ABSTRACT
Johannesburg … is roughly divided into the northern neighborhoods, which are mostly White and middle-class, and the southern neighborhoods, which are mostly Black and working-class. The middle-class northern neighborhoods … have all the characteristics of an ‘edge city’ and the Black southern neighborhoods … are typical ‘excluded ghettos’. In the 1970s, the northern neighborhoods could accurately have been described as suburbs, since they served an almost purely residential function. Today, however, they comprise large clusters of offices, shopping malls, manufacturing parks and recreation facilities in the form of cinemas, restaurants and sports centers. These areas have become ‘totalized suburbs’ in the sense that they now function independently of the central business district of the central city.
