Kommentar zu Loïc Wacquants „Mit Bourdieu in die Stadt“

Die Notwendigkeit einer gesellschaftstheoretischen Rückbindung der Stadtforschung kommt in der gegenwärtigen Grundsatzdiskussion über den Stadtbegriff (Netzwerk? Flüsse/Ströme? Räumliche Fixierungen/Barrieren/Territorien?) beziehungsweise über die Fragen nach dessen regionaler Reichweite (Stadt-Land-Dichotomie? Methodischer Nationalismus?) und nach dessen empirischer Basis (Politischer Westen beziehungsweise Ökonomischer Norden oder Globaler Süden? Provinzialisierung oder Planetarisierung?) deutlich zum Ausdruck (vgl. Robinson 2002; 2006, Roy 2009, McFarlane 2010, Savage 2011, Brenner/Schmid 2014 und Scott/Storper 2014). Beantworten lassen sich die hier aufgeworfenen Fragen nur, wenn diskutiert wird, welcher Art die Wechselwirkung zwischen Stadt und Gesellschaft ist. Das setzt nicht nur voraus, dass zur Frage danach, was mit ‚Stadt‘ gemeint ist, Stellung bezogen wird, sondern auch zum Verständnis und zur Reichweite des Gesellschaftsbegriffs

Redlining or renewal? the space-based construction of decay and its contestation through local agency in Brixton, Johannesburg

This is a chapter from the book: Negative neighbourhood reputation and place attachment: the production and contestation of territorial stigmaIn South Africa, space-based exclusion remains prevalent in many forms. In this paper, we focus on the "redlining" of selected neighbourhoods, a technique applied by banks to structure lending decisions in the property market. As a consequence of redlining, prospective home-owners may find it impossible to secure a bond in such an area. This rationale and its results have been described extensively in urban studies literature: zoning areas as "not credit-worthy" prevents investment and creates a self-fulfilling trajectory towards crime and grime. Residents in these neighbourhoods are subject to a practice of territorial stigmatization. This results in economic insecurity with various negative neighbourhood effects, e.g. individual disinvestment or slumlording. Redlining is currently not in the spotlight of media or research in South Africa. The structural effects of this practice, however, are significant. The translation of socio-spatial perceptions into financially excluding techniques is not prevented in South African legislation. The relevance of dissecting this conundrum is demonstrated in our case study of Brixton, one of Johannesburg’s socio-economically most diverse neighbourhoods. It is precisely in mixed areas such as Brixton on Johannesburg’s east-west axis where redlining is applied, effectively devaluing a process of unplanned socio-economic integration of over two decades. In our case study, however, we observe how some residents respond to this and successfully counter redlining by banks with a combination of individual and collective strategies. However, our case of local agency also demonstrates the huge effort that is needed to challenge the financial institutions’ spatial ideology.BM2018https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781317089537https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/978131708953

‘Festivalisation’ in South Africa’s host cities: Themes and actors of urban governance in the media discourse on the 2010 FIFA World Cup

The hosting of the FIFA Football World Cup has been perceived in South Africa both as a challenge of accelerated social, economic, and spatial transformation, and as an opportunity to showcase the nation’s ability to successfully provide the structures and capacities for one of the biggest sports tournaments in the world. The thesis of ‘festivalisation’ sees mega-events (like the Football World Cup) as a form of translocal dynamics which is embedded in the context of increased inter-urban competition in the era of globalisation. This paper aims at investigating some effects of such globalised forms of festivalisation (Häußermann and Siebel 1993) on the urban sphere in South Africa. The focus is on identifying key actors and key topics in relation to urban governance in the host cities. The method applied is a mix of various strands of discourse analysis, since every approach has its shortcomings and a combination might point out directions of how to systematically link these perspectives in future research. To a certain extent, the path presented here remains methodologically explorative. Still, the paper shows that an analysis of language-based communication, or more specifically, an approach that takes media representations as a point of entry to the field of urban dynamics, might produce insights otherwise overlooked, and thus adds a critical angle to the study of urban governance

Post-urbanisierte Städte in globaler Perspektive. Kommentar zu Loïc Wacquants „Mit Bourdieu in die Stadt“

