ABSTRACT

Chapter 3 further takes up the final point of the preceding chapter, namely that everyday practices of decentralisation, as well as urban development processes have enabled urban actors to politicise belonging in relation to their place of living. Situating political and academic debates within the categories of race and culture in South Africa, this chapter prises out some of the dynamics and convolutions of racism that exist within the urban governance system. The main argument here is that urban politics are constituted predominantly by two opposing tendencies; namely, that local government politics reinforces racialised divides, which are based on places of living and underpinned by identity politics, while activism attempts to blur such divisions.