i Reclaiming the Spatial Imaginary: A Photovoice Study of Resistance to Displacement in Woodstock, Cape Town Ruth Urson URSRUT001 A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Master of Arts (MA) in Psychological Research Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town February 2019 Compulsory Declaration This work has notUniversity been previously submitted of in whole, Cape or in part, forTown the award of any other degree. It is my own work. Each significant contribution to, and quotation in, this dissertation from the work, or works, of other people has been attributed, and has been cited and referenced. Signature: Date: 5 February 2019 The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No quotation from it or information derived from it is to be published without full acknowledgementTown of the source. The thesis is to be used for private study or non- commercial research purposes only. Cape Published by the University ofof Cape Town (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author. University ii Acknowledgements I would like to extend my sincere thanks to my supervisors, Associate Professor Shose Kessi and Dr Shari Daya, for their supervision, assistance, and guidance in conducting this study and writing this dissertation. To Zach, Jared, Nkosikhona, Maxine, Ntombi, and the rest of the team at Ndifuna Ukwazi, thank you for supporting this project and assisting in planning and putting together the exhibitions. To my partner, my family, and my friends, thank you for bearing with me and being constant sources of support and encouragement throughout this challenging project. A special thanks to members of the UCT Hub for Decolonial Feminist Psychologies in Africa, for opening spaces for discussions that contributed to the development of this dissertation. Importantly, thank you to the participants in this project for your courage and enthusiasm in sharing your stories and photographs, and for undertaking the large time commitment this required. Thank you also to Reclaim the City for allowing me to join and participate in the movement’s activities. iii Abstract Present-day South Africa is still characterised by colonial- and apartheid-era patterns of urban displacement that are exacerbated by gentrification. Low-income tenants’ and evictees’ experiences of displacement and its resistance have social, spatial, psychological, and political components. Examining these components can contribute to understanding the processes and impacts of gentrification. Reclaim the City (RTC) is a young grassroots campaign that resists evictions and demands well-located affordable housing in Cape Town through protest, education, and occupation. This study investigated how RTC activists experience and resist their displacement from the gentrifying suburb of Woodstock in Cape Town. Using a critical psychological framework, data from photovoice, participant observation, and key informant interviews were collected in 2018, triangulated, and analysed using thematic analysis. This study found that participants’ experiences of displacement were characterised by being “thingified” as black low-income tenants through mistreatment by landlords, displacement from centres to peripheries, becoming invisible residents, and internalisation. This was compounded for those with intersectional vulnerabilities, such as women and African migrants. Such experiences uphold rather than contradict an apartheid spatial imaginary, encompassing the continuation of apartheid-era norms relating to psychological, spatial, and social elements of displacement into the present. While sometimes delegitimised for their illegal activities, this study illustrates how RTC activists combined strategies of building new identities, organising legal and illegal resistance to displacement, and making meaning of their occupation of a vacant building in Woodstock, to pave the way for new spatial imaginaries. Implications of these findings are discussed. vi Table of Contents Compulsory Declaration .......................................................................................................... i Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. ii Abstract ................................................................................................................................... iii Chapter One: Introduction ..................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Representation and Power in the Colonial Era ........................................................ 1 1.2 Spatial Apartheid ..................................................................................................... 2 1.3 “Forced Removals” in the New South Africa .......................................................... 3 1.3.1 Neoliberal urban renewal and privatisation. ................................................. 4 1.3.2 Gentrification. ............................................................................................... 5 1.4 The Case of Woodstock ........................................................................................... 5 1.5 Reclaim the City ...................................................................................................... 7 1.6 Outline of Thesis ...................................................................................................... 9 Chapter Two: Literature Review ......................................................................................... 10 2.1 Place and Displacement ......................................................................................... 10 2.2 Place Identity, Representation, and Belonging ...................................................... 11 2.3 Qualitative Experiences of Displacement .............................................................. 13 2.4 Resistance to Displacement ................................................................................... 15 2.5 Rationale for Study ................................................................................................ 20 2.6 Aims and Research Questions ............................................................................... 21 2.6.1 Research questions. ..................................................................................... 21 Chapter Three: Research Design and Methodology .......................................................... 23 3.1 Reclaim the City’s Structure .................................................................................. 23 3.2 Theoretical Framework: Critical Psychology ........................................................ 24 3.2.1 Power and subjectivity. ............................................................................... 25 3.2.2 Place and identity. ....................................................................................... 25 vi 3.2.3 Liberation psychology and critical consciousness. ..................................... 26 3.3 Research Design..................................................................................................... 27 3.3.1 Photovoice................................................................................................... 28 3.3.2 Participant observation................................................................................ 30 3.3.3 Key informant interviews. .......................................................................... 31 3.4 Participants ............................................................................................................. 32 3.4.1 Photovoice................................................................................................... 32 3.4.2 Key informant interviews. .......................................................................... 33 3.5 Data Collection Procedure ..................................................................................... 34 3.5.1 Participant observation................................................................................ 34 3.5.2 Photovoice................................................................................................... 35 3.5.3 Key informant interviews. .......................................................................... 40 3.6 Thematic Analysis ................................................................................................. 40 3.7 Ethical Considerations ........................................................................................... 41 3.7.1 Informed consent. ....................................................................................... 41 3.7.2 Privacy and confidentiality. ........................................................................ 41 3.7.3 Ethical issues related to secondary participants. ......................................... 42 3.7.4 Risks and benefits. ...................................................................................... 42 3.7.5 Expanding notions of ethics. ....................................................................... 42 3.8 Reflexivity.............................................................................................................. 43 Chapter Four: Experiences of Displacement in Woodstock .............................................. 46 4.1 The “Thingification” of People .............................................................................. 47 4.1.1 Mistreatment by landlords.