Abstract
In Rongai, Kenya and Katlehong, South Africa, two mobile, peri-urban areas, socialities are being shaped by a usufruct ethics: a means of establishing communal logics and rights to space aimed at achieving protection and benefit without communal membership or community cohesion. The resulting modes of mutual accommodation are consequently shaped by spatial circumstance and pragmatic concerns rather than claims for ownership, representation, or cultural hegemony. These findings speak to a growing, global trend in which forms of membership are being locally negotiated in the thrown together spaces characterising cities of the South. Beyond understanding such local dynamics, they give cause to question the spatial scale at which we locate integration and the very ethics and desired ‘outcomes’ scholars often presume ought to underlie diverse societies.
The authors would like to acknowledge the support of South Africa’s National Research Foundation (NRF), the French National Research Agency (ANR), the Atlantic Philanthropies, and the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Ethnic and Religious Diversity.
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Notes
- 1.
Data compiled by Thomas Brinkerhoff from official records. Downloaded from www.citypopulation.de.
- 2.
Translating interviews can lead to misinterpretations and mistranslations, but the benefit of including at least some non-English speaking participants in the study was considered to outweigh those potential disadvantages.
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Landau, L.B., Freemantle, I. (2018). Shallow Solidarities: Space and Socialities of Accommodation and Exclusion in Nairobi and Johannesburg. In: Bakewell, O., Landau, L. (eds) Forging African Communities. Global Diversities. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58194-5_12
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