OpenUCT :: Browsing by Author "Crankshaw, Owen"

Browsing by Author "Crankshaw, Owen"

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Open Access
Domestic work in Cape Town: an exploration into the growth of part-time domestic work
(2020) Wooldridge, Kathryn; Crankshaw, Owen
Statistical analysis of the labour market in South Africa shows that between 1994 and 2015, the growth rate of domestic worker employment was slow in comparison to the growth rate of high-income jobs. In Gauteng, the slow growth of domestic worker employment contributed to the overall slow growth of all unskilled jobs. This is because domestic workers consist of around half of all unskilled jobs. The growth of these elementary jobs was therefore much slower compared to high-income middle-class jobs (Crankshaw, forthcoming). Therefore, Gauteng experienced professionalisation rather than social polarisation. Like Gauteng, Cape Town has also experienced professionalisation, due in part to the slow growth of domestic worker employment. The slow growth of domestic worker employment can be partly attributed to the growth of part-time domestic worker employment. This is because households employing part-time domestic workers tend to share domestic workers, which leads to fewer domestic workers being employed per household (Crankshaw, forthcoming). This thesis explores some of the reasons behind the growth of part-time domestic work in Cape Town. Specifically, it uncovers and describes some of the reasons behind why middleclass households in Cape Town choose to employ part-time domestic workers. The thesis also explores how legislation has an impact on the wages, hours, and conditions of employment of domestic workers in middle-class households. The research conducted for this thesis uses both descriptive statistical methods and qualitative methods. The statistical research lays the foundation for the qualitative research by showing the slow growth rate of domestic employment in comparison to managerial, professional, and technical occupations. A critical realist approach is used to guide the qualitative research. A critical realist approach seeks to explain causality through understanding the qualitative properties which create, determine or generate relations and objects. Therefore, the qualitative research uncovers and describes some of the causal mechanisms behind the growth of part-time domestic work in Cape Town with a specific focus on middle-class households. Reasons behind why middleclass households employ full-time domestic workers or no domestic workers at all, is explored as counterfactual evidence. The thesis finds that many middle-class households which hire domestic workers do not base their wages only on the minimum wage. Rather the wages these households set are influenced more by their personal values and/or personal finances. The households in this study which employed domestic workers did not generally adhere to government regulations such as having written contracts with their domestic workers or registering them for UIF. The causal mechanisms behind the decision to hire part-time, full-time or no domestic work is summarised in the table below. Shared causal mechanisms are highlighted.
Open Access
eThekwini's changing occupational structure : a question of deindustrialization and racial inequality
(2015) Lombard, Mighael; Crankshaw, Owen
Scholars have argued that deindustrialization has had different effects on the occupational structure of South African cities. Some have argued for a polarisation of the occupational structure, where the decline of the manufacturing sector is argued to result in a loss of middle-income jobs. This is accompanied by large growth of employment in high-income and low-income jobs, resulting in an occupational structure bereft of middle-income jobs and polarised between classes of high-income and low-income workers. Others have argued for a professionalising pattern defined by the predominant growth of employment in highly-skilled, high-income managerial, professional, associate professional and technical jobs. In contrast to the growth of highly-skilled jobs is the stagnation or decline in growth of all other occupational groups, and rising unemployment. These changes in the occupational structure have also been argued to have specific consequences for persisting racial inequality. This study tests the aforementioned theories of occupational change by looking at the metropolitan municipality of eThekwini, which houses the city of Durban. It demonstrates that deindustrialisation in eThekwini is undergoing a pattern of middle-income, semi-skilled growth that does not support the polarisation or professionalization hypotheses. It also produces evidence that does not support the argument that deindustrialisation results in an occupational structure polarised between a class of mostly white, highly-paid managers and professionals and a class of mostly black (black Africans, coloureds and Indians) low-paid service workers as the eThekwini middle-class is undergoing substantial de-racialisation. However, it argues that inter-racial inequality still persists due to the uneven high-representation of whites in high-income jobs, opposed to the class of low-income workers and unemployed which are almost entirely dominated by black Africans. Alongside this is a pattern of deepening intra-racial inequality between the growing black African middle-class, and the class of black Africans which dominate the unemployed.
