121 | P a g e CHAPTER 7 | CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMENDATIONS
122 | P a g e question is posed within this chapter as it is the purpose of this dissertation to provide a strategy toward an inclusive urban future. As such the dystopic and developmental theories are posited against one another, with the purpose of the broader focus of this investigation being to offer possible strategies to avoid these current negative future city projections.
Understanding that insurgency is a contestation of exclusionary practices, policies or built environments, Social Exclusion in the City is established as a means to explore these exclusions. Due to the many forms of exclusion that may be present within the cities of the developing world, the chapter disseminates these exclusions into conditions apparent within the South African construct so to better inform the selected sample of informal recyclers within the post apartheid city of Durban, South Africa. Modernism, Apartheid and Post Apartheid social and spatial constructs have been investigated, relating directly to the construct under which the field of study is undertaken. What is important to note from this chapter is the perpetual shifting of exclusive trajectories within current urban constructs.
Most notable is how spatial exclusion may be further perpetuated by economic exclusion; or as shown in the Thokoza hostel case study, gender based exclusions. Therefore in building an argument in support of facilitating insurgent practices, the first two chapters provide the physical and social construct required in order to better conceptualise the resulting insurgent citizenships.
Resistance focuses directly on the insurgent citizens and their resulting insurgent urbanisms.
Within environment s of exclusion and control these citizens through autarkic and survivalist methods, find ways in which to contest these exclusions and thus claim their rights to the city.
As has been shown, these spatial and social rights go beyond acceptance or inclusion, but are rights to participation and rights to be acknowledged as legitimate stakeholders within the economic and social functions of the existing city. The resulting insurgent urbanisms, provide clues on how to maximise wasted city space by reanimating residual space within the existing city fabric. These survivalist methods have provided clues into how the city functions, and thus from a developmental and planning perspective, by acknowledging these sites of insurgency perhaps more inclusive environments may be imagined. By learning from these survivalist strategies, this research proves the value of grassroots up development by looking for these sites of insurgency and thus providing viable interventions that can genuinely add value to these citizens lives and livelihoods.
123 | P a g e The selection of the following primary research was undertaken as a means to test the findings in the previous chapters and thus exhibited qualities that tested this dissertations hypothesis of inclusive developmentalism. The investigation into the Traditional Herb Market and the preceding study of the Warwick Junction Markets as a whole is a means to gain an understanding of the contestations that occur between the informal traders and the authorities to secure spatial rights to trade within the city. The adaptive reuse of unused urban infrastructure supports Villagomez’s spatial theories of residual space usage by insurgent citizens. The spatial adaptions have been galvanised through social mobilisations as a strategy to secure the traders rights to participation and thus rights to the city. All infrastructure provision thereafter has been implemented as a result of these contestations, and thus providing a framework for development strategies when considering other forms of insurgency within the city. The various markets of the Warwick Junction precinct provide a sound study of inclusive planning strategies through participatory dialogues.
Many of the female traders found within the markets of Warwick Junction, have developed housing strategies to support their life and livelihoods by means of transitional housing. The context under which these strategies occur are based within the exclusionary practices and cityscapes as instigated during the apartheid regime, which this case study shares with the market. However, what defines the purpose of the Thokoza Hostel case study is the shifting trajectory of exclusion and inclusion within the city. Although the hostel was established as a means of spatial and racial control in the height of apartheid, today it represents a place of refuge and independence. Therefore what can be learned is that beyond the residual, discarded space adaption’s posited by Villagomez, is the opportunity to redefine through social action the symbolisms found within exclusionary environments.
Due to the selected user group for the proposed architectural intervention being the informal recyclers of the Durban CBD, the closing studies of this dissertation focuses primarily on informal recycling as a form of insurgency, both locally and internationally. As the research suggests, this informal citizenship makes up as much as 2% of the planets population, therefore proving the sustainability of this livelihood strategy and conversely the need to develop inclusive development strategies for this citizenship. Belo Horizonte, Brazil provides a succinct study of inclusive development strategies for the informal recyclers, with various means of representation and infrastructure provision to facilitate the processes of recycling.
By bridging the gap between the recyclers and the general public, organisations such as
124 | P a g e ASMARE provide inclusive strategies to protect and promote this mutually beneficial livelihood strategy by absorbing these practices into the formal waste management systems of the city.
This study is paradoxically juxtaposed with the informal recyclers of Doornfontein, Johannesburg where the inhabitants of House 38, live excluded, marginalised and highly survivalist lives. Although these 200 informal recyclers have mobilised into a micro community of sorts, there is no formal representation or structures in place to facilitate their activities. More than proving the existence of insurgency, the House 38 case study is the antithesis of this dissertation, exposing the desperate situations that exist where interventions are not imagined and realised, resulting in exclusion for a citizenship of the peripheries.
The research undertaken within this dissertation has been selected as a means to suggest an appropriate response to the problem statement and thus the current urban situation faced by the working urban poor. As such, lessons gained from the analysis of the research collected by means of primary and secondary data, will be suggested in informing the design of an inclusive and participatory, grassroots level up architectural solution for the informal cardboard recyclers of the Durban CBD, South Africa.