IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envira/v36y2004i6p959-981.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Dreams, Bricks, and Bodies: Mapping ‘Neglected Spatialities’ in African Cape Town

Author

Listed:
  • Yonn Dierwechter

    (Urban Studies Program, University of Washington, Tacoma, 1900 Commerce Street, Tacoma, WA, 98403, USA)

Abstract

This paper deploys several propositions from Amin and Thrift's recent theoretical work to map emerging geographies of the postapartheid city. Using Cape Town as a case study, the focus is on urban planning and informal sector retailing. After a discussion of the informal food sector, three parameters of urban space that are often apprehended separately are held together: an imagined geography of planning for the efficient and postapartheid city (‘dreams’); a material geography of marketplaces for the developmental transformation of informal retailing (‘bricks’); and a socioeconomic geography of what local officials call “pre-entrepreneurs†(‘bodies’). The author argues that these three geographical features of the postapartheid city are of an emerging and mutually dependent piece; that is to say, they are cocreating each other across scales and domains of reality. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of the broader implications for understanding the prospects of the postapartheid city.

Suggested Citation

  • Yonn Dierwechter, 2004. "Dreams, Bricks, and Bodies: Mapping ‘Neglected Spatialities’ in African Cape Town," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 36(6), pages 959-981, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:36:y:2004:i:6:p:959-981
    DOI: 10.1068/a3688
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/a3688
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1068/a3688?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ivan Turok, 2001. "Persistent Polarisation Post-Apartheid? Progress towards Urban Integration in Cape Town," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 38(13), pages 2349-2377, December.
    2. Moser, Caroline O. N., 1978. "Informal sector or petty commodity production: Dualism or dependence in urban development?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 6(9-10), pages 1041-1064.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Isabelle Guérin & Bert D'Espallier & G. Venkatasubramanian, 2015. "The Social Regulation of Markets: Why Microcredit Fails to Promote Jobs in Rural South India," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 46(6), pages 1277-1301, November.
    2. Mathilde Bouvier & François Roubaud & Mireille Razafindrakoto & Roberta Teixeira, 2022. "Labour market transitions in the time of Covid-19 in Brazil:a panel data analysis," Working Papers DT/2022/02, DIAL (Développement, Institutions et Mondialisation).
    3. Ndoya, Hermann & Okere, Donald & Belomo, Marie laure & Atangana, Melissa, 2023. "Does ICTs decrease the spread of informal economy in Africa?," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(2).
    4. Azunre, Gideon Abagna & Amponsah, Owusu & Takyi, Stephen Appiah & Mensah, Henry & Braimah, Imoro, 2022. "Urban informalities in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA): A solution for or barrier against sustainable city development," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    5. Wamuthenya, W.R., 2010. "Determinants of urban job attainment in Kenya across time," ISS Working Papers - General Series 19918, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    6. Rafaela Bastidas & Nicolás Acosta, 2019. "Misallocation and manufacturing TFP in Ecuador: formal, semi-formal and informal firms," Journal of Economic Structures, Springer;Pan-Pacific Association of Input-Output Studies (PAPAIOS), vol. 8(1), pages 1-29, December.
    7. Amin, A. T. M. Nurul & Singh, Andréa Menefee,, 2002. "The informal sector in Asia from the decent work perspective," ILO Working Papers 993551963402676, International Labour Organization.
    8. Elgin, Ceyhun & Oyvat, Cem, 2013. "Lurking in the cities: Urbanization and the informal economy," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 36-47.
    9. Andrea Pollio, 2020. "Architectures of millennial development: Entrepreneurship and spatial justice at the bottom of the pyramid in Cape Town," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(3), pages 573-592, May.
    10. M. Ali Choudhary & Saima Naeem & Abdul Faheem & Nadim Haneef & Farooq Pasha, 2011. "Formal Sector Price Discoveries: Results from a Developing Country," School of Economics Discussion Papers 1011, School of Economics, University of Surrey.
    11. Snehashish Bhattacharya & Surbhi Kesar, 2018. "Possibilities of Transformation: The Informal Sector in India," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 50(4), pages 727-735, December.
    12. David Simon, 1984. "Urban Poverty, Informal Sector Activity and Inter–Sectoral Linkages: Evidence from Windhoek, Namibia," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 15(4), pages 551-576, October.
    13. Ana Paula Pimentel Walker, 2015. "The Conflation of Participatory Budgeting and Public–Private Partnerships in Porto Alegre, Brazil: The Construction of a Working-Class Mall for Street Hawkers," Economic Anthropology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 2(1), pages 165-184, January.
    14. Vivian Bickford‐Smith, 2010. "The Fairest Cape of Them All? Cape Town in Cinematic Imagination," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(1), pages 92-114, March.
    15. Pius B. Simon, 1998. "Informal Responses to Crises of Urban Employment: An Investigation into the Structure and Relevance of Small-scale Informal Retailing in Kaduna, Nigeria," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(6), pages 547-557, August.
    16. Zizzamia, Rocco, 2020. "Is employment a panacea for poverty? A mixed-methods investigation of employment decisions in South Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    17. Paul,Saumik & Raju,Dhushyanth, 2021. "Barriers to Growth-Enhancing Structural Transformation : The Role of Subnational Differences in Intersectoral Productivity Gaps," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9683, The World Bank.
    18. Swaminathan, M., 1991. "Understanding the "Informal Sector": A Survey," Research Paper 95, World Institute for Development Economics Research.
    19. Mohamed Amara, 2016. "The linkages between formal and informal employment growth in Tunisia: a spatial simultaneous equations approach," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 56(1), pages 203-227, January.
    20. Lay, Jann & Wiebelt, Manfred, 2001. "Towards a dual education system - a labour market perspective on poverty reduction in Bolivia," Kiel Working Papers 1073, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:36:y:2004:i:6:p:959-981. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.