Abstract
Much of the current planning discourse has come to reject master planned ‘new cities’ as both unrealistic and undesirable. However, with growing urbanisation challenges in the Global South, master planned cities, suburbs and communities have come back on the agenda driven by both public and private interests. This paper explores the WesCape Development (WD), a proposed satellite suburb to be located north-west of Cape Town, South Africa. Situating the WD in a longer lineage of utopian and new city planning approaches, I argue that the proposal is deeply flawed. Rather than being the solution to the urban ills facing Cape Town, it is an ‘anti-urban’ strategy which supports suburbanisation and assumes a particular and problematic urban growth scenario. It relies on ‘environmentally deterministic’ assumptions and depoliticised and deinstitutionalised designs. Ultimately, it tries to escape, rather than confront, the operational, political and social challenges of the city leading to the devaluation of planning instruments and citizenship engagement. The WD highlights the importance and power of radical and utopian thinking as well as the necessity of grounding and situating these impulses in the specificities and complexities of the city.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
This is based on transcriptions from the ‘Presentation and Discussion on the WesCape Development Proposal’, on May 15th, 2013 at the Cape Institute for Architecture.
The WD is often referred to as a ‘new city’. This is in fact not true as it would be part of the Cape Town metropolitan region and would fall under the City of Cape Town administration. ‘New city’, perhaps sounds better than new suburb. This content is based on the WesCape proposal as it is explained in 2 Billion Strong: A Regenerative Solution to. Building Sustainable African Cities and the unpublished fact sheet which was given to the author by the developers. It is also based on personal communication with CommuniTgrow representatives.
This is for a range of reasons. Many of the large tracts of land are tied to the asset books of parastatals and government departments. Smaller infill sites tend to be burdened by planning constraints such as infrastructure capacity issues.
References
Ali, W. H. (2013). Suitability of Egyptian deserts for sustainable urban development. Developing Country Studies, 3(8), 164–173.
Alonso, W. (1970). What are new towns for? Urban Studies, 7(1), 37–55. doi:10.1080/00420987020080031.
AlSayyad, N. (Ed.). (1992). Forms of dominance: on the architecture and urbanism of colonial enterprise. England: Avebury.
Arnstein, S. R. (1969). A ladder of citizen participation. Journal of the American Institute of Planners, 35(4), 216–224.
Batchelor, P. (1969). The origin of the garden city concept of urban form. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 28(3), 184–200.
Bond, P., & Tait, A. (1997). The failure of housing policy in post-apartheid South Africa. Urban Forum, 8(1), 19–41.
City of Cape Town (2010). Evaluation of Developable Land within Urban Edge. http://www.capetown.gov.za/en/sdf/Documents/Nov2010/EvaluationOfDevelopableLandwithinUrbanEdgeS.pdf. Accessed 20 July 2013.
City of Cape Town (2012a). Cape Town Spatial Development Framework. https://www.capetown.gov.za/en/sdf/Documents/SDF_Technical_Report_2012_Interactive.pdf. Accessed 20 July 2013.
City of Cape Town (2012b). Report to economic, environment and spatial planning portfolio committee: proposed amendment of the Cape Town Spatial Development Framework.
City of Cape Town (2012c). Cape Town Densification Policy.
Cook, G. P. (1986). Khayelitsha: policy change or crisis response? Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 11(1), 57–66.
Cornwall, A. (2008). Unpacking ‘participation’: models, meanings and practices. Community Development Journal, 43(3), 269–283.
Darch, E., & Emezi, A. (2012). Structures of metropolitan governance and finance: a case study of Cape Town. South Africa: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.
Dodson, B. (2010). Locating xenophobia: debate, discourse, and everyday experience in Cape Town, South Africa. Africa Today, 56(3), 2–22.
Eaton, R. (2002). Ideal cities. utopianism and the (un)built environment. London: Thames & Hudson.
Epstein, D. G. (1973). Brasilia, plan and reality: a study of planned and spontaneous urban development. California: University of California Press.
Fainstien, S. S. (2000). New directions in planning theory. Urban Affairs Review, 35(4), 451–478.
Financial and Fiscal Commission (2011). The Economic and Fiscal Costs of Inefficient Land Use Patterns in South Africa (final report). Palmer Development Group. http://pdg.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/FFC-cost-of-inefficient-land-use.pdf. Accessed 31 July 2013.
Fishman, R. (1982). Urban utopias in the twentieth century: Ebenezer Howard, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Le Corbusier. Michigan: The MIT Press.
Forester, J. (1999). The deliberative practitioner: encouraging participatory planning processes. USA: The MIT Press.
Friedmann, J. (2000). The good city: in defense of Utopian thinking. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 24(1), 460–472.
Goodey, B. R. (1970). Mapping "Utopia": a comment on the geography of Sir Thomas more. Geographical Review, 60(1), 15–30.
