Abstract
While spatial apartheid is no longer formally maintained in Cape Town, South Africa, it seems at times to be bolstered by a “colonial spatial imaginary”. This concept, which is introduced in this chapter, encompasses collective perceptions and values that shape place identities, construct belonging in different places, and normalise associated spatial patterns and activities. In this chapter, we trace the colonial spatial imaginary through Cape Town’s colonial era to the present, to reinforce the relevance of urban space to the work of decolonial community psychologists. Drawing on the findings of a Participatory Action Research project with members of Reclaim the City, we aim to understand how the movement challenges eviction and displacement from the gentrifying suburb of Woodstock in Cape Town. In particular, by seeking to analyse Reclaim the City’s multi-faceted work as a decolonial enactment of community psychology, we examine how its creative praxis enables members to challenge the colonial spatial imaginary and build alternative spatial imaginaries.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
The Population Registration Act legislated the use of three racial classifications, “native”, “coloured”, and “white”, to classify racial groups. Later, the additional classification of “Indian” was added. The principles of racial classification remain in use today, for purposes of recognition and redress, but they are not uncontested. The categories most widely used are “black African”, “coloured”, “white”, and “Indian” with some documents also including “Asian”. Since they remain commonly used in both popular and official discourse, we use them in this chapter to discuss both historical and contemporary realities. We do so in full awareness of their contested and often oppressive nature.
References
Abellán, J., Sequera, J., & Janoschka, M. (2012). Occupying the #Hotelmadrid: A laboratory for urban resistance. Social Movement Studies, 11(3-4), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2012.708831
Berglund, E., & Peipinen, V. (2017). Spaces of insurgent citizenship – activism and acceptability in Helsinki. The Finnish Journal of Urban Studies, 55(3), 64–70.
Beyers, C. (2008). The cultural politics of “community” and citizenship in the District Six Museum, Cape Town. Anthropologica, 50(2), 359–373.
Boudreau, J. (2007). Making new political spaces: mobilizing spatial imaginaries, instrumentalizing spatial practices, and strategically using spatial tools. Environment and Planning, 39, 2593–2611. https://doi.org/10.1068/a39228
Carolissen, R., Canham, H., Fourie, E., Graham, T., Segalo, P., & Bowman, B. (2017). Epistemological resistance towards diversality: Teaching community psychology as a decolonial project. South African Journal of Psychology, 47(4), 495–505. https://doi.org/10.1177/008124631773920
Castleden, H., Garvin, T., & First Nation, H. (2008). Modifying photovoice for community-based participatory indigenous research. Social Science & Medicine, 66(6), 1393–1405. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2007.11.030
Cirolia, L. R. (2014). South Africa’s emergency housing programme: A prism of urban contest. Development Southern Africa, 31(3), 397–411. https://doi.org/10.1080/0376835X.2014.887998
City Improvement. (2009). FAQ. Retrieved from http://cityimprovement.co.za/wordpress/?page_id=42
Davoudi, S. (2018). Imagination and spatial imaginaries: A conceptual framework. Town Planning Review, 89(2), 97–124. https://doi.org/10.3828/tpr.2018.7
De Carli, B. A., & Frediani, A. A. (2016). Insurgent regeneration: Spatial practices of citizenship in the rehabilitation of inner city São Paulo. GeoHumanities, 2(2), 331–353. https://doi.org/10.1080/2373566x.2016.1235984
Development Action Group. (n.d.). Reimagining neighbourhoods through facilitation. Retrieved from https://www.dag.org.za/re-imagining-neighbourhoods-through-facilitation/#
Dixon, J., & Durrheim, K. (2000). Displacing place-identity: A discursive approach to locating self and other. British Journal of Social Psychology, 39(1), 27–44. https://doi.org/10.1348/014466600164318
Dixon, J., & Durrheim, K. (2004). Dislocating identity: Desegregation and the transformation of place. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 24(4), 455–473. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2004.09.004
Dutta, U. (2016). Prioritizing the local in an era of globalization: A proposal for decentering community psychology. American Journal of Community Psychology, 58, 329–338. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12047
Dwyer, S. C., & Buckle, J. L. (2009). The space between: On being an insider-outsider in qualitative research. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 8(1), 54–63. https://doi.org/10.1177/160940690900800105
Earle, L. (2012). From insurgent to transgressive citizenship: Housing, social movements and the politics of rights in São Paulo. Journal of Latin American Studies, 44(1), 97–126. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022216X11001118
Elder, G. (1990). The grey dawn of South African racial residential integration. GeoJournal, 22(3), 261–266. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00192824
Foster, D. (2004). Liberation psychology. In D. Hook (Ed.), Introduction to critical psychology. UCT Press.
Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Continuum.
Frith, A. (2011). Dot map of South Africa. Retrieved from https://dotmap.adrianfrith.com/?dots=race&lat=-33.9494&lon=18.6763&zoom=5.09
Garside, J. (1993). Inner city gentrification in South Africa: The case of Woodstock, Cape Town. GeoJournal, 30(1), 29–35. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00807824
Gregory, D. (2004). The colonial present. Blackwell Publishing.
Hart, D. (1988). Political manipulation of urban space: The razing of District 6, Cape Town. Urban Geography, 9(6), 603–628. https://doi.org/10.2747/0272-3638.9.6.603
Henriques, J., Hollway, W., Urwin, C., Venn, C., & Walkerdine, V. (1984). Changing the subject: Psychology, social regulation, and subjectivity (2nd ed.). Taylor & Francis.
