On poor whites in post-appartheid cities: The case of Bloemfontein

White, middle-class South Africans moving through Cape Town: mobile encounters with strangers

“…Despite the fact that a select group of Black Africans, Coloreds and Indians had managed to climb the social ladder, the then president Mbeki (2003) was mostly correct in saying that South Africa was still a country of two nations: one black and poor and another one white and prosperous. While many black South Africans were angry because the repeal of the discriminatory laws had not immediately helped them out of poverty, many white compatriots were anxious about their economic future in a country where poor whites had started to appear more regularly in the streets (Schuermans & Visser, 2005). Together with the desegregation of formerly exclusively white neighborhoods (Ballard, 2004b) and the informalization of the CBD's (Popke & Ballard, 2004), this was a sign that the master narrative of whitenessand the figure of the black stranger on which it was basedhad started to crumble (Steyn, 2001).…”

The State and New-build Gentrification in Central Cape Town, South Africa

“…Moreover, the research imperative has changed with most funding agencies and research institutions having a stated commitment to investigate the needs of the poor, how and if a whole suite of interventions are performing as intended, as well as how they might be modifi ed if not successful. As a consequence, large areas in post-apartheid cities have in fact become invisible to the scholarly gaze, in terms of both what is being investigated and where (for related debates, see Schuermans and Visser, 2005;and Visser, 2003b). 6 Pillay (2008) suggests that there have been three components to urban policy in South Africa up to 2004.…”