Reclaiming the spatial imaginary: a photovoice study of resistance to displacement in Woodstock, Cape Town
| dc.contributor.advisor | Kessi, Shose | |
| dc.contributor.advisor | Daya, Shari | |
| dc.contributor.author | Urson, Ruth | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2020-01-29T14:35:28Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2020-01-29T14:35:28Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2019 | |
| dc.date.updated | 2020-01-29T08:27:46Z | |
| dc.description.abstract | Present-day South Africa is still characterised by colonial- and apartheid-era patterns of urban displacement that are exacerbated by gentrification. Low-income tenants’ and evictees’ experiences of displacement and its resistance have social, spatial, psychological, and political components. Examining these components can contribute to understanding the processes and impacts of gentrification. Reclaim the City (RTC) is a young grassroots campaign that resists evictions and demands well-located affordable housing in Cape Town through protest, education, and occupation. This study investigated how RTC activists experience and resist their displacement from the gentrifying suburb of Woodstock in Cape Town. Using a critical psychological framework, data from photovoice, participant observation, and key informant interviews were collected in 2018, triangulated, and analysed using thematic analysis. This study found that participants’ experiences of displacement were characterised by being “thingified” as black low-income tenants through mistreatment by landlords, displacement from centres to peripheries, becoming invisible residents, and internalisation. This was compounded for those with intersectional vulnerabilities, such as women and African migrants. Such experiences uphold rather than contradict an apartheid spatial imaginary, encompassing the continuation of apartheid-era norms relating to psychological, spatial, and social elements of displacement into the present. While sometimes delegitimised for their illegal activities, this study illustrates how RTC activists combined strategies of building new identities, organising legal and illegal resistance to displacement, and making meaning of their occupation of a vacant building in Woodstock, to pave the way for new spatial imaginaries. Implications of these findings are discussed. | |
| dc.identifier.apacitation | Urson, R. (2019). <i>Reclaiming the spatial imaginary: a photovoice study of resistance to displacement in Woodstock, Cape Town</i>. (). ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of Psychology. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/30836 | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.chicagocitation | Urson, Ruth. <i>"Reclaiming the spatial imaginary: a photovoice study of resistance to displacement in Woodstock, Cape Town."</i> ., ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of Psychology, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/30836 | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.citation | Urson, R. 2019. Reclaiming the spatial imaginary: a photovoice study of resistance to displacement in Woodstock, Cape Town. | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.ris | TY - Thesis / Dissertation AU - Urson, Ruth AB - Present-day South Africa is still characterised by colonial- and apartheid-era patterns of urban displacement that are exacerbated by gentrification. Low-income tenants’ and evictees’ experiences of displacement and its resistance have social, spatial, psychological, and political components. Examining these components can contribute to understanding the processes and impacts of gentrification. Reclaim the City (RTC) is a young grassroots campaign that resists evictions and demands well-located affordable housing in Cape Town through protest, education, and occupation. This study investigated how RTC activists experience and resist their displacement from the gentrifying suburb of Woodstock in Cape Town. Using a critical psychological framework, data from photovoice, participant observation, and key informant interviews were collected in 2018, triangulated, and analysed using thematic analysis. This study found that participants’ experiences of displacement were characterised by being “thingified” as black low-income tenants through mistreatment by landlords, displacement from centres to peripheries, becoming invisible residents, and internalisation. This was compounded for those with intersectional vulnerabilities, such as women and African migrants. Such experiences uphold rather than contradict an apartheid spatial imaginary, encompassing the continuation of apartheid-era norms relating to psychological, spatial, and social elements of displacement into the present. While sometimes delegitimised for their illegal activities, this study illustrates how RTC activists combined strategies of building new identities, organising legal and illegal resistance to displacement, and making meaning of their occupation of a vacant building in Woodstock, to pave the way for new spatial imaginaries. Implications of these findings are discussed. DA - 2019 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town KW - Psychological Research LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PY - 2019 T1 - Reclaiming the spatial imaginary: a photovoice study of resistance to displacement in Woodstock, Cape Town TI - Reclaiming the spatial imaginary: a photovoice study of resistance to displacement in Woodstock, Cape Town UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/30836 ER - | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/30836 | |
| dc.identifier.vancouvercitation | Urson R. Reclaiming the spatial imaginary: a photovoice study of resistance to displacement in Woodstock, Cape Town. []. ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of Psychology, 2019 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/30836 | en_ZA |
| dc.language.rfc3066 | eng | |
| dc.publisher.department | Department of Psychology | |
| dc.publisher.faculty | Faculty of Humanities | |
| dc.subject | Psychological Research | |
| dc.title | Reclaiming the spatial imaginary: a photovoice study of resistance to displacement in Woodstock, Cape Town | |
| dc.type | Master Thesis | |
| dc.type.qualificationlevel | Masters | |
| dc.type.qualificationname | MA |