Open Access
The exploration of appropriate informal settlement intervention in South Africa : contributions from a comparison with Brazil
(1999) Huchzermeyer, Marie; Crankshaw, Owen
This study examines the hypothesis that informal settlement intervention in South Africa is trapped in a market-oriented paradigm of standardised housing delivery that cannot appropriately address the complex reality of informal settlement. I approach this hypothesis through a cross-national comparison between South Africa and Brazil. Underlying this choice of methodology is the realisation that current informal settlement intervention in Brazil differs considerably from South Africa, despite broad parallels in socio-political process throughout the 20th century. I introduce the contrast between informal settlement intervention in South Africa and Brazil, by situating the debates and practice in each of the two countries in relation to those presented in the international literature. I then explore the causes of this contrast through a socio-political comparison of the emergence of informal settlements in the two countries throughout the 20th century, and of·the responses to informal settlement from the various sectors of society, as portrayed in the South African and Brazilian literature respectively. This insight into the evolution of government intervention approaches in South Africa, as opposed to Brazil, gives a critical perspective to the South African situation. It enables me to expose the dominance of the market-oriented paradigm in current scholarly debates on informal settlement intervention in South Africa. It also enables me to expose the impact of this intervention paradigm on the strategies of organised informal settlement communities. For this purpose, four case studies of informal settlements undergoing intervention through the current South African framework were compiled through in-depth interviewing of key role-players in the development process.
Open Access
Exploring the unconsciousness of process: toward a grounded theory for leadership in development
(2006) Galt, Kathryn M; Crankshaw, Owen
Open Access
Gender dynamics in home ownership in Kampala, Uganda
(2008) Asiimwe, Florence Akiiki; Crankshaw, Owen
This study explores the different ways in which married women in Kampala, Uganda are unable to become homeowners during marriage and at widowhood. In the process, the study also explores the special mechanisms through which married women became homeowners through marriage and at widowhood. The study was premised on the assumption that gender inequality in homeownership exists and persists in Uganda in spite of urbanization, increase in information flow, education and income of women. Although married women live in a home with their husband, they do not actually own the home. As a result, women tend to be users rather than owners. Although one would expect statutory law to guarantee married women home ownership rights during marriage, this is not the case. While Uganda’s state policy states that every citizen has the right to own property, in particular houses, there is no legal framework that guarantees married women equal ownership rights of the home. The current Marriage and Divorce Acts are not clear on the benefits of the married woman in the matrimonial home during marriage and divorce. At divorce the married woman’s benefits in the matrimonial home is at the discretion of the judge who determines the percentage of a married woman’s entitlement to the matrimonial home upon proof of evidence the married woman presents. The Domestic Relations Bill that would address the unequal gender relations in homeownership and probably guarantee married women benefits in the matrimonial home has never been passed. Though a number of NGOs and civil society organizations have lobbied Parliament to pass the Domestic Relations Bill, no progress has been made. Similarly, while one would expect a widow to automatically inherit the matrimonial home upon the death of her husband, intestate law of succession guarantees the widow only user rights of the home until she dies or remarries. The matrimonial home belongs to the eldest son of the diseased. Although the Constitutional Court recently declared some of the clauses in intestate succession law unconstitutional, Parliament is yet to come up with a new succession law. The research applied Hirdman’s gender system and contract theory to explain the complex gender dynamics in homeownership. The study explores the relationship between married women and their husbands and unmarried women and married male adulterers. The analysis of married women dynamics highlights the different gender contracts that exist between married and unmarried women. Two suburban middleincome areas, namely Banda and Kiwatule were chosen from which urban women were identified and interviewed about the challenges they face to become homeowners in their own right. The study was based on purely a qualitative design. The data were collected through life stories of unmarried women, married couples, and widows. The study reveals that while married men adulterers are not concerned to have their names included on the title deeds of their female lovers’ homes, ironically married men ensure that the matrimonial home is solely registered in their names regardless of whether or not their wives contribute to the construction costs. Married women were unable to become homeowners due to lack of regular income, lack of awareness, and patriarchal male cultural beliefs. The study reveals that it is only under special circumstances that married women are able to become homeowners an indication of male dominancy in home ownership. In some cases married women are able to become homeowners when a husband is absent at the time of purchase and registration of the plot of land on which the matrimonial home is built. In other cases married women become homeowners when their husbands need their income as a contribution to the home project or when they are in a financial crisis. Married women with nothing to contribute to the home project find it difficult to negotiate for homeownership rights. Divorce and separation case laws show that married women whose names do not appear on the title deed are at the mercy of the Court for beneficial rights in the home. However, in cases where the married woman moves out and leaves behind the husband in the home, it becomes difficult to evict him even when the court rules in her favour.
