An Examination of Waste Picking in Tshwane
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UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE LOGICS USED TO JUSTIFY URBAN APPROPRIATIONS: AN EXAMINATION OF WASTE PICKING IN TSHWANE A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY By Anesu Patience Makina Norman, Oklahoma 2020 LOGICS USED TO JUSTIFY URBAN APPROPRIATIONS: AN EXAMINATION OF WASTE PICKING IN TSHWANE A DISSERTATION APPROVED FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY BY THE COMMITTEE CONSISTING OF Dr. Mary Lawhon Dr. John Harris Dr. Joseph Pierce Dr. Darren Purcell Dr. Laurel Smith © Copyright by Anesu Patience Makina 2020 All Rights Reserved ACKNOWLEDGMENTS To my mother Professor gogo Blandina Makina and my sisters Rumbidzai and Tsitsi for your support throughout this process; rooting for me, providing encouragement and helping me to keep the course despite all the challenges. I am truly thankful and extremely grateful to share the end of this journey with you. To Milani and Tana thinking of you always makes me smile. I also acknowledge Nyasha. To my committee chair Dr. Mary Lawhon for your patience, advice, guidance, dedication and support. I am very grateful and truly indebted. We made it! To my committee Dr. Joseph Pierce, Dr. Darren Purcell and Dr. John Harris thank you for everything, the support, guidance, and willingness to walk this journey with me. I am also grateful to Dr. Tisha Holmes and Dr. Tyler McCreary who worked with me at FSU. To graduate school colleagues: Douglas Allen, Rachael, Mark, Filiberto, Lene, thank you. To the waste pickers who shared their experiences with me, thank you. I could not have done this project without you- this project is about you. To the Turning Livelihoods to Rubbish (TLR) project team and the funders, the ESRC-DFID, thank you. Without the support provided, this project would not have materialized. To friends, family across the globe and the different whatsapp groups- thank you for the encouragement and laughs throughout the process. I appreciate you all so much. Above all, I thank God for the strength to have completed this project. You made all things work together for my good. To Chaipachinyi John: this is the hardest one. You did not live to hear of the end of this project, let alone see the completion. Thinking about it makes me sad. So very sad. Thank you for walking with me as far as you could, for as long as you could. Zororai murugare saMakina. Samanyanga. Nzou. iv DEDICATION To those who were there for me during moments of deep despair. When you cry, may God see you and dry your tears. May you receive consolation and recompense. v TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF FIGURES .................................................................................................................. x ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................. xi ABBREVIATIONS .................................................................................................................... xiii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Informality ............................................................................................................................. 2 1.2 Waste pickers ........................................................................................................................ 3 1.2.1 Why waste pickers? ........................................................................................................ 4 1.2.2. Waste pickers and waste politics ................................................................................... 5 1.3 Contribution to knowledge .................................................................................................... 6 1.4. Research Questions .............................................................................................................. 7 1.5 Structure of Dissertation........................................................................................................ 8 CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ................................................................... 11 2.1 What is southern theory? And why southern urban theory? ............................................... 12 2.1.1 Different types of southern theory ................................................................................ 13 2.1.2 Opposition to southern theory ...................................................................................... 15 2.2 Introducing the Conceptual Framework .............................................................................. 16 2.2.1 The Right to the City ........................................................................................................ 16 2.2.1.1 What rights? Rights for whom? ................................................................................. 17 2.2.1.2 Application of the Right to the City ........................................................................... 19 2.2.2 Quiet Encroachment ......................................................................................................... 20 2.2.3 Agonistically Transgressive Appropriation as a Distinctive Spatial Practice .................. 22 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 24 CHAPTER 3: INFORMALITY AND WASTE ....................................................................... 25 3.1 Approaches to the Informal Economy ................................................................................ 25 3.1.1 Specifics on Informality in South Africa ....................................................................... 28 3.2 Waste Politics ...................................................................................................................... 29 3.2.1 Waste Pickers ............................................................................................................... 30 3.2.2 Waste Pickers in South Africa ...................................................................................... 31 vi Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 32 CHAPTER 4: METHODOLOGY AND METHODS ............................................................. 34 4.1 Positionality ......................................................................................................................... 35 4.2 The Research Area & Associated Complications ............................................................... 39 4.3 Methodology ....................................................................................................................... 41 4.3.1 In- depth, Semi-Structured Interviews .......................................................................... 43 4.3.2. Participant Observation .............................................................................................. 44 4.3.3 Walking as Method ....................................................................................................... 44 4.4 Ethics ................................................................................................................................... 45 4.4.1 Consent ......................................................................................................................... 45 4.4.2 Confidentiality .............................................................................................................. 46 4.4.3 Photographs.................................................................................................................. 47 4.4.4 Compensation and Incentives ....................................................................................... 47 4.5 Reflexive, Iterative Processes ............................................................................................. 48 4.6 The Respondents ................................................................................................................. 50 4.6.1 Gender .......................................................................................................................... 51 4.6.3 How I met the Waste Pickers ........................................................................................ 51 4.7 Data Collection .................................................................................................................... 52 4.7.1 Phases of Data Collection ............................................................................................ 54 4.7.2 Language ...................................................................................................................... 55 4.7.3 Requesting Phone Numbers .......................................................................................... 57 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 57 CHAPTER 5: SETTING THE STAGE .................................................................................... 59 5.1 Understanding Waste Picking ............................................................................................. 60 5.2 Meet the Participants Again ................................................................................................ 62 5.2.1 In Search of Female Trolley Pushers ..........................................................................