The development and expansion of urban theory has drawn upon the experiences of a handful of global or world cities in the developed north. Conversely, cities of the south have been interpreted and theorised through the lens of development theory. Seldom, if ever, are these two different conceptual realms seen as mutually constituted theorised within the same discursive realm, aiding a more complete understanding of how cities function and change. A similar observation can be made about how our understanding of cities in the developing south have evolved. Large cities in more influential developing countries are nearly always the empirical base from which our understanding of cities in the south takes place. The collection of essays in this book is set against the backdrop of calls for a more inclusive theorisation and understanding of cities, that transcend the dichotomous urban narrative which characterises current academic and policy engagements with cities. Drawing on the experiences of a secondary city in South Africa - Bloemfontein - this collection of essays argues that the realities of un-remarked upon, ordinary cities both challenge and reinforce a number of debates in urban theory and development theory. Spatialities of urban change Selected themes from Bloemfontein at the beginning of the 21st century Lochner Marais & Gustav Visser (eds) Spatialities of urban change: Selected themes from Bloemfontein at the beginning of the 21st century Published by AFRICAN SUN MeDIA, Stellenbosch 7600 www.africansunmedia.co.za www.sun-e-shop.co.za All rights reserved. Copyright © 2008 Lochner Marais & Gustav Visser (eds) No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic, photographic or mechanical means, including photocopying and recording on record, tape or laser disk, on microfilm, via the Internet, by e-mail, or by any other information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission by the publisher. First edition 2008 ISBN 978-1-920109-45-5 Cover design by Alex Gordon, Xposure, Bloemfontein Typesetting by AFRICAN SUN MeDIA Pty. (Ltd.) Set in 11/13 Zurich SUN PReSS is an imprint of AFRICAN SUN MeDIA Pty (Ltd). Academic, professional and reference works are published under this imprint in print and electronic format. This publication may be ordered directly from www.sun-e-shop.co.za. Content List of contributors ........................................................................................................... i Preface ............................................................................................................................. iii CHAPTER 1: The spatial development of Bloemfontein: past and future conflicts ........................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 2: Changing inequality in post-apartheid Bloemfontein: urban management achievements and challenges ................................... 15 CHAPTER 3: Revitalising the Bloemfontein CBD: prospects, obstacles and lost opportunities ............................................. 35 CHAPTER 4: Inner-city residential change in Bloemfontein after apartheid: a perspective on those who did not flee desegregation ........................... 53 CHAPTER 5: The evolution of Bloemfontein’s Westdene: the changing anatomy of a neighbourhood ............................................... 75 CHAPTER 6: An evaluation of post-apartheid housing delivery in Mangaung: a view from local government .................................................................. 97 CHAPTER 7: Urban tourism in Bloemfontein: current dynamics, immediate challenges and future prospects ................ 115 CHAPTER 8: Volksblad Arts Festival: reflections on the product, people and impacts ........................................ 135 CHAPTER 9: Transforming Christian churches into community-based resource centres, with reference to Bloemfontein .................................... 155 CHAPTER 10: Bloemfontein and its future development: towards a research agenda ...................................................................... 183 List of Contributors Gijsbert Hoogendoorn is Junior Lecturer in the Department of Geography, University of the Free State Mark Ingle is a research associate at the Centre for Development Support, University of the Free State Skip Krige is a research associate at the Centre for Development Support, University of the Free State Molefi Lenka is a researcher at the Centre for Development Support, University of the Free State Lochner Marais is Professor at the Centre for Development Support, University of the Free State Malefetsane Mokoena is a postgraduate student at the Centre for Development Support, University of the Free State Deidre Van Rooyen is a researcher at the Centre for Development Support, University of the Free State Anita Venter is a researcher at the Centre for Development Support, University of the Free State Gustav Visser is Associate Professor in the Department of Geography, University of the Free State i PREFACE In her seminal text, Ordinary Cities, Jennifer Robinson (2006) argues that with the urbanisation of the world’s population proceeding apace and the equally rapid urbanisation of poverty, urban theory has an urgent challenge to meet if it is to remain relevant to the majority of cities and their populations, most of which are outside the West. She proposes a different way of looking at cities, the key contention being that cities are best understood as ordinary. The argument is that the categorisation and labelling of cities as Western, Third World, developed, developing, world or global should be re-imagined and theorised as a world of ordinary cities, which are all dynamic and diverse, if conflicted, arenas of social and economic life. Those interested in cities will be well aware that this categorisation leads to researchers ascribing prominence to very specific cities and to certain features of cities. The complexities of those cities prominent in global capital accumulation and control, for example, reign supreme and they are the subject of the case studies from which urban theory is extrapolated. The vast majority of cities, which Robinson (2002) elsewhere describes as “cities off the map”, are seldom included in that particular realm of understanding cities. Those “other cities” are viewed through the lens of development theory and they might only one day – once they have developed – be drawn upon as potentially enriching “urban theory”. Urban theorists have over time divided cities into two broad categories: those that are modern and thus the focus of contemporary urban theory; and those that are developing and consequently theorised within development studies. To be fair, the evolving spatialities of some developing world cities, such as Cairo, Johannesburg or Mexico City might at times be deployed in urban theory, but then nearly always as indicative of processes generated and unleashed by the “important” global urban leaders such as London or New York. However, urban theory is seldom generated by the changing fortunes of those cities. Notwithstanding, and albeit within the realm of developmental theory, some of the hierarchal features of these theoretical engagements with the city are equally present within urban scholars’ approach to understanding cities in the amorphous theoretical terrain of urbanism in “the global South”. These cities mostly assume a similarly hegemonic role, but then within the realm of thinking about cities in the South. The changing spatialities of Bangkok, Jakarta, Saõ Paulo or Johannesburg are treated, from that theoretical vantage point, as vastly more significant to understanding cities in the South. The realities of what urban means in thousands of other cities are simply ignored. As London, Los Angeles and New York are central to urban theory, and Johannesburg or Buenos Aires not, the very same changing realities of Johannesburg and Gustav Visser & Lochner Marais Buenos Aires within developmentalist understandings of the city are of key importance, whilst the realities of Mombassa and Nairobi, for example, are not. The contours of these debates hold direct relevance to the way we have come to understand South African cities. Indeed, much of our understanding of “the city” is either (or in combination) overshadowed by the realities of a range of “global cities”, or alternatively, our comprehension of South African urban areas is framed by the realities of its three main metropolitan areas – Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg. These cities have been the primary investigatory sites of a very significant body of research, with all iii SPATIALITIES OF URBAN CHANGE manner of urban phenomena ably relayed through their rapidly changing spatialities. As has been argued elsewhere (Visser, 2003), this is not altogether surprising. Being the key metropolitan regions of southern Africa, and indeed the African continent, and in view of the ease with which discussion of them interlinks with perennial developmentalist debates concerning the uneven distribution of natural and human resources, this is both predictable and necessary. However, as our understanding of “the urban” from a theoretical perspective has been reduced to the realities of only a handful of cities in the “developed world”, a similar claim might be made in the context of South Africa. A consequence of this dominance has been that our understanding of South Africa’s urban realities has become skewed towards the realities of very particular metropolitan regions,