The social consequences of establishing 'mixed' neighbourhoods
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2010
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University of Cape Town
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Abstract
The post-apartheid state has, through the provision of subsidies, fuelled a massive expansion of formal, low-income housing in South African towns and cities. The new public housing neighbourhoods are, however, as segregated racially as their apartheid-era predecessors. Whilst the relative importance of different reasons for the reproduction of racial segregation might be unclear, it is clear that the adoption of different procedures for allocating new housing would result in neighbourhoods that are more diverse or mixed in terms of race and other characteristics. Adopting new procedures and creating more mixed neighbourhoods might have undesirable social, economic and political consequences. Mixed neighbourhoods might be characterized by social tensions and conflict, weak social capital, and hence economic disadvantage and political problems. The Department of Housing and Local Government in the provincial government of the Western Cape commissioned research into the social consequences of establishing more mixed neighbourhoods. ‘Mixed’ was understood as including both racial mixing, and mixing in terms of ‘community of origin’, i.e. of the neighbourhood from which beneficiaries had come.
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Seekings, J., Jooste, T., Muyeba, S., Coqui, M., & Russell, M. (2010). The social consequences of establishing mixed neighbourhoods.