This thesis interrogates the dynamics of urbanisation, gender and migration in
contemporary Johannesburg through the voices and images of migrant women
from the rest of the African continent, now living in Johannesburg. By revealing
the lives of a population group that is often hidden from view, it provides details
of women’s migration to Johannesburg, and their everyday encounters in the
host city. Using these experiences, it sheds light on contemporary migration and
urbanisation processes on the continent, expanding our knowledge of the contours
of power that shape urban life in Johannesburg and elsewhere.
Using the metaphor of the “border” or “borderlands” this thesis explores
how women negotiate, cross and remain “in between” the multiple physical,
social and imagined borders they encounter in the city. It finds that analyses that
read the city through class relationships and capital accumulation do not give
adequate weight to the multiple identities and forms of solidarity that exist in
cities. Women’s narratives reveal that while their class is an important identity,
other identities such as ethnicity, nationality and gender also powerfully shape
solidarity and modes of belonging in the city. Moreover, state-centric governance
frameworks that have dominated urban policy and scholarly work on the
continent are often blinded to the ways in which urban dweller’s actions shift our
understanding of the nature and character of state power. Women’s encounters
with the state reveal the multiple regimes of power that constitute the city, and the
ways in which these subvert, fragment, and yet at times reinforce state power in
unpredictable ways.
The epistemological approach and findings of this research bring to the
fore broader questions around the paradigmatic lenses used to read, interpret and
understand African cities. Dominant paradigms tend to draw on western models
of cities in ways that undermine African cities’ empirical realities and theoretical
potential. For as long as scholars and policy makers fail to see African urbanity in
its own terms rather than in relation to how cities elsewhere have evolved, we will
continue to miss critical socio-political and economic dynamics that are shaping
urbanisation in the twenty first century. / Sociology / D. Phil. (Sociology))
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:uir.unisa.ac.za:10500/2693 |
| Date | 08 1900 |
| Creators | Kihato, Caroline Wanjiku |
| Contributors | Zegeye, Abebe |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (232 leaves), ill., maps, photos (col.) |
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