Open Access
Intergenerational occupational mobility among blacks in the Mitchell's Plain Magisterial District, Cape Town : evidence from the Khayelitsha
(2006) Ziervogel, Charlton Leslie; Crankshaw, Owen
Includes bibliographical references.
Open Access
An investigation into the geographical trends in the sectoral composition of the Cape Town economy
(2010) Azwihangwisi, Netshikulwe; Crankshaw, Owen
The purpose of this research is to examine the geographical trends in the sectoral composition of the city of Cape Town economy between the year 2000 and 2005. The research is informed by related studies and theories that argued Cape Town is developing a post-Fordist spatial order characterised by the development of edge cities and the excluded ghetto. It investigates the extent to which the service sector or producer service is becoming decentralised, and the growth it had experienced compared to the manufacturing sector. We have used sectoral composition data by areas to determine the locations of the service and manufacturing sector, and undoubtedly to test this theory. To achieve our research purpose, data on actual locations of the manufacturing and service companies have been used to determine growth. The spatial trends under debate include 'edge cities' or suburbanisation, the 'excluded ghetto' and 'spatial mismatch'. The implications of the service sector growth in selected geographies are central to the study. Our findings confirmed the growth of the service sector and low decline in the manufacturing sector in the City of Cape Town. Furthermore, the data also show that the immeasurable growth of the service sector has been occurring in the northern and southern suburbs while south-east area has experienced little or no growth. Additionally, it has been observed that although the Cape Town Central Business District (CBD) has experienced a growth in the service sector, it is relatively low compared to the northern and southern suburbs areas. However, the CBD also experienced a slight decline in manufacturing which demonstrate the importance role of this sector in the area. Spatially, the evidence confirmed that it is the services sector situated to the north and south of the CBD that are experiencing increases while the south-east experienced a little growth. The implications of the growth of the service sector in the northern and southern side of the CBD is that of increased spatial and social polarisation as the job market particularly for the working class who are located further away in the impoverished south-east. These spatial trends negatively affect those living in the townships from the rest of society, particularly the working class.
