SOCIAL JUSTICE AND THE (SOUTH AFRICAN) CITY: RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT

Abstract

ABSTRACT Thirty years since publication of David Harvey's Social Justice and the City is an appropriate time for a review of social justice and the South African city. The issue is complicated by questions of definition what qualifies as ‘the city’ or ‘urban’ in this context. Alternative theoretical perspectives have proliferated over the past thirty years, but they share common concerns with the distribution of means of well-being and the structures involved. The social injustice of apartheid was easy to demonstrate, from various theoretical perspectives. While the end of apartheid promised a more just society, gross inequalities are being perpetuated in the post-apartheid city and in society at large. The present trajectory is indefensible morally; in this respect, South Africa may be a microcosm of the world at large. Social justice in the (South African) city requires fundamental changes in political economy and its moral foundations, not only in this country but globally.