Missing the point? Urban planning and the normalisation of ‘pathological’ spaces in southern Africa

Kamete, A. (2013) Missing the point? Urban planning and the normalisation of ‘pathological’ spaces in southern Africa. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 38(4), pp. 639-651. (doi: 10.1111/j.1475-5661.2012.00552.x)

Abstract

In this paper I consider ‘normalisation’ as a response to urban informal livelihoods in urban southern Africa. I demonstrate that urban planning systems have been mobilised to correct or eliminate ‘spatial pathologies’. Using illustrative cases from southern Africa, I argue that the authorities’ obsession with ‘normalising’ urban spaces they have designated as ‘pathologies’ is misplaced because it glaringly defies the reality on the ground. Interrogated in the paper is the reasoning behind, and effectiveness of, ‘corrective’ measures that exclude and marginalise informality through technicalisation, ‘expertisation’ and depoliticisation. I evaluate the basis, workings and deleterious outcomes of normalising technologies and question the relevance and efficacy of normalisation at a time when it is increasingly becoming clear that African urbanisation is – and will possibly continue to be – simultaneously driven and cushioned by informalisation.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Kamete, Professor Amin
• Authors: Kamete, A.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Urban Studies
• Journal Name: Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers
• ISSN: 0020-2754
• ISSN (Online): 1475-5661
• Published Online: 02 November 2012