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Failed Fantasies in a South African Context: the Case of Modderfontein, Johannesburg

Brill, F; Reboredo, R; (2019) Failed Fantasies in a South African Context: the Case of Modderfontein, Johannesburg. Urban Forum , 30 (2) pp. 171-189. 10.1007/s12132-018-9348-1. Green open access

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Abstract

The (proposed) development of private sector-led, large-scale urban projects on the periphery of many African cities has drawn increased attention to the geographical breadth and potential consequences of the phenomena in recent years. This work demonstrates the speculative nature of many of these projects and their ‘world-class city’ aspirations, but also how such plans will exacerbate existing problems, including spatial inequality and environmental degradation. This paper, drawing on 50 interviews and extensive fieldwork, examines one such project in north-east Johannesburg, the Modderfontein New City. The paper responds to existing research and their calls for more grounded studies, and argues that given their distinct logics and developmental mechanisms, large-scale masterplanned edge cities can only truly be understood within the context of their place-specific urban landscapes, and that contrary to the prevailing arguments on this type of project, they do not always exist outside of ordinary governance structures. Supporting the (speculative) conclusions in earlier research, we demonstrate how the plans and early building looked to worsen spatial inequality and environmental problems. However, in highlighting how Modderfontein’s failure is partly the product of a strong local state unwilling to compromise on their own agenda in the face of elite-driven edge city developments, we argue such large scale projects in Johannesburg face hitherto under-researched disciplining processes that can disrupt or even derail projects.

Type: Article
Title: Failed Fantasies in a South African Context: the Case of Modderfontein, Johannesburg
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1007/s12132-018-9348-1
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-018-9348-1
Language: English
Additional information: © The Author(s) 2018. Open Access: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creative commons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
Keywords: Masterplan, Edge city, Urban governance, Planning, Johannesburg
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment > The Bartlett School of Planning
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10066987
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