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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Community as Utopia: reflections on De Waterkant
Author:Rink, Bradley M.ISNI
Year:2008
Periodical:Urban Forum
Volume:19
Issue:2
Pages:205-220
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:neighbourhoods
communities
homosexuality
External link:https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12132-008-9031-z
Abstract:Gay enclaves form part of the urban landscape and serve not only as a playground or palimpsest for creation of a gay cityscape, but they may also be seen as a modern form of utopianism - place making that is situated at the confluence of space and ideology where performance of a gay identity may be freely practised. Whether or not Cape Town's (South Africa) De Waterkant constitutes a 'gay enclave' in the true sense, the extent to which the area is marketed and situated as a site of freedom-seeking performance of transgressive identities and sexualities not freely practised in heterosexualized spaces beyond the gay enclave cannot be denied. Rather than build a community in the traditional sense, which is grounded in space and place, this research contends that the many forces acting together in 'the village' are building alternative visions of togetherness that are rather tied to pursuit of consumption and of experiences that act to disconnect them from the larger city in which they are located. Approaching De Waterkant through a utopian lens allows the pursuit of the comforting (through the consumption of leisure) and the unsettling (through a break with the hetero-normalized world outside) to be seen as elements of community. Utopia, like space itself, however, is not without tensions. Likewise, it is fluid and ever-changing. As the bodies that inhabit the space change, so too do the meanings associated with them. As such, it should be seen as an evolving story with additional forthcoming tensions. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [ASC Leiden abstract]