Abstract
This article examines the idea of ‘flexibility’ within the context of a city. It uses the idea of livelihoods to contribute to the debates on flexibility, particularly on the role that ordinary people play in the transformative potential of cities. A closer examination of ordinary people’s activities show that although livelihoods are crucial to how they adapt to the changing social and economic conditions, such activities largely constitute survival strategies. Importantly, and without subscribing to a paradigm that promotes a city as a closed space, the continuing socio-spatial divisions in the city of Rustenburg, South Africa underscore the fact that ordinary people’s remarkable resourcefulness occurs under circumstances of marginality.
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Notes
The term ‘ordinary people’ will be used interchangeably with ‘the poor’ because the latter can move in and out of poverty, depending on a portfolio of assets ordinary people have been able to amass at particular places and times.
Apart from the last page of this article where I referred to the minutes of the Rustenburg City Council, the statements made here are a compilation of interviews from the unemployed people of the three neighborhoods I have mentioned. Some of the informants are former mineworkers who were active in the labor movement. The other informants were active members in the Freedom Park Development Forum as well as Freedom Park Housing Committee. The Catholic Church has also provided useful information.
US$1 = R5 at that time.
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Acknowledgements
I am grateful to two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments. I appreciate the time and insights of my informants in Rustenburg. All errors and omissions remain the responsibility of the author.
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Mosiane, B. Landscapes of flexibility or landscapes of marginality? spaces of livelihood formation in a changing South African city. GeoJournal 74, 541–549 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-008-9247-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-008-9247-4