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. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. Swaminathan, M., 1991. "Understanding the "Informal Sector": A Survey," Research Paper 95, World Institute for Development Economics Research.
    6. 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.
    7. 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).
    8. Kaplinsky, Raphael, 1995. "Capital Intensity in South African Manufacturing and Unemployment, 1972-1990," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 179-192, February.
    9. Alain Dubresson, 2005. "Monopolisation institutionnelle et spatialités économiques au Cap (Afrique du Sud)," Revue Tiers Monde, Programme National Persée, vol. 46(181), pages 21-44.
    10. Odile Castel, 2006. "De l'économie informelle à l'économie populaire solidaire : concepts et pratiques," Post-Print halshs-00119530, HAL.
    11. Martha Alter Chen, 2007. "Rethinking the Informal Economy: Linkages with the Formal Economy and the Formal Regulatory Environment," Working Papers 46, United Nations, Department of Economics and Social Affairs.
    12. Andrew Charman & Thiresh Govender, 2020. "The Creative Night‐Time Leisure Economy of Informal Drinking Venues," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(5), pages 793-808, September.
    13. Charlotte Lemanski, 2006. "Residential responses to fear (of crime plus) in two Cape Town suburbs: implications for the post-apartheid city," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(6), pages 787-802.
    14. Choudhary, M. Ali & Faheem, Abdul & Hanif, M. Nadim & Naeem, Saima & Pasha, Farooq, 2016. "Price setting & price stickiness: A developing economy perspective," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 44-61.
    15. Stålhammar, Sanna, 2021. "Polarised views of urban biodiversity and the role of socio-cultural valuation: Lessons from Cape Town," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 47(C).
    16. K Pandit, 1990. "Tertiary Sector Hypertrophy during Development: An Examination of Regional Variation," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 22(10), pages 1389-1406, October.
    17. Kasturi Sadhu & Saumya Chakrabarti, 2021. "Neo-Dualism: Accumulation, Distress, and Proliferation of a Fissured Informality," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 53(4), pages 694-724, December.
    18. Navarrete-Hernández, Pablo & Navarrete-Hernandez, Nicolas, 2018. "Unleashing waste-pickers potential: supporting recycling cooperatives in Santiago de Chile," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 85730, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    19. Ana Moreno-Monroy, 2012. "Critical Commentary. Informality in Space: Understanding Agglomeration Economies during Economic Development," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 49(10), pages 2019-2030, August.
    20. Martha Alter Chen, 2012. "The Informal Economy in Comparative Perspective," Chapters, in: James G. Carrier (ed.), A Handbook of Economic Anthropology, Second Edition, chapter 28, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    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.