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Inner city gentrification in South Africa: The case of Woodstock, Cape Town

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Abstract

The focus in this paper is residential change taking place since 1980 in the innercity suburb of Woodstock, Cape Town. This area is significant as it was one of the few multiracial spaces which survived the deliberate ‘whitening’ of South African cities during the apartheid era. The paper analyses the major threat posed to the longstanding multi-racial complexion of Woodstock by the state's attempt to declare part of the suburb for exclusive coloured residence under Group Areas legislation. Nonetheless, while community resistance in the form of the ‘Open Woodstock’ campaign was successful in halting enforced residential change, processes of gentrification have shaped a new class composition in this inner-city suburb.

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Garside, J. Inner city gentrification in South Africa: The case of Woodstock, Cape Town. GeoJournal 30, 29–35 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00807824

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