Open Access
Labour market and spatial mismatch in Cape Town
(2009) Mazile, One; Crankshaw, Owen
The paper undertakes to research a spatial and skills mismatch in the city of Cape Town. The argument is that industry is moving towards the north of the city and away from areas of the south east. This physically displaces low and semi-skilled employees or potential employees who work or seek work in these firms. Areas of the south east are typically inhabited by low and semi-skilled workers who are forced to seek work away from where they live. This is because their areas are economically inactive and do not offer much prospects for development or employment in the current situation. We find that prospective employees or those already employed have to endure lengthy and expensive commutes to work on a daily basis. The city transport system, which includes bus, train and taxis, seems to be still largely inefficient and does not serve these employees well, or is not readily accessible in all the areas it is needed. The research was conducted in the industrial areas of Montague Gardens, Blackheath, Paarden Island, Epping Industria, Airport Industria and Phillipi. These areas were chosen because being industrial areas they would typically have a large number of low to semiskilled workers employed in their firms. Unlike professional or service related firms who would typically employ more qualified or educated (in terms of tertiary qualifications) workers. An interview schedule was prepared and we went to these areas and interviewed which ever firms agreed to it. The firms in the area were chosen in no specific way, we literally went for door to door asking for participants. The research was qualitative in nature, the interview questions were detailed and in depth (see appendices for actual schedule) and lasted for about 20m ins depending on the amount of time the interviewees were willing to spare. The results were analysed by comparing the reasons for relocating amongst each firm, the aim was to try and decipher what were the driving factors of this spatial shift and what implications it had for employees who had to endure these commutes. The significant findings are that the relocation or the move towards the north is driven by the availability of land or space and price. The north seems to offer more affordable premises and much more land, thus more value for money. There are adequate parking and storage facilities. Firms hardly considered workers in their search for new locations. Further south east employees are not left out of potential employment because of their physical distance from these economic nodes, most employees have managed to organise themselves and get to work, even with an unbalanced transport system.
Open Access
Living side-by-side? An analysis of the changing relationship between race, space and class in Cape Town, 1980-2011
(2019) Solomon, Jean-Paul; Crankshaw, Owen
The aim of this project was to explore the changing relationship between race, space and class in Cape Town during the 1980-2011 period by using the social polarisation vs professionalisation debate as the starting point. The previous working on this debate, as it pertains to Cape Town, took place prior to the availability of the 2011 census data and this project continued that work. Based on the data, the growth of high-income occupations continued, in the preceding decade, combined with considerable growth in middle-income non-manual occupations and an improved educational profile of the employed population. However, this project goes beyond that earlier work, by examining the changing racial composition of the relevant occupational groups in relation to the composition of the working age population at each data point. The spatial or geographical analyses uses both a GIS platform to map the changing distribution of the races, occupational classes and the unemployed, as well as two segregation indices aimed at better understanding the city-wide impacts of those geographical changes. The GIS work uses concepts like suburb and ghetto, both of which are ubiquitous in urban studies literature, as a backdrop, but ultimately asks the following question regarding the spatial changes: What are the spatial implications of a deracialising and professionalising labour market? Ultimately, the findings show that despite the aforementioned deracialisation of high-income and middle-income occupations, Black Africans and Coloured remained most affected by unemployment. Furthermore, in spite of all these changes, Cape Town was still profoundly racially segregated in 2011.
Open Access
A matter of timing: migration and housing access in Metropolitan Johannesburg
(2002) Beall, Jo; Crankshaw, Owen; Parnell, Susan
The city of Johannesburg lies at the centre of the largest urban conurbation in sub-Saharan Africa. In the past, this conurbation was known by the clumsy acronym 'PWV', which stood for the Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vereeniging complex. Today, this urban region has the political status of a province and has been re-named 'Gauteng', a popular local name meaning 'place of gold'. A province that is almost entirely urban, Gauteng is home to 7.3 million people: about one-third of the national urban population of 21.8 million.2 At the last census in 1996, the population of Johannesburg itself was about 2.6 million.3 In the national hierarchy, this placed the city of Johannesburg just after the largest city in South Africa, namely Durban (2.8 million) and marginally ahead of Cape Town (also about 2.6).
