Browsing by Author "van der Westhuizen, Nicola"
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- ItemContestations over urban space: exploring the discourse and dynamics between residents in Hermanus, Zwelihle and Dubai in a post-protest environment(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2021-12) van der Westhuizen, Nicola; Tayob, Shaheed; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Sociology and Social Anthropology. Dept. of Sociology and Social Anthropology.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis analyses the question of what the discourse and dynamics between the residents of Hermanus, and those from Zwelihle and Dubai, reveal about contestations over urban space in a post-protest environment. In 2018 residents of Zwelihle, a semiinformal settlement outside of Hermanus, took part in protests over a piece of land (Schulphoek) in Hermanus originally earmarked for the development of low-cost housing, however after the municipality sold the land in 2010 to private property developers, no housing came to fruition. The protests ended in the occupation of Schulphoek and thus the creation of the informal settlement ‘Dubai’. Thus, the expansion of informal settlements has led the residents of Hermanus to continuously partake in exclusionary discourse regarding the informal settlers in which the tensions between the middle- and upper-class residents and the urban poor are situated. The research for this thesis was concerned with online interviews and critical discourse analysis. Here, the discourse analysis reveals how the politics of property and acts of rebellion frame the way residents relate to space, and when considering issues regarding development there is a clear distinction between development focused on ‘aesthetics’ versus ‘necessity’. Moreover, the protests and land occupation provide an insight into how the urban poor lay a claim to the state and municipality through relations of ‘obligation’, in that the municipality and state are still indebted to the urban poor. Thus, this thesis argues that critical discourse analysis is crucial to understanding contestations over urban space, and that underlying all of this is contesting fears and aspirations motivated by poor municipal governance and lack of urban planning.