Overview

Community meetings seldom lead to significant change in urban policies, and have been accused of being sterile, sedative, or manipulative. This book starts from a simple question: why do people then continue to participate in these meetings, sometimes massively, and on a regular basis? Authors from a variety of disciplines explore the multiple roles of these ‘invited’ spaces of participation. From consolidation of individual social status and networks, to the construction and framing of the local ‘community’, the display of political or group loyalties and maintenance of clientelist exchange, access to information, rumors or gossip but also forms of education on who and what is the state, invited spaces of participation are also, crucially, places of emergence of collective awareness, through shared expressions of frustration, that can lead to political mobilisation and other, less institutionalised forms of participation. This book, unpacking community politics and rethinking the complex articulations between ‘‘invited’ and invented’ spaces of participation, is of relevance for international and national audiences interested in urban governance and local democracy.

Full Product Details

Author:   Claire Benit-Gbaffou
Publisher:   HSRC Press
Imprint:   HSRC Press
Dimensions:   Width: 16.80cm , Height: 1.80cm , Length: 24.00cm
Weight:   0.454kg
ISBN:  

9780796924643

ISBN 10:   0796924643
Pages:   304
Publication Date:   09 December 2015
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Figures and tables; Introduction: Politicising and politicking community participation in urban governance - Claire Benit-Gbaffou; Politicising spaces of participation; From party-state to party-society in South Africa: SANCO and the informal politics of community representation in Imizamo Yethu, Cape Town - Laurence Piper; Against ourselves - local activists and the management of contradictory political loyalties: The case of Phiri, Johannesburg - Boitumelo Matlala and Claire Benit-Gbaffou; Social movements, mobilisation and political parties: A case study of the Landless people's movement, South Africa - Luke Sinwell; Ritualistic spaces? Re-examining invited spaces of participation - Obvious Katsaura; Constructing communities in public meetings: Local leaders and the management of xenophobic discourses in Yeoville - Claire Benit-Gbaffou and Eulenda Mkwanazi; Beyond invented/invited spaces of participation; Uncooperative masses as a problem for substantive and participatory theories of democracy: The cases of 'people's power' (1984-6) and the 'xenophobia' (2008) in South Africa - Daryl Glaser; Participation, neoliberal control and the voice of street traders in Cape Town: A foucauldian perspective on 'invited spaces' - Marianne Morange; Meetings in Vosloorus (Ekurhuleni): Democratic public spaces or spaces for grievances? - Philippe Gervais-Lambony; 'Bringing government closer to the people'? The daily experience of subcouncils in Cape Town - Chloe Buire; Contesting the participatory sphere: Encountering the state in Johannesburg and Cape Town - Alex Wafer and Sophie Oldfield; Beyond invented and invited spaces of participation: The Phiri and Olivia road court cases and their outcome - Laila Smith and Margot Rubin; Postscript viewing South Africa's urban governance from an 'Indian' perspective - Glyn Williams; Contributors; Index.

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Author Information

Professor Claire Bénit-Gbaffou is interested in urban politics and governance. A former director of CUBES (2010-2012), she has been directing Yeoville Studio (2010-2012), a community-oriented research initiative spearheaded by the Wits School of Architecture and Planning in partnership with Yeoville community organizations. She is convening a multidisciplinary Masters degree in urban studies/ urban politics (Master of Urban studies).

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