IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envira/v46y2014i4p749-769.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Resilience of South African Cities a Decade after Local Democracy

Author

Listed:
  • Ivan Turok

    (Human Sciences Research Council, Private Bag X9182, Cape Town 8000, South Africa)

Abstract

South Africa emerged from a cataclysm two decades ago to experience a stable democratic transition during which the local government system was transformed. The creation of large metropolitan municipalities was intended to accelerate socioeconomic development and urban restructuring in order to overcome the legacy of segregation and exclusion. This paper assesses their achievements, ten years on, using the concept of resilience as the analytical frame. Resilience helps to examine cities as interconnected systems open to external influences but with some capacity for self-organisation and learning. It is useful for exploring the coexistence of urban continuity and change. Evidence shows that the responses of South Africa city authorities to globalisation, urbanisation, and democracy have been circumscribed. Continuity and incremental change have been more evident than transformation and development. Hesitant progress exposes cities to the risk of greater social instability. Insights from resilience theory support the idea that enhanced municipal capabilities could facilitate a more enduring outcome.

Suggested Citation

  • Ivan Turok, 2014. "The Resilience of South African Cities a Decade after Local Democracy," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 46(4), pages 749-769, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:46:y:2014:i:4:p:749-769
    DOI: 10.1068/a4697
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/a4697
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1068/a4697?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. Judy L. Baker, 2012. "Climate Change, Disaster Risk, and the Urban Poor : Cities Building Resilience for a Changing World," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 6018, December.
    2. Aron, Janine & Kahn, Brian & Kingdon, Geeta (ed.), 2009. "South African Economic Policy under Democracy," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199551460, Decembrie.
    3. Ben Fine, 2012. "Assessing South Africa's New Growth Path: framework for change?," Review of African Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(134), pages 551-568, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tazviona Richman Gambe & Hermanus Stephanus Geyer & Anele Horn, 2022. "Economic Resilience of City‐Regions in Southern Africa: An Exploratory Study of Zimbabwe," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(2), pages 438-455, April.
    2. Ockert Pretorius & Ernst Drewes & Mariske van Aswegen & Gerard Malan, 2021. "A Policy Approach towards Achieving Regional Economic Resilience in Developing Countries: Evidence from the SADC," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-21, March.
    3. van Aswegen, Mariske & Retief, Francois Pieter, 2020. "The role of innovation and knowledge networks as a policy mechanism towards more resilient peripheral regions," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    4. Bradlow, Benjamin H., 2019. "Weapons Of The Strong: Elite Resistance And The Neo-Apartheid City," SocArXiv g5y3b, Center for Open Science.
    5. Lungile Ntsalaze & Sylvanus Ikhide, 2018. "Rethinking Dimensions: The South African Multidimensional Poverty Index," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 135(1), pages 195-213, January.

    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. Costanza Biavaschi & Giovanni Facchini & Anna Maria Mayda & Mariapia Mendola, 2018. "South–South migration and the labor market: evidence from South Africa," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 18(4), pages 823-853.
    2. Ana Paula Pimentel Walker & María Arquero de Alarcón, 2018. "The Competing Social and Environmental Functions of Private Urban Land: The Case of an Informal Land Occupation in São Paulo’s South Periphery," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-24, November.
    3. Janine Aron & John Muellbauer, 2009. "Monetary Policy and Inflation Modeling in a More Open Economy in South Africa," Chapters, in: Monetary Policy Frameworks for Emerging Markets, chapter 15 Edward Elgar Publishing.

    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:46:y:2014:i:4:p:749-769. 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.