Metadata only
A matter of timing: migration and housing access in Metropolitan Johannesburg
(Palgrave Macmillan, 2005) Beall, Jo; Crankshaw, Owen; Parnell, Sue
Open Access
Migrants access to the labour market and ethnic niching: case study of Zimbabweans employed in the Cape Town restaurant industry
(2014) Silubonde, Tikwiza Rayleen; Crankshaw, Owen
This research used a qualitative method of enquiry to examine observations and theoretical claims made about the ability of migrants to secure employment. These claims indicated that migrants of the same ethnic groups are able to enter into the job market of their countries of residence, to the extent that they become concentrated in specific industries. The ethnic niche theory, the segmented labour theory and social network theories were taken as the point of departure. These theories were further broken down into four key factors that were believed to be integral to understanding how migrants gain entry and consolidate themselves in different industries. The key factors identified were job search methods, social and family networks, recruitment/employer practices and migrants characteristics. A case study approach focusing on interviews with employees, managers and owner in the Cape Town was used to examine how the different factors contribute to the process of how migrants secure employment. Face to face Interviews were conducted with five male respondents, and comprised open-ended questions. Questions covered the migrants, personal and educational background, migration and employment history, social activities and residential location. The findings confirmed network theory claims that Migrants have been able to use the social capital gained from their social and family networks, to benefit from job related information and access to jobs through referrals and vouching. It was also found that as argued by the segmented labour theory, jobs are differentiated into different sectors, and migrants are more likely to secure employment in the secondary sector. Moreover, as suggested by the ethnic niche theory, migrants did become concentrated in specific sectors as a result of networks and the use of methods such as referral hiring. An important finding that emerged was that while social and family networks play a major role in the creation and maintaining of ethnic niches, there are other contributing factors. Significantly, the structural and institutional context in the host country also plays a major role in the insertion of migrants into specific industries. This goes further than segmented labour theory analysis, which stops at how jobs are differentiated in the market, to acknowledge the role played by the context of the specific industry, the state of the local labour market and the immigration legislation. It was found that it is beneficial to use theory in conjunction with the case context and immigrant characteristics. Thus a multidimensional approach focusing on job search methods, social and family networks, recruitment/employer practices and migrants characteristics is required to understand migrants, access to employment.
Open Access
Professionalisation or polarisation? : economic restructuring and changes in Cape Town's labour market
(2006) Borel-Saladin, Jacqueline; Parnell, Susan; Crankshaw, Owen
The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the changes that have occurred in the economy of CapeTown, South Africa over the last half of the 20th century and what the possible effects of this change have been on social inequality. Literature on economic restructuring in cities all over the world provided the framework of ideas within which this analysis was conducted. These works focused on how in many cities. progressive deindustrialisation has led to the loss of middle-income jobs, while growth in the service sector has resulted in greater numbers of high- and low-skill and income jobs. Others argued that most cities economies' were becoming increasingly organised around professional, managerial and technical skills only, and that increased polarisation occurred solely in those cities that were subject to large-scale immigration. The overriding question that emerged from this body of work then was whether the occupational distribution of employment in cities was becoming increasingly polarised or professionalised. Careful examination of population census data on sectoral and occupational changes in the economy of Cape Town showed that the city's working population was becoming increasingly professionalised, and not more polarised. Survey data were also used to dispute the contention that a large unskilled migrant population was a sufficient condition for social polarisation. Theories about the impacts of deindustrialisation and the decline in blue-collar work on unskilledethnic urban minority groups were also discussed. Again, using population census data, it wasshown that the Coloured population had dominated manufacturing employment. Therefore, it wasconcluded that the decline in manufacturing employment would most likely have the greatestnegative impact on Coloured employment levels. This would most likely affect Coloured men most though, as Coloured women were gaining more employment in all the other types of occupations that were growing while blue-collar employment, on which men seemed to rely that much more, was declining. The argument was also made that service sector growth, while leading to increased feminisation of the workforce, also causes women to be segregated into low-skill, low-pay service jobs. However, the data for Cape Town concurred with other author's data that showed that the occupational distributions of both women and men are becoming increasingly professionalised. Some authors argued that the decline in manufacturing jobs and growth in low-skill service sector work favours unskilled women over unskilled men, as the manufacturing sector tended to hire more men and the service sector tends to employ more women. This was shown to be true in the case of Cape Town, with African women dominating unskilled labour by 2001.
