A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Arts
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg,
for the degree of Master of Arts / A neglected focus in South African urban geographical studies over
the last two decades has been the changes taking place in the inner
city. The objective in this study is to examine residential change
in one inner city suburb of Cape Town, namely Woodstock. The time
period for this investigation is the era of late apartheid prior to
the repeal of the Group Areas Act. The theoretical framework for
this dissertation is provided by international Iiterature on ethnic
segregation and the gentrification issue'. The majority of
research undertaken on gentrification has concerned the cities of
North America. Western Europe or Australia. With few exceptions,
gentrification has been little researched outside of the devaloped
world. The South African context therefore provides a developing
world setting for research on gentrification.
It is argued that between 1900 and 1980 the case study area of
Woodstock experienced considerable change in its residential
complexion. In particuIar, the ethnic composition of the suburb
shifted throughout the twentieth century with waves of new
immigrants to the suburb, including Jews from Eastern Europe and
the settIement of a Portuguese community from Madeira. These shifts
in the ethnic make-up of Woodstock reinforced the 'respectable',
working class character of this mixed race, inner city zone of Cape
Town. During the 1980s, however, a change in the class composition
of the area was triggered by the onset of processes of
gentrification. The advance of gentrification was taking place at
the same time as apartheid legislation, in the form of the Group
Areas Act, was posing a threat to the multi-racial character of the
suburb. The research documents the relationship between
gentrification and the community struggle mounted to retain the
multi-racial status of this inner city Area. It is shown from this
South African study that the 'gentrification issue' is of relevance
to research on developing world cities. / Andrew Chakane 2018
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/25146 |
| Date | January 1994 |
| Creators | Garside, Jayne Margaret |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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