Rights-based Litigation, Urban Governance and Social Justice in South Africa : The Right to Joburg

Rights- based Litigation, Urban Governance and Social Justice in South Africaconsiders the overlap between legal and everyday struggles for social and spatialjustice in the particular context of Johannesburg, South Africa. Drawing fromliterature across disciplines of law, urban geography and urban planning, as wellas from reported case- law concerning the invocation of constitutional rights inJohannesburg and other South African cities, the book critically examineswhether, and to what extent, the invocation of legal rights before South Africancourts have contributed to the advancement of social justice in the city. It considersthe impact of the legal assertion of different constituent aspects of the socalled‘right to the city’ on the many people simultaneously performing the right,the governance structures responsible for enabling and facilitating its enjoymentand the physical place in which it is performed. Drawing broad conclusions onthe utility of rights- based litigation for the achievement of social change andspatial justice, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of SouthAfrica, constitutional law, human rights law, regulatory law, sociology of rights,studies of law and society, urban studies, urban geography, governance studiesand development studies. Cover 1 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Table of Contents 6 Preface and acknowledgements 8 1 Johannesburg as a site for rights 10 Introduction: on rights and place 10 The right to the city 13 Struggling over the right to the city in Johannesburg: introducing the stage and the main institutional actors 16 Aims and focus of this book 32 2 Inhabiting Johannesburg: housing rights struggles 47 Introduction 47 Housing practices of Johannesburg’s urban poor 51 Urban habitation struggles in the courts 54 Reflections 78 3 Struggles over essential services 93 Introduction 93 Access to, contestation over and delivery of essential services in Johannesburg 95 Service delivery and citizenship disputes in the courts 101 Reflections 115 4 Marginal struggles: equality, public presence and livelihood 126 Introduction 126 Marginality, insurgence and the right to the city 128 Using legal rights and litigation to resist urban marginality 135 Reflections 144 5 Privileged struggles: property, lifestyle, business and safety 153 Introduction 153 Spatial practices of Johannesburg’s middle- and upper-classes 154 Middle- and upper-class rights and responsibilities in the courts 162 Reflections 174 6 Struggles over autonomy, equality and identity: sex, gender and sexuality 183 Introduction 183 Rights, sex, sexuality and the city 184 Sex work in Johannesburg 186 LGBTI rights struggles in Johannesburg 194 Gender, sex and the city: female sexuality in Johannesburg 200 Reflections 203 7 The right to Joburg? 215 Introduction 215 Rights, space, dialogue and contestation 217 Judicial vindication of rights to the city 221 The impact of rights- based litigation in Johannesburg 229 Urban constitutional citizenship 235 Conclusion 238 Index 247 Rights-based Litigation, Urban Governance and Social Justice in South Africa considers the overlap between legal and everyday struggles for social and spatial justice in the particular context of Johannesburg, South Africa. Drawing from literature across disciplines of law, urban geography and urban planning, as well as from reported case-law concerning the invocation of constitutional rights in Johannesburg and other South African cities, the book critically examines whether, and to what extent, the invocation of legal rights before South African courts have contributed to the advancement of social justice in the city. It considers the impact of the legal assertion of different constituent aspects of the so-called "right to the city" on the many people simultaneously performing the right, the governance structures responsible for enabling and facilitating its enjoyment and, thirdly, the physical place in which it is performed. Drawing broad conclusions on the utility of rights-based litigation for the achievement of social change and spatial justice, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of South Africa, constitutional law, human rights law, regulatory law, sociology of rights, studies of law and society, urban studies, urban geography, governance studies, and development studies Drawing from literature on law, urban geography and urban planning, as well as reported case-law concerning the invocation of constitutional rights in South African cities, this book examines whether and to what extent the invocation of legal rights before South African courts have contributed to the advancement of social justice in the city.