Die Notwendigkeit einer gesellschaftstheoretischen Rückbindung der Stadtforschung kommt in der gegenwärtigen Grundsatzdiskussion über den Stadtbegriff (Netzwerk? Flüsse/Ströme? Räumliche Fixierungen/Barrieren/Territorien?) beziehungsweise über die Fragen nach dessen regionaler Reichweite (Stadt-Land-Dichotomie? Methodischer Nationalismus?) und nach dessen empirischer Basis (Politischer Westen beziehungsweise Ökonomischer Norden oder Globaler Süden? Provinzialisierung oder Planetarisierung?) deutlich zum Ausdruck (vgl. Robinson 2002; 2006, Roy 2009, McFarlane 2010, Savage 2011, Brenner/Schmid 2014 und Scott/Storper 2014). Beantworten lassen sich die hier aufgeworfenen Fragen nur, wenn diskutiert wird, welcher Art die Wechselwirkung zwischen Stadt und Gesellschaft ist. Das setzt nicht nur voraus, dass zur Frage danach, was mit ‚Stadt‘ gemeint ist, Stellung bezogen wird, sondern auch zum Verständnis und zur Reichweite des Gesellschaftsbegriffs

Shifting corporate geographies in global cities of the South: Mexico City and Johannesburg as case studies

oai:ojs.die-erde.org:article/1Global city research links the expansion of advanced producer services in major cities to the internationalisation of real estate markets as well as to the spread of (mainly) high-rise office complexes. This research, however, has based its findings mainly on cases of the Global North. This paper examines, based on Grant and Nijman’s (2002) suggestion that the “internal spatial organisation of gateway cities in the less-developed world” reflects “the city’s role in the global political economy”, which patterns occur in two metropoles of the Global South. In addition to this, the analysis focuses especially on the driving forces behind the changes in corporate geographies. The analysis is placed in Mexico City and Johannesburg and based on real estate market data (offices) as well as background documents on urban development. The outcome shows that in these cities, local transformation processes of the real estate market and office space location are indeed considerably shaped by global market dynamics. However, the findings also indicate that there is no clear scale dependence of the territorial form. In order to comprehensively understand the changes in the corporate geographies therefore, it is necessary to direct more attention to local and national dynamics. The restructuring of the built environment in both cities can only be grasped fully by considering the particular role of local and national governments. This additional entry point to an understanding of shifting corporate geographies helps to put recent dynamics of global capitalism and politics of urban neoliberalism in perspective

Megaevents und favelas. Strategische Interventionen und sozialräumliche Effekte in Rio de Janeiro

Häußermann und Siebel konzeptionalisierten 1993 mit der Festivalisierungsthese die stadtpolitische Instrumentalisierung von Großereignissen. Seither haben sich die Events und die theoretische Auseinandersetzung verändert. Hinsichtlich der Megaevents lassen sich derzeit zwei Trends beobachten: 1. der enorme ökonomische wie politische Bedeutungsgewinn der Events und 2. die Events finden immer häufiger im ‚Globalen Süden‘ statt. Dieser Beitrag untersucht die urbanen Bedingungen und Effekte von Megaevents am Beispiel Rio de Janeiros. Der Fokus liegt auf den in zumeist informell organisierten Wohngebieten einkommensschwacher Gruppen, auf den favelas, die sich als besonders sensibles Wirkungsfeld der Festivalisierung erweisen. Im Zuge der Auseinandersetzung mit den urbanen Effekten entwickeln wir eine analytische Perspektive, die sich auf andere Gastgeberstädte im Globalen Süden übertragen lässt. Thematisiert werden exkludierende Strategien und marktimperiale Effekte der Eventvorbereitung. Im Fazit werden diese als anti-social legacy zusammengefasst

Suburbane Wohngebiete im postrassistischen Suedafrika Das Beispiel Midrand-Countryview

