Race, space and place in suburban Durban: an ethnographic assessment of gated community environments and residents

Abstract

This paper explores gated community culture and development in the suburbs of North Durban in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. Using perspectives from the anthropology of space and place as a theoretical and methodological framework, ethnographic fieldwork in one community in this area explores the cultural reasoning behind the movement to a fortified suburban enclave in South Africa by problematizing why, in a newly democratic society based on an ethos of desegregation, do individuals feel the need to segregate themselves along class and racial lines in fortified developments in a fashion reminiscent of homeland demarcation during apartheid? And, is the movement to gated communities within post-apartheid South Africa solely a white cultural and class phenomenon? While these questions are necessary, and perhaps commonsensical in terms of the unique social history of South Africa, research also attempts to complicate these lines of inquiry to apprehend the cultural reasoning and lifestyles of gated community residents to move past racial and class stereotypes and delve into the complex culture of these environments and the different rationalizations that individuals work with to justify their surroundings.

Divergent and Similar Experiences of ‘Gating’ in South Africa: Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town

“…That is not to suggest that crime no longer plays a role, but rather, that respondents in Cape Town attributed it as only a contributory factor, subordinate to creating an idyllic village environment, while respondents in Johannesburg identified crime as the dominant factor. Reasons for gating in Durban are situated somewhere between the extremes of Cape Town's idyllic lifestyle emphasis and the importance of crime protection in Johannesburg, with rationalisations offered for living in a gated estate ranging from investment opportunities, to a romantic association with a past time of 'safe living' replete with some form of community cohesion, and the omnipresent fear of crime that marks contemporary post-apartheid South Africa (Durington 2006).…”

“…South Africa's gated communities are similarly criticised for entrenching existing patterns of socio-spatial urban fragmentation and protecting the wealthy at the expense of the poor (e.g., Ballard 2004;Bremner 2004;Durington 2006;Hook and Vrdoljak 2002;Jürgens et al 2003;Landman 2000aLandman , b, 2004Lemanski 2004Lemanski , 2006a. Although representative of worldwide gated community literature, in South Africa, concerns regarding these exclusionary territories are exacerbated by fears that they effectively recreate the apartheid city and thwart post-apartheid goals of urban integration and inclusion.…”

“…This can also be witnessed in the proliferation of 'crime narrative websites' that have developed in recent years in South Africa that attempt to give 'real' stories of crime and often reference residence in gated communities as a last resort to save one's self and family from the realities of the "New" South Africa(Durington 2006).…”

Natural Neighbors: Indigenous Landscapes and Eco-Estates in Durban, South Africa

“…A raft of studies, as well as regular newspaper reports and television documentaries, indicate higher levels of fear among South Africans than most other countries, including high levels of fear associated with home and the night (Dirsuweit 2002;Roberts 2008). Alongside the desire to escape crime, gated communities can be seen as a spatial strategy to deal with less tangible anxieties of social change (Hook and Vrdoljak 2002;Ballard 2004a;Durington 2006;Lemanski 2006). Those elite, mostly white, South Africans who have felt socially and politically alienated from society have engaged a variety of spatial practices in order to resolve their dissonance.…”

Spatio-Temporal Aspects of Gated Residential Security Estates in Non-metropolitan Western Cape

“…Likewise, gated developments have become a ubiquitous feature on the contemporary South African metropolitan landscape (Durington 2006;Hook and Vrdoljak 2002;Landman 2000).…”