Staking a claim: law, inequality and the city in South Africa

Abstract

ABSTRACT The adoption of socio-economic rights in the post-apartheid constitution has given activists new tools to influence the development of economic policy. This article examines how – in the context of inequality and deprivation – urban communities, the residents of informal settlements, and civil society litigants have used these tools to reshape post-apartheid urban housing policy ‘from below’. It argues that this model of action provides a powerful example of popular work to combat widening inequality in the present conjuncture, operating to remake neoliberal state policy in a way that better responds to the experiences and needs of South Africa’s urban poor.