities of infrastructure and superstructure of the housing become the foregrounded arguments in the advertising copies.

This study is that, as a requirement of modern-day marketing, the consumption relation of the consumer to the house is not simply based on the features of the house, that modern-day marketing tries to capture the attention of the consumer via the position of the house in the city (location), which is the equivalent of the other symbolic values associated with the house, the lifestyles it presents and the social reinforcements it provides.

The purpose of this paper is to show the changes to date between the apartheid (ideological) and democratic use and management of public space. The abolition of apartheid laws in urban areas led to a great deal of contestation for space and also to new forms of management of public space.

This paper looks briefly at the background which led to public space being “reserved” on a racial basis. It then examines examples of the contestation for space that developed with the relaxation and, finally, abolition of apartheid legislation. It finally provides and discusses some of the solutions that have developed in both the use and management of public space.

Little has been practically resolved in relation to contestation over various aspects of urban public space. Where public space interventions have been private sector led, such interventions are not without their own difficulties.

Generally the paper confines itself to Johannesburg. The paper relies on the personal experience of the author and research of written material – time constraints have not permitted research through questionnaires.

The practical implications of the results to date are summarised and recommendations made for application to other South African towns and cities.

Relatively little is available on the practical applications of the subject matter in South Africa. The paper could be of value in developing further debates, both in South Africa and in world cities subject to mass immigration.

HOUSING AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS IN POST-COMMUNIST COUNTRIES

The smart city strategies of municipalities in South Africa have been grounded in developmentalism, seeking to harness the power of technology to enable improved governance. Cities such as Durban and Cape Town have embraced infrastructure-led approaches that seek to use state-mediated broadband “backbone” development to enable last-mile ICT access to marginalized communities. With the advent of big data, the range of actors in the ICT-local government terrain has broadened to include partnerships with IT-multinationals and management consultants to streamline municipal bureaucratic procedures, enable data processing, and contribute to greater efficiency. An important driver is the increasingly urgent need to accelerate the delivery of essential services while also encouraging investment and development through greater efficacy (e.g., in processing development applications). A “dashboard urbanism” is becoming evident that fits well with the system of indicators and performance monitoring that is embedded in the managerial South Africa’s local government system. The danger of an overreliance on these quantitative aspects is that it may perpetuate divides in what is considered to be one of the most unequal cities in the world. Based on exploratory research, this chapter explores strategies used by civil society organizations to challenge the assumptions of “dashboard urbanism” and contribute a more rounded appropriation of big data and a deepened and contextualized urban experience.

Across the global community the eradication of slums has been identified as a key project as part of the broader goal to eradicate poverty. Entrepreneurial efforts are viewed as a key means of ‘lifting’ people from poverty. Through a focus on Nigeria, this chapter examines slum upgrading programmes. The primary aim is to identify the opportunities and barriers facing inhabitants of informal settlements to realising entrepreneurial synergies that can occur in particular places.

A case study examination of the Kpirikpiri informal settlement in Ebonyi State, Nigeria was conducted that utilised a mixed-method approach. The research passed through three key phases. The first phase comprised a literature survey and review. The second phase involved a household survey to gather some baseline socio-economic and physical data that helped to fill the void of basic data. A total of 142 respondents participated in the survey, representing 10% of the total number of households in the area. The third phase involved the collection of qualitative data through focus group discussions and individual interviews.

Slum dwellers have skills and formal education equivalent to those in the Global North. Nevertheless, Nigerians tend to view entrepreneurial activities as secondary to other forms of employment, especially positions in the public sector. Paradoxically, slum dwellers place little trust in state authorities. Security of tenure is a major barrier to expanding entrepreneurial activities, as many landlords are reluctant to permit tenants to operate home-based enterprises, which is often a neglected element of place-based development strategies.

The chapter demonstrates the need for basic socio-economic datasets alongside user perspectives to shape the efficacy of development initiatives. In the case of Kpirikpiri, slum improvement programmes may have benefited from parallel educational programmes that expound the virtues of entrepreneurialism and concomitant training schemes, improved governance open to local social networks, less emphasis on physical upgrading of some forms of infrastructure and greater attention towards improving security of tenure as a path towards generating more home-based enterprises.

The entrepreneurial potential of the inhabitants of informal settlements is under-acknowledged in ‘upgrading’ interventions and also underplayed in the research literature. The chapter draws some much needed critical attention to the opportunities and barriers facing inhabitants of informal settlements, which helps to challenge some dominant transnational policy assumptions.