Goven, G., Richards, R., & Rendall, A. (Eds.). (2012). 2 billion strong: a regenerative solution to building sustainable African cities. Cape Town: Reygan Media.
Graham, S. (2010). Disrupted Cities: when infrastructure fails. New York: Routledge.
Gwyther, G. (2005). Paradise planned: community formation and the master planned estate. Urban Policy and Research, 23(1), 57–72.
Hall, P. (2002). Cities of tomorrow (3rd ed.). USA: Blackwell.
Harrison, P., Huchzermeyer, M., & Mayekiso, M. (2003). Confronting fragmentation: housing and urban development in a democratising society. Cape Town: Juta Academic.
Harrison, P., Todes, A., & Watson, V. (2008). Planning and transformation: learning from the post-apartheid experience. New York: Routledge.
Harvey, D. (1997). The newurbanism and the communitarian trap. Harvard Design Magazine,. www.gsd.harvard.edu/hdm/harvey.htm. Accessed 31 July 2013.
Harvey, D. (2012). Rebel cities: from the right to the city to the urban revolution. London: Verso Books.
Healey, P. (1992). Planning through debate: the communicative turn in planning theory. Town Planning Review, 63(2), 143.
Healey, P. (2007). Urban complexity and spatial strategies: towards a relational planning for our times. London: Taylor & Francis.
Hickey, S., & Mohan, G. (2005). Relocating participation within a radical politics of development. Development and Change, 36(2), 237–262.
Holston, J. (1989). The modernist city: an anthropological critique of Brasília. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Holston, J. (1998). Spaces of insurgent citizenship. In L. Sandercock (Ed.), Making the invisible visible: a multicultural planning history (pp. 37–56). California: University of California Press.
Holston, J. (1999). Spaces of insurgent citizenship. In J. Holston (Ed.), Cities and Citizenship (pp. 157–173). Durham: Duke Press.
Hook, D., & Vrdoljak, M. (2002). Gated communities, heterotopia and a “rights” of privilege: a ‘heterotopology’ of the South African security-park. Geoforum, 33(2), 195–219.
Houghton-Evans, W. (1975). Planning cities: legacy and portent. London: Lawrence & Wishart.
Howard, E. (1946). Garden cities of tomorrow. London: Faber.
Jürgens, U., & Donaldson, R. (2012). A review of literature on transformation processes in South African townships. Urban Forum, 23(2), 153–163.
Khan, F., & Thring, P. (2003). Housing policy and practice in post-apartheid South Africa. Johannesburg: Heinemann Educational Books.
Landau, L. B. (2012). Hospitality without Hosts: Mobility and Communities in Africa’s Urban Estuaries. Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research. http://wiser.wits.ac.za/content/hospitality-without-hosts-mobility-and-communities-convenience-africas-urban-estuaries-10267. Accessed 29 July 2013.
Lemanski, C. (2007). Global cities in the South: deepening social and spatial polarisation in Cape Town. Cities, 24(6), 448–461.
Lemanski, C., & Oldfield, S. (2009). The parallel claims of gated communities and land invasions in a Southern city: polarised state responses. Environment and Planning A, 41(3), 634–648.
Lin, G. C. (2007). Reproducing spaces of Chinese urbanisation: new city-based and land-centred urban transformation. Urban Studies, 44(9), 1827–1855.
Logan, G. (1989). Interpreting Thomas More’s Utopia. New York: Fordham University Press.
Mabin, A., & Smit, D. (1997). Reconstructing South Africa’s cities? The making of urban planning 1900–2000. Planning Perspectives, 12(2), 193–223.
MacLeod, G., & Ward, K. (2002). Spaces of Utopia and Dystopia: landscaping the contemporary city. Geografiska Annaler, 84(3–4), 153–170.
McDonald, D. A. (2008). World city syndrome: neoliberalism and inequality in Cape Town. New York: Routledge.
McFarlane, C. (2011). Assemblage and critical urbanism. City, 15(2), 204–224.
McGaffin, R. (2013). Wescape: privatising the profits and socialising the risks? UrbanAfrica. http://urbanafrica.net/blogs/2013/09/06/wescape-privatising-profits-and-socialising-risks. Accessed 20 September 2013.
Meyerson, M. (1961). Utopian traditions and the planning of cities. Daedalus, 90(1), 180–193.
Miraftab, F. (2009). Insurgent planning: situating radical planning in the global south. Planning Theory, 8(1), 32–50.
Moser, S. (2012). New cities in the Muslim world: the cultural politics of planning an ‘Islamic’ city. Religion and Place. doi:10.1007/978-94-007-4685-5_3.
Mumford, L. (1965). Utopia, the city and the machine. Daedalus, 94(2), 271–292.
Murray, M. J. (2011). City of extremes: the spatial politics of Johannesburg. USA: Duke University Press.
