Swilling, Mark (1994) Urban control and changing forms of political conflict in Uitenhage : 1977-1986. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

The central question posed in this thesis is as follows: why did the apartheid
urban system change over time and in space during the 1980s? Based on a case
study of Langa Uitenhage, the changes in this local urban system are
explained in terms of the complex and irreducible relations of power that
exist within the urban system between three primary sub-systems that
interacted at the local level, namely the state agencies (especially local
governments and the security forces), community- and workplace-based
social movements, and formal business sector, particularly the local branches
of large-scale national and multi-national corporations.
The primary findings of the thesis are as follows:
(i) Uitenhage's urban system changed over time and in space as a result of
the complex interactions and transactions between the elements of this
local urban system and as a result of the dynamic interplay between this
local urban system and the wider non-local urban, socio-economic and
political systems within which Uitenhage's local urban system was
embedded.
(ii) Local urban politics can be explained as the organised expression of those
interactions and transactions that resulted from conflicting conceptions of
urban meaning and the corresponding urban functions and urban forms
that flowed from different urban meanings.
(iii) The dynamics of local urban politics cannot be explained as the
epiphenomena of underlying structural contradictions. There were key
moments when certain interactions occurred that decisively changed the
qualitative nature of the relationships between the elements of the local
urban system as a whole. Herein lies the importance of such occurances as
police massacres of peaceful demonstrators, violent crowd attacks on
representatives of the state, local-level negotiations and mass detentions.
(iv) This local case study contributes to an explanation of urban system change
and the dynamics of urban politics. However, the case study has not been
designed to generate another general theory of urban sysem change or
urban politics. It only demonstrated the usefulness of systems theory as a
guide for case study research.

Item Type:	Thesis or Dissertation (PhD)
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > DT Africa
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Uitenhage (South Africa) -- Politics and government -- 20th century, Uitenhage (South Africa) -- Social conditions -- 20th century, Urbanization -- South Africa -- Uitenhage
Official Date:	June 1994
Dates:	Date Event June 1994 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Sociology
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Cohen, Robin, 1944-
Sponsors:	British Council ; University of the Witwatersrand. Graduate School of Public and Development Management
Extent:	vi, 428 leaves
Language:	eng

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