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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Township housing and South Africa's 'financial explosion': the theory and practice of financial capital in Alexandra
Author:Bond, P.ISNI
Year:1990
Periodical:Urban Forum
Volume:1
Issue:2
Pages:39-67
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:future
urban housing
financing
External link:https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF03036573
Abstract:Arising from South Africa's decade-and-a-half-long economic stagnation, the recent spectacular dynamism of the country's financial sector could not but have profoundly affected the post-Riekert Commission urban transformation of apartheid townships into free market investment arenas. This transformation represents a gruelling challenge for the many poor and working people who are likely to be displaced in the process. This article begins by outlining the dramatic shift from productive to financial assets under way in the South African economy, a shift that for stagnant economies has been aptly characterized by H. Magdoff and P. Sweezy (1987) as 'the financial explosion' (Section I). There is a particular set of urban correlates to the financial explosion, and to review these also calls attention to the complex role of housing finance in uneven urban - particularly residential - development (Section II), for which Alexandra, Johannesburg's closest African township, offers a useful case study (Section III). The conclusion reiterates a central theme: the unfettered freedom of market mechanisms in townships, given the broader processes of the South African economy, will constrain rather than catalyze sustainable, popular development. Bibliogr.
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