Abstract:
How to reinvent Johannesburg, a metropolis whose geography of
inequality has remained stubbornly entrenched since the end of
apartheid? By launching the ‘Corridors of Freedom’ (CoF) initiative in
2013, the municipal government decided to take bold and deliberate
steps towards conceiving and promoting a more inclusive and peoplecentred
city. The goal was to disrupt the prevailing spatial and social
pattern by connecting different parts of the city via a large public
transit network and altering these same areas through increased levels
of (affordable) accommodation, density, and mixed-use development.
Cutting across the existing urban fabric and affecting a significant
number of distinct neighbourhoods, both in terms of socio-economic
and racial characteristics, this ambitious project, unsurprisingly,
triggered a wide spectrum of reactions. To successfully embed this
initiative required securing support (or countering opposition) from both the majority poor and black electorate demanding accessible
housing and jobs, and the highly mobilised middle-class groups on
whom the City authorities were financially dependent. Taking the
CoF public participation process as analytical entry point, we reflect
on the diverse power relations of ‘building consensus’ across highly
divided neighbourhoods and populations to take forward this largescale
urban transformation. While there was widespread agreement on
the broad vision outlining the need for transformation, interpretations
of the ‘good’ or ‘desired’ city, views on priorities to be considered,
and acceptance of required adjustments, varied greatly. Through this
case, the paper offers insights into the uneven landscape of politics
associated with large-scale urban developments which stretch across
highly differentiated urban areas. We note the initial scope for building
shared visions and a ‘consensual arena’ between state and society
across such diversity, but as the project unfolded the varied challenges
of implementation at scale saw a diversity of forms of power relations
shaping the dynamic processes of urban development along the
multifaceted landscape of the Corridors. Initially, a powerful vision,
innovative technologies of planning and fast paced consultation sought
to corral actors into a tight delivery schedule driven by electoral
cycles. But over time actors engaged in persuasion, contestation and
collaboration, as well as moments of violence and heated disruption
as the development process unfolded. Drawing theoretical insights
from the geographies of power and learning from analyses of the
close entwining of state-citizen relations in South African urban
politics, the paper suggests that in assessing the politics of largescale
developments, an agile analytical lens is needed to reflect on the
diversity of power relations associated with governance and decisionmaking,
as well as engagements and contestations, in the light of
shifting political terrains, and diverse urban environments.
