IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cog/urbpla/v8y2023i4p351-365.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Indifference of Transport: Comparative Research of “Infrastructural Ruins” in the Gauteng City-Region and Greater Maputo

Author

Listed:
  • Margot Rubin

    (School of Geography and Planning, Cardiff University, UK / SARCHI Chair in Spatial Analysis and City Planning, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa)

  • Lindsay Blair Howe

    (Institute of Architecture and Planning, University of Liechtenstein, Liechtenstein)

  • Sarah Charlton

    (School of Architecture and Planning, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa)

  • Muhammed Suleman

    (School of Architecture and Planning, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa)

  • Anselmo Cani

    (Faculty of Architecture, Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique)

  • Lesego Tshuwa

    (African Mayoral Leadership Initiative, University of Cape Town, South Africa)

  • Alexandra Parker

    (The Institute for Voluntary Action Research, UK)

Abstract

States in the Global South have consistently invested in large-scale, vanity infrastructure projects, which are often not used by the majority of their residents. Using a mixed-method and comparative approach with findings from Greater Maputo, Mozambique, and the Gauteng City-Region exposes how internationally-supported and expensive transport projects do not meet the needs of lower-income urban residents, and meanwhile, widespread, everyday modes of commuting such as trains, paratransit, and pathways for walking deteriorate. State-led development thus often generates an infrastructural landscape characterised by “ruin” and “indifference.” These choices are anachronistic, steeped in a desire for a modernist-inspired future and in establishing narratives of control. In the cases of Gauteng and Maputo, whether or not the infrastructure is “successfully” implemented, these choices have resulted in a distancing of the state from the majority of urban residents.

Suggested Citation

  • Margot Rubin & Lindsay Blair Howe & Sarah Charlton & Muhammed Suleman & Anselmo Cani & Lesego Tshuwa & Alexandra Parker, 2023. "The Indifference of Transport: Comparative Research of “Infrastructural Ruins” in the Gauteng City-Region and Greater Maputo," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(4), pages 351-365.
    • Handle: RePEc:cog:urbpla:v8:y:2023:i:4:p:351-365
    DOI: 10.17645/up.v8i4.7264
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/urbanplanning/article/view/7264
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.17645/up.v8i4.7264?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. Lindsay Blair Howe, 2021. "Thinking through people: The potential of volunteered geographic information for mobility and urban studies," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(14), pages 3009-3028, November.
    2. COLIN McFARLANE & JONATHAN RUTHERFORD, 2008. "Political Infrastructures: Governing and Experiencing the Fabric of the City," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(2), pages 363-374, June.
    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. Margot Rubin & Lindsay Blair Howe & Sarah Charlton & Muhammed Suleman & Anselmo Cani & Lesego Tshuwa & Alexandra Parker, 2023. "The Indifference of Transport: Comparative Research of “Infrastructural Ruins” in the Gauteng City-Region and Greater Maputo," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(4), pages 351-365.
    2. Giorgia Silvestri & Julia M. Wittmayer & Karlijn Schipper & Robinah Kulabako & Sampson Oduro-Kwarteng & Philip Nyenje & Hans Komakech & Roel Van Raak, 2018. "Transition Management for Improving the Sustainability of WASH Services in Informal Settlements in Sub-Saharan Africa—An Exploration," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-19, November.
    3. Peter T. Dunn, 2020. "Participatory Infrastructures: The Politics of Mobility Platforms," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(4), pages 335-346.
    4. Quitzow, Leslie & Rohde, Friederike, 2022. "Imagining the smart city through smart grids? Urban energy futures between technological experimentation and the imagined low-carbon city," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 59(2), pages 341-359.
    5. Christine Hentschel, 2015. "Postcolonializing Berlin and The Fabrication of The Urban," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(1), pages 79-91, January.
    6. Tom Goodfellow & Zhengli Huang, 2021. "Contingent infrastructure and the dilution of ‘Chineseness’: Reframing roads and rail in Kampala and Addis Ababa," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(4), pages 655-674, June.
    7. Nick Taylor Buck & Aidan While, 2017. "Competitive urbanism and the limits to smart city innovation: The UK Future Cities initiative," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(2), pages 501-519, February.
    8. Peter T. Dunn, 2020. "Participatory Infrastructures: The Politics of Mobility Platforms," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(4), pages 335-346.
    9. Tarini Bedi, 2016. "Mimicry, friction and trans-urban imaginaries: Mumbai taxis/Singapore-style," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 48(6), pages 1012-1029, June.
    10. Jonathan Silver, 2015. "Disrupted Infrastructures: An Urban Political Ecology of Interrupted Electricity in Accra," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(5), pages 984-1003, September.
    11. Håvard Haarstad & Stina Ellevseth Oseland, 2017. "Historicizing Urban Sustainability: The Shifting Ideals Behind Forus Industrial Park, Norway," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(5), pages 838-854, September.
    12. Jenny McArthur, 2018. "Comparative infrastructural modalities: Examining spatial strategies for Melbourne, Auckland and Vancouver," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 36(5), pages 816-836, August.
    13. Ali Adil, 2024. "Differentiated grassroots: Navigating sustainability transitions in conservative political contexts," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 61(8), pages 1508-1525, June.
    14. Kristian Saguin, 2017. "Producing an urban hazardscape beyond the city," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(9), pages 1968-1985, September.
    15. Nikhil Anand, 2022. "TOXICITY 1: On Ambiguity and Sewage in Mumbai's Urban Sea," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(4), pages 687-697, July.
    16. Daniel Florentin, 2019. "From multi-utility to cross-utilities: The challenges of cross-sectoral entrepreneurial strategies in a German city," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(11), pages 2242-2260, August.
    17. HÃ¥vard Haarstad & Rafael Rosales & Subina Shrestha, 2024. "Freight logistics and the city," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 61(1), pages 3-19, January.
    18. Jonathan Rutherford, 2014. "The Vicissitudes of Energy and Climate Policy in Stockholm: Politics, Materiality and Transition," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 51(7), pages 1449-1470, May.
    19. Tauri Tuvikene & Wladimir Sgibnev & Wojciech Kȩbłowski & Jason Finch, 2023. "Public transport as public space: Introduction," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(15), pages 2963-2978, November.
    20. Ramesh, Niranjana, 2021. "Between fragments and ordering: engineering water infrastructures in a postcolonial city," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 108171, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

    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:cog:urbpla:v8:y:2023:i:4:p:351-365. 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: António Vieira or IT Department (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cogitatiopress.com .

    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.