Dieser Beitrag beschaeftigt sich mit der Entwicklung der Siedlungsstrukturen suburbaner Wohngebiete in der Republik Suedafrika nach dem Ende des Apartheid-Regimes. Der Verfasser gibt eine Einfuehrung in die Geschichte der Staedte Suedafrikas und schildert die Entstehungszusammenhaenge der Segregationsmechanismen und deren Wirkung auf die Stadtentwicklung. Einen Schwerpunkt der Arbeit bilden zwei theoretische Diskurse zu Rassenkonstruktion und Segregation. Am Beispiel der Vorstadt Midrand-Countryview, die frueher zu einer der Free Settlement Areas gehoerte, wird mit empirischen Methoden untersucht, ob die soziooekonomische und soziodemographische Entwicklung des Stadtteils als Indikator fuer gesellschaftliche Aenderungen interpretiert werden kann. Der Verfasser kommt zu dem Ergebnis, dass die Entwicklung Countryviews ein Beispiel fuer gesellschaftliche Verschiebungen beim Uebergang vom rassistischen zum post-rassistischen Suedafrika darstellt. (ICB)SIGLEAvailable from SUB Goettingen(7)-2000A20298 / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekDEGerman

‘Festivalisation’ in South Africa’s host cities: Themes and actors of urban governance in the media discourse on the 2010 FIFA World Cup

The hosting of the FIFA Football World Cup has been perceived in South Africa both as a challenge of accelerated social, economic, and spatial transformation, and as an opportunity to showcase the nation’s ability to successfully provide the structures and capacities for one of the biggest sports tournaments in the world. The thesis of ‘festivalisation’ sees mega-events (like the Football World Cup) as a form of translocal dynamics which is embedded in the context of increased inter-urban competition in the era of globalisation. This paper aims at investigating some effects of such globalised forms of festivalisation (Häußermann and Siebel 1993) on the urban sphere in South Africa. The focus is on identifying key actors and key topics in relation to urban governance in the host cities. The method applied is a mix of various strands of discourse analysis, since every approach has its shortcomings and a combination might point out directions of how to systematically link these perspectives in future research. To a certain extent, the path presented here remains methodologically explorative. Still, the paper shows that an analysis of language-based communication, or more specifically, an approach that takes media representations as a point of entry to the field of urban dynamics, might produce insights otherwise overlooked, and thus adds a critical angle to the study of urban governance

‘Festivalisation’ in South Africa’s host cities: Themes and actors of urban governance in the media discourse on the 2010 FIFA World Cup

The hosting of the FIFA Football World Cup has been perceived in South Africa both as a challenge of accelerated social, economic, and spatial transformation, and as an opportunity to showcase the nation’s ability to successfully provide the structures and capacities for one of the biggest sports tournaments in the world. The thesis of ‘festivalisation’ sees mega-events (like the Football World Cup) as a form of translocal dynamics which is embedded in the context of increased inter-urban competition in the era of globalisation. This paper aims at investigating some effects of such globalised forms of festivalisation (Häußermann and Siebel 1993) on the urban sphere in South Africa. The focus is on identifying key actors and key topics in relation to urban governance in the host cities. The method applied is a mix of various strands of discourse analysis, since every approach has its shortcomings and a combination might point out directions of how to systematically link these perspectives in future research. To a certain extent, the path presented here remains methodologically explorative. Still, the paper shows that an analysis of language-based communication, or more specifically, an approach that takes media representations as a point of entry to the field of urban dynamics, might produce insights otherwise overlooked, and thus adds a critical angle to the study of urban governance

“Festivalisation” of Urban Governance in South African Cities: Framing the Urban Social Sustainability of Mega-Event Driven Development from Below

This article is based on field research in two South African host cities of the Men’s Football World Cup 2010 (eThekwini and Johannesburg). The discussed work is part of the research project “Festivalisation” of Urban Governance: The Production of Socio-Spatial Control in the Context of the FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa. In the context of mega-events, impacts and changes on urban development can vary on a spectrum of festivalisation between opposing poles, either “driven by the event”, or on the other hand where existing configurations of actors and established policies are “driving the event”. By drawing on a theoretical framework which is inspired by an analytical understanding of urban governance, our assumptions are that (a) different configurations of governance promote different ways of handling the challenges associated to the hosting and (b) that different types of “festivalisation” have different consequences and effects for the lived realities of the residents at a local level. The latter is an arena in which urban governance policies are translated, adapted, renegotiated or rejected. We argue that the bringing together of both spheres (local and metropolitan) provides a profound understanding of the process of mega-event implementation and its relation to urban social sustainability