Holston, J. (1998). Spaces of insurgent citizenship. In L. Sandercock (Ed.), Making the invisible visible: A multicultural planning history. University of California Press.
Holston, J. (2009). Insurgent citizenship: Disjunctions of democracy and modernity in Brazil. Princeton University Press.
Kessi, S. (2011). Photovoice as a practice of re-presentation and social solidarity: Experiences from a youth empowerment project in Dar es Salaam and Soweto. Papers on Social Representations, 20(1), 7.1–7.27.
Kessi, S., & Boonzaier, F. (2018). Centre/ing decolonial feminist psychology in Africa. South African Journal of Psychology, 48(3), 299–309. https://doi.org/10.1177/0081246318784507
Kothari, U., & Wilkinson, R. (2010). Colonial imaginaries and postcolonial transformations: Exiles, bases, beaches. Third World Quarterly, 31(8), 1395–1412. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2010.538239
Laband, J. (2020). The land wars: The dispossession of the Khoisan and AmaXhosa in the Cape Colony. Penguin Random House.
Lipsitz, G. (2007). The racialization of space and the spatialization of race: Theorizing the hidden architecture of landscape. Landscape Journal, 26(1), 10–23. https://doi.org/10.3368/lj.26.1.10
Mabin, A. (1992). Comprehensive segregation: The origins of the Group Areas Act and its planning apparatuses. Journal of Southern African Studies, 18(2), 405–429. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057079208708320
Martín-Baró, I. (1996). Writings for a liberation psychology. Harvard University Press.
Miraftab, F. (2004). Invited and invented spaces of participation: Neoliberal citizenship and feminists’ expanded notion of politics. Wagadu, 1, 1–7.
Miraftab, F. (2012). Colonial present: Legacies of the past in contemporary urban practices in Cape Town, South Africa. Journal of Planning History, 11(4), 283–307. https://doi.org/10.1177/1538513212447924
Miraftab, F., & Wills, S. (2005). Insurgency and spaces of active citizenship: The story of Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign in South Africa. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 25(2), 200–217. https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456x05282182
Montero, M. (2009). Methods for liberation: Critical consciousness in action. In C. Sonn & M. Montero (Eds.), Psychology of liberation. Springer.
Mountain, A. (2003). The first people of the Cape: A look at their history and the impact of colonialism on the Cape’s indigenous people. David Philip Publishers.
Nahnsen, A. (2006). Emergency on planet Cape Town? (Re-)conciliation as a tool for urban planning in a post-apartheid city. BIS-Verlag.
Paasi, A. (2003). Region and place: Regional identity in question. Progress in Human Geography, 27(4), 475–485. https://doi.org/10.1191/0309132503ph439pr
Pillay, S., Russell, S., Sendin, J., Sithole, M., Budlender, N., & Knoetze, D. (2017). I used to live here: A call for transitional housing for evictees in Cape Town. Ndifuna Ukwazi.
Proshansky, H. M., Fabian, A. K., & Kaminoff, R. (1983). Place-identity: Physical world socialization of the self. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 3(1), 57–83. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0272-4944(83)80021-8
Ranslem, D. (2015). ‘Temporary’ relocation: Spaces of contradiction in South African law. International Journal of Law in the Built Environment, 7(1), 55–71. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijlbe-12-2013-0041
Reclaim the City. (2018a). Reclaim the city interim constitution. Retrieved from http://reclaimthecity.org.za/featured-content/
Reclaim the City. (2018b). Eviction resistance. Retrieved from http://reclaimthecity.org.za/transitional-housing/
Said, E. (1978). Orientalism. Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Scannell, L., & Gifford, R. (2010). Defining place attachment: A tripartite organizing framework. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 30(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2009.09.006
Seedat, M., & Suffla, S. (2017). Community psychology and its (dis)contents, archival legacies, and decolonisation. South African Journal of Psychology, 47(4), 421–431. https://doi.org/10.1177/0081246317741423
Thompson, L. (2001). A history of South Africa (3rd ed.). Yale University Press.
Turok, I. (2001). Persistent polarisation post-apartheid? Progress towards urban integration in Cape Town. Urban Studies, 38(13), 2349–2377. https://doi.org/10.1080/00420980120094551
Wang, C., & Burris, M. A. (1997). Photovoice: Concept, methodology, and use for participatory needs assessment. Health Education & Behavior, 24(3), 369–387. https://doi.org/10.1177/109019819702400309
Wang, C., & Redwood-Jones, Y. A. (2001). Photovoice ethics: Perspectives from Flint photovoice. Health Education & Behavior, 28(5), 560–572. https://doi.org/10.1177/109019810102800504
Watkins, J. (2015). Spatial imaginaries research in geography: Synergies,tensions, and new directions. Geography Compass, 9(9), 508–522. https://doi.org/10.1111/gec3.12228
Watkins, M., James, S., & Ciofalo, N. (2018). Engaging the struggle for decolonial approaches to teaching community psychology. American Journal of Community Psychology, 10, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12295
Watkins, M., & Shulman, H. (2008). Toward psychologies of liberation. Palgrave Macmillan.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Urson, R., Kessi, S., Daya, S. (2022). Towards Alternative Spatial Imaginaries: The Case of ‘Reclaim the City’. In: Kessi, S., Suffla, S., Seedat, M. (eds) Decolonial Enactments in Community Psychology. Community Psychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75201-9_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75201-9_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-75200-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-75201-9
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)