Chapter 5
Learning from Cape Town desegregation: Khayelitsha
5.1 Desegregation process: inclusion attempt?
The etymology of de-segregation underlines the will to reverse the process of segregation. In other words, the term desegregation concerns the attempt to
“rebuild the apartheid city into its antithesis: the integrated city” (Pieterse 2006, 12). Pieterse definition is almost a provocation261, which the author of this thesis would replace with this phrase: “restructuring the apartheid city into its antithesis:
the inclusive city”. Indeed, rebuilding (literally) the apartheid city seems to assume a tabula rasa approach. This is utopian and presupposes ignoring the history of South Africa that has shaped the contemporary state. Alternatively, the author proposes to assess Cape Town as an ordinary space in order to understand the current process of desegregation at the theoretical level as well its implementation, reframing the way cities are analysed conventionally.
Desegregation and integration are quite general terms, used in academic and politic discourses. Both expressions demonstrate the desire to overcome the segregation of apartheid, which includes cultural, political, economic and spatial aspects. The aim of this chapter is to clarify the use of this words focusing on spatial aspects.
261 Reading Pieterse’s work, his intention is to encourage a strong change to overturn the rules of apartheid.
A diagram commonly used in educational studies262 (Figure 48) can be applied to urban studies to understand the difference between integration and inclusion in spatial terms. Exclusion and segregation are forms of denying access to a minority, while integration means to allow that access while defining specific and spatially enclosed places for the minority. Inclusion is a much more complex approach which aim to let minorities coexist with everyone else in the same spaces. In the diagram, the circle outline is the spatial element that divides or includes people: it represents the buffer zone. However, the diagram does not explain which tools are effective to reach an inclusive space. This research argues that public spaces is one of the tool that can make cities more inclusive, being conscious that socio-economic and political aspects could also affect profoundly the use of space.
Fig. 48: Inclusion diagram, by M. Bodino, 2018
If we look at the diagram concentrating the attention on space it is easy to compare this concept with the case study of Cape Town and to relate Figure 48
262 The image is just a redrawn of the diagram used in the document A summary of the evidence on inclusive education by Abt associates: https://alana.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/A_Summary_of_the_evidence_on_inclusive_education.pdf (retrieved September 22, 2018). This document visualizes the difference between exclusion, segregation, integration and inclusion, whose definition are extracted from a United Nations document: United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities General Comment No. 4:
https://www.ohchr.org/en/hrbodies/crpd/pages/gc.aspx (retrieved September 22, 2018).
exclusion segregation
inclusion
integration
5.1 Desegregation process: inclusion attempt? 115 with Figure 28. It is clear that Cape Town still have segregated neighbourhood, while the city centre seems to be quite inclusive, meaning that people of different races are living there. Considering its history, this is already a good achievement.
The diagram outlines just the race distribution, while it does not take into account the economic and social aspects. Indeed, looking at the income distribution263, it would be clear that the inclusive area in spatial terms represents the area of higher income levels where high and middle classes of different races live.
Fig. 49: CT segregation and inclusion, by M. Bodino, 2018 (Figure 49 is an extract from Figure 28: on the left, poorer segregated
neighbourhoods and, on the right, inclusive city centre)
The process of spatial inclusion has to be understood within the context of democratization: “if public spaces – streets, plazas – can be seen as the places where individual and social expressions can be performed, then we can qualify these spaces as the ultimate expression of democracy in the city” (Grauer 2002, 16). The reference to democracy brings the discussion to an abstract level, and often the same happens when the term inclusion is used. In fact, inclusion is a wide concept, as democracy. It is usually considered as the opposite of exclusion.
While it may seem quite linear to define who or what you are excluding, it is much more complex to have a comprehensive approach and determine if and how inclusion can happen, especially in urban areas.
The Institute of Development Studies in 2017 has introduced the acronym IUC (Inclusive Urbanization Cities) and has pointed the attention to the use of inclusion in the urban literature, attempting to clarify it. The definition of inclusion by Kasper et al.264 ranges “from removing discrimination, to enhancing
263 For more information see the following link: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Income-distribution-in-the-Cape-Town-metropolitan-area_fig1_241715290(retrieved September 22, 2018).
264 IUC includes “social, economic and political processes, as well as an aspiration for equitable cities that enable wellbeing and a good quality of life for all as outcomes […]. More
voice in existing institutions, to securing people’s human rights” (Kasper et al., 23) and it involves both process and outcome. It is a broad definition which attempt to give “a response to the growing disparities in income and wealth experiences in urban areas since the mid-1980s” (Kasper et al., 11). What is missing is a framework at the urban design and architectural scale and an analysis of its possible application. In fact, the use of the term inclusion often remains at the theoretical: in the global and national agenda, in the city level policy as well as in the academic discourses. In international and policy language, the term inclusion and exclusion are used in a simplified way as aspirational term265. At the same time, the use of the word starting from 2030 Agenda (Goal n. 11 is Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable and others) reflects a growing attention to the complex and multidisciplinary concept related to the urban challenges. The production of the so-called exclusionary cities prioritizes the urban wealthy and middle classes focusing on economic growth; while “inclusion can designate radically transformative development” if priority is given to the pursue of rights, empowerment and equity (McGranahan et al. 2016, 17). In the urban planning literature, inclusion mainly refers to economic aspects, social cohesion, land tenure, and also as a way to engage with informal settlements.
Those aspects are significant for this research even if they do not refer explicitly to spatial aspects. In the architecture literature, inclusion refers to the issue of accessibility and aging266, which are strictly linked to space but they do not consider socio-economic aspects.
The next chapter (5.2) attempts to fill this gap, focusing on Khayelitsha township in Cape Town, where space have been created in order to separate267. The case study is extreme, as the context in which is placed. Precisely for these reasons, some phenomena are more evident, such as the spatial inequality. On one hand, assessing interventions in such an extreme area may seem simpler. On the other hand, the extrapolation of relevant information in extreme contexts can be useful to be tested and analysed in ordinary context. Furthermore, if we consider Cape Town as an ordinary city268, there is no extreme or normal situation to compare to. Khayelitsha – as any other neighbourhoods – is a complex and interdisciplinary reality, which cannot be simplified for its extreme features. The task of the author in this thesis has been to extract relevant spatial aspects in order to find ways to contrast spatial inequality and then to promote inclusion.
equitable and just urban societies enable disadvantaged groups to politically voice and articulate their concerns, pointing to the critical role of urban governance” (Kasper et al. 2017, 9).
265 “Inclusion is rapidly becoming a staple concept in donor discourses on cities and urbanization (exemplified by the New Urban Agenda)” (Kasper et al. 2017, 9).
266 In spatial terms, inclusion is used to ensure everyone the possibility to access a building or a public space. For example, it refers to replace barriers with ramps and to add lifts to stairs. The architectural tools for inclusion in literature refers to adapt surfaces.
267 Khayelitsha is one of the most disadvantage and less inclusive area of Cape Town.
268 See chapter 2.1.2 (Reference: part 1+2+3: Robinson 2006a).