Ethnopolitics, Fear and Safety in a Johannesburg Neighbourhood

Abstract

Fearfulness appears to have become a way of life in modern society. Many of us-or so we are told-are afraid to go out on the streets of our towns, at night certainly, but even during daylight hours as well. Yet staying at home carries its own threats: a whole industry manufacturing alarms, locks and surveillance mechanisms has been founded on our conviction that our homes are wide open to dangerous intruders. We view strangers with suspicion and the future with trepidation (Tudor 2003: 238-239). This chapter, focusing on a cosmopolitan urban context of a Johannesburg neighbourhood, examines otherising and counter otherising dynamics in the field of community safety governance. The study examines the extent to which fear of crime and violence in Johannesburg is also cast as a fear of supposed strangers, especially in contexts of existence in superdiverse contexts. Fear of real or imagined violence and crime (and other urban disorders) has a huge impact on the spatial and social organisation of contemporary cities (Sandercock 2003; Tudor 2003). Spatial impacts include the creation of gated neighbourhoods, road closures and adoption of military technologies by residents seeking to protect their spaces (Davis 1998; Landman 2004a; Landman 2004b; Landman 2008; Murray 2011). Social impacts include the formation of safety governing community organisations, neighbourhood associations, mob justice and other preventive, adaptive or reactive individual or social group practices (strategies and tactics) (