National Planning Commission. (2011). National Development Plan: Vision for 2030. Pretoria: National Planning Commission.
Nicolson, Z. (2013). Proposed R140bn mini-city project is doomed to failure, say UCT professons. Cape Times, Second Edition, 5, June, 2013, page 1.
Parnell, S., & Robinson, J. (2012). (Re) theorizing cities from the global south: looking beyond neoliberalism. Urban Geography, 33(4), 593–1617.
Petersen, W. (1968). The ideological origins of Britain’s new towns. Journal of the American Institute of Planners, 34(3), 160–170.
Pieterse, E. (2002). From divided to integrated city? Urban Forum, 13(1), 3–37.
Pieterse, E. (2008). City futures: confronting the crisis of urban development. London: Zed Books.
Pieterse, E. (2009). Post-apartheid geographies in South Africa: Why are urban divides so persistent. Interdisciplinary Debates on Development and Cultures: Cities in Development—Spaces, Conflicts and Agency. Leuven University, 15.
Pieterse, E. (2013). Rethinking the purpose and modalities of community development in South African cities. In Good Governance and Learning Network (GGLN) (Ed.) Active Citizenship Matters (pp. 19–34). Cape Town: GGLN.
Pollard, S. (1964). The factory village in the industrial revolution. English historical review, 513–531.
Richert, E. D., & Lapping, M. B. (1998). Ebenezer Howard and the garden city. Journal of the American Planning Association, 64(2), 125–127.
Robins, S. (2002). At the limits of spatial governmentality: a message from the tip of Africa. Third World Quarterly, 23(4), 665–689.
Sandercock, L. (2004). Towards a planning imagination for the 21st century. Journal of the American Planning Association, 70(2), 133–141.
Simone, A. (2001). On the worlding of African cities. African Studies Review, 15–41.
Skuse, A., & Cousins, T. (2007). Spaces of resistance : informal settlement, communication and community organisation in a Cape Town township. Urban Studies, 44(5–6), 979–995.
Smith, D. M. (Ed.). (1992). The apartheid city and beyond: urbanization and social change in South Africa. New York: Taylor & Francis.
Statistics South Africa (2011). Census 2011. http://beta2.statssa.gov.za/?page_id=1021&id=city-of-cape-town-municipality. Accesed June 29 2013.
Stewart, D. J. (1996). Cities in the desert: the Egyptian new-town program. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 86(3), 459–480.
Swilling, M., & Annecke, E. (2012). Just transitions: explorations of sustainability in an unfair world. South Africa: UCT Press.
Swilling, M., Simone, A., & Khan, F. (2003). ‘My soul I can see’: the limits of governing African cities in a context of globalization and complexity. In P. L. McCarney & R. E. Stren (Eds.), Governance on the Ground: Innovations and Discontinuities in Cities of the Developing World (pp. 220–250). USA: Woodrow Wilson Centre Press.
Tomlinson, R. (1990). Urbanization in post-apartheid South Africa. London: Unwin Hyman.
Turok, I. (2001). Persistent polarisation post-apartheid? progress towards urban integration in Cape Town. Urban Studies, 38(13), 2349–2377.
Turok, I. (2012). Urbanisation and Development in South Africa: Economic Imepratives, Sptial Distoriations, and Stretegic Responses. UNFPA, Urbanisation and Emegeing Population Issues Working Paper 8.
Turok, I., & Parnell, S. (2009). Reshaping cities, rebuilding nations: the role of national urban policies. Urban Forum, 20(2), 157–174.
UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund). (2007). State of the World Population 2007. New York: UNFPA.
Wang, L., Kundu, R., & Chen, X. (2010). Building for what and whom? New town development as planned suburbanization in China and India. Research in Urban Sociology, 10, 319–345.
Watson, V. (2002). The usefulness of normative planning theories in the context of sub-Saharan Africa. Planning Theory, 1(1), 27–52.
Watson, V. (2009a). Seeing from the South: refocusing urban planning on the globe’s central urban issues. Urban Studies, 46(11), 2259–2275.
Watson, V. (2009b). ‘The planned city sweeps the poor away…’: urban planning and 21st century urbanisation. Progress in Planning, 72(3), 151–193.
Winter, J. M. (2006). Dreams of peace and freedom: Utopian moments in the twentieth century. USA: Yale University Press.
Woodworth, M. D. (2012). Frontier boomtown urbanism in Ordos, inner Mongolia autonomous region. Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review, 1(1), 74–101.
Acknowledgements
I would like to express gratitude to my colleagues, in particular Sue Parnell, Vanessa Watson, and Robert McGaffin, for essential insights during the drafting of this paper. However, all faults and criticisms are the responsibility of the author alone.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Cirolia, L.R. (W)Escaping the Challenges of the City: a Critique of Cape Town’s Proposed Satellite Town. Urban Forum 25, 295–312 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-013-9212-2
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-013-9212-2