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Race, Space and the Post-Fordist Spatial Order of Johannesburg

Literature › Works

Owen Crankshaw (2008). Race, Space and the Post-Fordist Spatial Order of Johannesburg. Urban Studies, 45(8). Sage, for the Urban Studies Journal Foundation.
Type journal article
Scope Post-1994 South African economy
Method descriptive quantitative
Period studied 1948–2001
Regions Johannesburg, Gauteng, Soweto, Sandton
Themes demography urbanisation, inequality poverty unemployment, transition post apartheid, methods data sources, comparative theory, labour markets wages
Citation key crankshaw2008

Argument

Johannesburg's deindustrialisation since the mid-1970s produced a post-Fordist spatial order. Service-sector 'edge city' growth is concentrated in the northern suburbs, while the southern Black areas suffer exclusion and unemployment. Beavon calls the city 'neo-apartheid', whereas Beall et al. argue segregation is probably declining. Crankshaw tests these claims with 2001 census data on 379 formerly Whites-only neighbourhoods, excluding live-in African domestic workers from the counts. He finds substantial and widespread racial desegregation in the north, driven by a growing Black middle class, including significant Black homeownership. The post-Fordist order may be more class-unequal than apartheid but is less racially unequal, and Johannesburg's racially mixed edge city could become an exception among world cities.

Evidence and method

Population censuses (1960, 1970, 1980, 1991, 1996, 2001), including 2001 sub-place (neighbourhood) data supplied by Statistics South Africa; manufacturing censuses (1985, 1993); fieldwork and dwelling-type analysis used to define the neighbourhoods; secondary sources (Beavon 2004, Beall et al. 2002, Prinsloo and Cloete 2002, Christopher 2001/2005); US comparative literature on edge cities and ghettos.

Findings

  • Deindustrialisation left Johannesburg with a post-Fordist, tertiary-dominated employment structure by 2001. (p. 6)

    By 2001, Johannesburg had a distinctly post-Fordist character, with the manufacturing sector contributing only 13 per cent to all employment.

  • The Black share of middle-class employment rose sharply between 1960 and 2001. (p. 6)

    In Johannesburg, the Black share of middle-class employment grew from 15 per cent in 1960 to 50 per cent in 2001 (Table 1).

  • Factory closures were concentrated in the old city centre. (p. 7)

    From 1989 to 1999, almost half of all the factories in central Johannesburg closed down.

  • Manufacturing relocated to the northern edge cities rather than disappearing everywhere. (p. 7)

    manufacturing employment in the northern neighbourhoods actually doubled as a result of the establishment of 200 new factories, many of which had relocated from the CBD

  • Excluding domestic workers, nearly a third of northern-suburb residents were non-White in 2001 (all accommodation types). (p. 11)

    If we exclude African domestic workers from the data, the census results show that just over two-thirds (69 per cent) of the population of the northern neighbourhoods was still White in 2001 (Table 2).

  • Even on the stricter main-house/flat measure, over a quarter of residents were Black. (p. 11)

    By this measure, 27 per cent of the population in the formerly Whites-only northern neighbourhoods was Black in 2001 (Table 3).

  • Desegregation is widespread across the northern neighbourhoods rather than confined to small pockets. (p. 13)

    Over half (59 per cent) of all formerly Whites-only neighbourhoods fall within this category. Only one-quarter (25 per cent) of neighbourhoods have Black populations that comprise less than 15 per cent of all employed residents.

  • Most Black residents of the northern suburbs' houses and apartments are owners, not tenants. (p. 16)

    Restricting the analysis to houses and apartments, the results show that over half (59 per cent) Black (African, Coloured and Indian) residents in the northern neighbourhoods own their accommodation

  • The census contradicts the very low African homeownership estimate used to support the 'neo-apartheid' view. (p. 16)

    Nonetheless, this is a substantially higher rate of African homeownership than the estimate of 3.3 per cent provided by Prinsloo and Cloete (2002).

  • Overall verdict: greater class polarisation but less racial inequality than under apartheid. (p. 17)

    The post-Fordist spatial order of Johannesburg may be more unequal than its Fordist and apartheid past, but it is certainly less racially unequal.