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Quality of Life in the Gauteng City-Region, South Africa

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  • David Everatt

    (School of Governance)

Abstract

The core challenge facing South Africa after it became a democracy in 1994 was twofold: to meet the basic needs of (black) people denied these by apartheid, and simultaneously restoring dignity and undoing the psycho-social damage of racist white rule. This article analyses the first two in a planned long-term sequence of quality of life surveys in the Gauteng City-Region, the economic power-house of South Africa, with Johannesburg at its centre. The survey gathers data across multiple objective and subjective indicators. The key challenge is to try and understand the interplay between the two—and thus what impact, if any, meeting basic needs has on the psycho-social profile of residents of the city-region. The conclusion is that the impact is limited: objective indicators, which largely measure delivery of goods and services by government, drives the quality of life index up; but social, community and individuated indicators (such as anomie and alienation) pull scores down, and most particularly so for older, low educated black South Africans. The future may look positive for those born after apartheid; but for those who sacrificed their education in the struggle to topple the regime, the future looks like ‘more of the same’. Education emerges as the key asset that allows black South Africans to overcome the damage of apartheid; lack of (or low levels of) education do the reverse; this is true of both socio-economic advancement and social attitudes.

Suggested Citation

  • David Everatt, 2017. "Quality of Life in the Gauteng City-Region, South Africa," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 130(1), pages 71-86, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:130:y:2017:i:1:d:10.1007_s11205-015-1127-y
    DOI: 10.1007/s11205-015-1127-y
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Nadeen Ihsan & Babar Aziz, 2019. "A Multidimensional Analysis of Quality of Life: Pakistan’s Context," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 142(1), pages 201-227, February.
    2. Brett Bowman & Sherianne Kramer & Sulaiman Salau & Ella Kotze & Richard Matzopoulos, 2018. "Linking criminal contexts to injury outcomes: findings and lessons from a national study of robbery in South Africa," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 63(8), pages 977-985, November.
    3. Samy Katumba & Julia Kadt & Mark Orkin & Paul Fatti, 2022. "Construction of a Reflective Quality of Life Index for Gauteng Province in South Africa," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 164(1), pages 373-408, November.
    4. Samy Katumba & Koech Cheruiyot & Darlington Mushongera, 2019. "Spatial Change in the Concentration of Multidimensional Poverty in Gauteng, South Africa: Evidence from Quality of Life Survey Data," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 145(1), pages 95-115, August.
    5. Lionjanga, Nahungu & Venter, Christo, 2018. "Does public transport accessibility enhance subjective well-being? A study of the City of Johannesburg," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 523-535.
    6. Simangele Dlamini & Solomon G. Tesfamichael & Yegnanew Shiferaw & Tholang Mokhele, 2020. "Determinants of Environmental Perceptions and Attitudes in a Socio-Demographically Diverse Urban Setup: The Case of Gauteng Province, South Africa," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-15, April.

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