Open Access
Race and the post-Fordist spatial order in Cape Town
(2007) Graham, Nancy; Crankshaw, Owen; Butcher, Shirley
The post-Fordist shift from manufacturing to service sector economies, which began in the 1970s, has occurred worldwide and has changed occupation and income structures. This global force has a spatial manifestation at the urban level. In order to conceptualise the post-Fordist spatial order in Cape Town, his thesis engages examples of post-Fordist spatial forms in cities worldwide, particularly Johannesburg. A Geographic Information System is used to look at the location of the middle class in Cape Town and the spatial patterns of post-apartheid desegregation by mapping the Census 2001 class and race data. This is to determine the extent to which the decentralisation of office parks and shopping centres is reinforcing the spatial divide, established under apartheid, between the white and black races. This thesis shows that, in middle-class, former whites-only areas, decentralised employment nodes have developed. These middle-class residents are still largely white. However, other former white Group Areas nearby, which have experienced significant desegregation, are located along the railway lines in both the northern and south-western suburbs. The profile of these new residents are coloured, rather than black African, and they are employed in clerical, sales, service worker and middle-class occupations. Therefore these coloured residents are able to access decentralised service sector employment, thereby reducing the apartheid spatial divide between the white and black middle class. While white-coloured racial spatial segregation has decreased, the south-east sector of the city has become an 'excluded ghetto' of the coloured and black African underclass, who make up a large percentage of residents in Cape Town. Therefore the extent of class-based desegregation near market-driven, decentralised, service-sector employment has not yet significantly eroded the apartheid racial spatial divisions upon which the post-Fordist class divisions are superimposed.
Open Access
Race, class and spatial polarisation in the greater Cape Town
(2009) Mbhele, Albert Zibuse; Crankshaw, Owen
This paper investigates evidence of a possible spatial mismatch in the Cape Town metropolitan labour market that could contribute towards explaining why low-skilled workers' unemployment rates are significantly higher in the south-east townships. Pre- 1994 apartheid laws had a marked impact on urban land use patterns in South Africa. A new government came into power in 1994 and the Group Areas Act had been abolished. Recent reports demonstrate that there is an aggressive spatial distribution of private sector investment directed to the north, south and western affluent suburbs while the south-east townships, where the vast majority of poor low-skilled Africans and coloured workers live, remain largely sidestepped. In the USA, the spatial mismatch hypothesis suggests that the movement of firms and jobs from central cities to suburbs negatively affects blacks' employment both absolutely and relative to whites. This paper gives a qualitative analysis of whether the movement of firms to the decentralized locations of the southern and northern suburbs do cause a spatial challenge for low-skilled workers from the south-east townships. The paper concludes by arguing that the poor public transport system (to a lesser extent) and the manner in which vacancies are communicated by employers (to a larger extent) are the main elements that create a barrier to employment for low-skilled workers from the south-east townships than spatial mismatch. The implications for policy implications and recommendation are highlighted.
Open Access
Race, inequality and urbanisation in the Johannesburg Region, 1946-1996
(2002) Crankshaw, Owen; Parnell, Susan
The city of Johannesburg lies at the heart of a sprawling metropolis. This metropolis, which we shall call the Johannesburg region, roughly corresponds with the boundaries of Gauteng Province.1 It stretches from Soshanguve in the north to Vanderbijlpark in the south and from Carletonville in the west to Springs in the east (Fig.1). While Johannesburg is an obvious example of a large city in a poor country that is riddled by social and economic inequality, there is a certain irony in its portrayal as a world city. After all, only five years ago, Johannesburg was the hub of a pariah nation that was the object of one of the most successful international sanctions campaigns. Notwithstanding the impact of the boycott against apartheid, Johannesburg has long served as the major urban centre of southern Africa. It is an unusually cosmopolitan city, with extensive demographic, political, and economic connections with Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America, that date back to colonial times (Parnell and Pirie, 1991). Increasingly strong links are now also being forged with Australasia through immigration and sport.
