ABSTRACT
As we have learned from the readings in Part Four, the interplay between gender and sexual identities and urban space is multifaceted. Expressions of identity – be they performative, political, cultural, or some combination of the three – structure the use of urban space, its representation and direction of change. Likewise, urban space – its location, built environment, zoning, and other legal statutes – influence the formation and expressions of social identity. This latter point is made clear in the following selection, in which anthropologist Donald Donham examines how apartheid-era segregation of settlement space in South Africa shaped both collective and individual understandings of homosexuality and what effect apartheid’s demise had on such understandings.
