Capital Accumulation and Conurbation: Rethinking The Social Geography of The ‘Black’ Townships

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Abstract
During the 1980s the heightening of social struggles in the townships classified as Black, became a marked feature of South African politics. Burgeoning social conflict in these largely working class residential areas was also reflected in the appearance of intellectual commentary on housing, transport and other issues. Several academic studies and political tracts attempted to explain the increasing undersupply and rising cost of accommodation and amenities in the townships. This paper explores the assumptions underlying a set of radical contributions on the housing and other urban questions in the ‘Black’ townships. The latter are predicated on the assumption that class struggles — mediated through conflict over the distribution of the costs of reproducing labour power — are the major determinants of urban policy and conflict. The present study approached the housing and related urban questions with a perspective which differed from the existing radical analyses — namely, that the capital accumulating activities of private companies also contributed to shaping urban policies and functions of the state. The inquiry demonstrated that this was the case on the Witwatersrand during the early-1980s, thereby vindicating the need to make a conceptual break with the paradigms of existing urban studies.

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