Cities Without Citizens: A Perspective on the Struggle of Abahlali baseMjondolo, the Durban Shackdweller Movement

by Raj Patel, Chapter Three of Contesting Development Critical Struggles for Social Change, edited by Phillip McMichael, 2009

Abahlali baseMjondolo problematizes “ownership” as means of production
and self-improvement in the development narrative by investing it with the
right to a place in the city—as a question of social reproduction and cultural
entitlement (given the particular history of race and class in post-apartheid
South Africa). In contesting betrayal of their urban land claims, in an electoral
context, this movement brings a new sensibility into the public discourse
of rights and responsibilities, challenging its members’ impoverishment and
demobilization as citizens of the anti-apartheid struggle.

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