Open Access
Race, inequality and urbanisation in the Johannesburg Region, 1946-1996
(2002) Crankshaw, Owen; Parnell, Susan
The city of Johannesburg lies at the heart of a sprawling metropolis. This metropolis, which we shall call the Johannesburg region, roughly corresponds with the boundaries of Gauteng Province.1 It stretches from Soshanguve in the north to Vanderbijlpark in the south and from Carletonville in the west to Springs in the east (Fig.1). While Johannesburg is an obvious example of a large city in a poor country that is riddled by social and economic inequality, there is a certain irony in its portrayal as a world city. After all, only five years ago, Johannesburg was the hub of a pariah nation that was the object of one of the most successful international sanctions campaigns. Notwithstanding the impact of the boycott against apartheid, Johannesburg has long served as the major urban centre of southern Africa. It is an unusually cosmopolitan city, with extensive demographic, political, and economic connections with Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America, that date back to colonial times (Parnell and Pirie, 1991). Increasingly strong links are now also being forged with Australasia through immigration and sport.
Open Access
Recent spatial trends in post-Fordist Cape Town
(2006) Smith, Emma; Crankshaw, Owen;
Word processed copy. Includes bibliographical references.
Open Access
Righting The Wrongs Of The Past: Corridors Of Freedom As A Pathway To Inclusive Development
(2019) Masingi, Carol; Crankshaw, Owen
South African cities are still largely unequal where the urban poor’s right to the city is not adequately addressed. As a result of the legacy of apartheid and the various housing policies that have been adopted to address housing segregation, Johannesburg remains spatially fragmented with the urban poor remaining isolated in the periphery of the city far from places of employment and opportunity. With the decentralization and deindustrialization of employment, commuting for the urban poor has become more time consuming and costly with an average monthly commute costing R1 500.00. The City of Johannesburg has committed to tackling these structural and spatial inequalities that exist in Johannesburg through its flagship programme called Corridors of Freedom. Corridors of Freedom aims to transform the spatial inequalities in Johannesburg through the creation of geographies of inclusion using transit oriented development (TOD). This is through investing in public transport with the development of the Rea Vaya Bus Rapid Transit System (BRT) and inclusionary housing as the backbone to eradicate spatial. Corridors of Freedom aims to address housing segregation through the extension of the Rea Vaya BRT system in peripheral townships and through inclusionary housing provision to promote inclusive development in Johannesburg. This study will evaluate whether Corridors of Freedom and its associated developments have the potential to improve the lives of potential beneficiaries of two townships, Kagiso in the West Rand and Soweto. The study seeks to understand how the presence of the Rea Vaya BRT system can assist the urban poor’s access to the city and places of employment and opportunity. A comparison is made between Soweto residents who directly benefit from using the Rea Vaya buses and the Kagiso residents who do not have access to the Rea Vaya buses. Several stakeholders were interviewed including both the residents of Kagiso and Soweto. It was concluded that the Rea Vaya BRT system is a poverty-reduction strategy for the urban poor and an attempt from the City of Johannesburg to correct the existing spatial inequalities.The Rea Vaya Bus Rapid Transit system along with well-located social housing is an important step towards addressing inclusivity and bringing people close to places of employment and opportunity.
Open Access
Social polarisation or professionalisation? Another look at theory and evidence
(2007) Borel-Saladin, Jacqueline; Crankshaw, Owen
The debate over whether or not the de-industrialisation of cities is accompanied by the occupational and income polarisation of their working populations has been characterised by some confusion over the relationship between incomes and occupations in the service sector. Specifically, many scholars have misunderstood the significance of middle-income service sector occupations for their interpretations of the post-industrial class structure of cities. Through a comparative study of de-industrialisation in Cape Town, we present evidence to show that the growth of service sector employment can, under specific conditions, produce a large middle-income occupational class of clerks, sales and personal services workers. The growth of this class can offset the decline of middle-income jobs caused by the loss of artisans, operatives and drivers in the declining manufacturing sector.