Go to AfricaBib home

Go to AfricaBib home AfricaBib Go to database home

bibliographic database
Line
Previous page New search

The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here

Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Devaluing diversity? National housing policy and African household dynamics in Cape Town
Authors:Spiegel, AndrewISNI
Watson, VanessaISNI
Wilkinson, PeterISNI
Year:1996
Periodical:Urban Forum
Volume:7
Issue:1
Pages:1-30
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:housing policy
urban households
External link:https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF03036844
Abstract:Much development practice remains immured in a mode of 'homogenizing', indeed 'normalizing', discourse about the needs of the people which it is intended to address. With this in mind, the present paper probes the implications of the diversity of household structures and settlement processes among Cape Town's African population for the effective implementation of current national housing policy. Section 1 identifies key features of the current housing policy framework in South Africa and specifies their implications in terms of the probable outcome of implementing the policy. Section 2, drawing on information generated by two recent studies (1992/1993 and 1995) among Cape Town's African population, demonstrates the diversity of actual domestic structures and trajectories. The authors argue that the current national housing policy framework is likely to produce only a very limited set of housing options for the majority of African households. Given the diversity of these households in terms of their size and composition, employment and income patterns, as well as their trajectories of domestic change and consolidation, the authors further suggest that the policy is unlikely to meet the housing needs of this sector of the population very adequately. App., bibliogr., notes, ref.
Views