Johannesburg

Géographies de l´exclusion

Philippe GUILLAUME, 2001, Paris, Karthala; Johannesburg, IFAS
ISBN : 2-84586-165-6
Coll. Hommes et sociétés; Collection directed by Jean Copans

[Book in French]

South Africa came out of apartheid. Democratisation made it possible to break away from the most “successful” and repressive forms of institutionalised segregation in the world. Then what about urban space? Cities reflect and concentrate societies.

More than anywhere else, we find ourselves in a space encompassing a myriad of actors with different and even opposed strategies. An examination of urban exclusion in Johannesburg, a South African metropolis of over four millions inhabitants, makes it possible to understand the function and dysfunction of the apartheid-resulting society, to outline development perspectives and to measure the first steps towards freedom, awaiting those towards maturity.

This innovating work on the unappreciated city of Johannesburg deconstructs, in the tradition of Mike Davis, South African urbanity.