Is ‘integrated environmental management’ feasible in the informal settlements of South Africa's cities?

Abstract

We have put a case for re-thinking how ‘the environment’ is addressed in development strategies for urban informal settlements. Although our argument can be read as a programmatic solution to the question, we have attempted to highlight the slender base for such a reading, in view of the lack of data and theoretical rigour in the relevant research, literature and policy formulations. Accordingly, our principal aim has been to emphasise why re-thinking of ‘the environment’ is necessary. In setting out a position that leans more towards conceptual and theoretical considerations than towards procedures, we have raised more questions than answers. This is necessary, we believe, if official and popular interest in environmentalism is to achieve substantial results, not only in terms of improvement in environmental quality but also in the creation of new knowledge.