Question of Agency: What Drives Divisive Space (Re)production and Spatial Transformation in the City of Polokwane?

Abstract

Cities are tension-ridden urban ecologies comprised of divided collections of social structures and multiple agencies whose interaction influences spatial transformation. The current development trajectory and spatial transformation witnessed in South Africa are perpetuating and manifesting in multiple forms of divided urban ecologies. This mirrors the (re)production of apartheid socio-spatial injustices and contradictions, manifesting multiple dilemmas in analogy with the re-imagined city as inscribed in post-apartheid progressive legislative and policy frameworks. This study moved beyond the usual inquiry limited in focus on spatial planning approaches and characterizing the nature of common threads of socio-spatial divisions among cities. It unravels the complex systems and factors that (re)produce and shapes the divisive socio-spatial qualities of cities and territories ecologies with a special focus on the City of Polokwane. Data were collected using quantitative and qualitative tools underpinned by the pragmatic philosophical paradigm. 507 questionnaires were analysed and seven key experts were interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide. Quantitative data analysis included descriptive statistics (measurement of reliability, validity, and normality) and exploratory factor analysis. Qualitative data were analysed using content analysis. Critical urban theory, spatial dialectics, and didactics theory constituted the theoretical framework and analytical approach in this study. The findings reveal that complex systems and agencies driving divisive space (re)production and spatial transformation in the city of Polokwane are as follows; (i) governance and policy drivers (ii) spatial characteristics/biophysical drivers; (iii) social and cultural drivers and (iv) Economic drivers. In conclusion, these urban ecologies present that the dialectical socio-spatial processes associated with divisive space [re]production in Polokwane are complex, making it difficult to redress a century of historical spatial injustices and segregation or attain the re-imagined post-apartheid cities in a short space of time.