Multiple publics, disjunctures, and hybrid systems: how marginalised groups stake their claims to transport infrastructure

This chapter draws from empirical research in the Gauteng City-Region of South Africa and Metropolitan Maputo in Mozambique to explore transport infrastructure. Investigating transport in these cases revealed two primary insights for ongoing debates in the field of infrastructure studies. The first involves the existence of multiple publics, whose mobility needs and expectations often conflict with how public transport is conceptualised and delivered. The second encompasses the challenges and opportunities of governing hybrid transport systems. The chapter focuses on the contested phenomenon of paratransit, discussing this industry alongside the limitations and disjunctures prevalent within the various levels of the state in South Africa and Mozambique. The continued use of paratransit speaks to the complexity of planning and delivering hybrid infrastructure for multiple publics, and in particular for marginalised social groups.