Popular politics in South African cities: unpacking community participation
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Community meetings seldom lead to significant change in urban policies, and have been accused of being sterile, sedative, or manipulative. This book starts from a simple question: why do people then continue to participate in these meetings, sometimes massively, and on a regular basis? Authors from a variety of disciplines explore the multiple roles of these invited spaces of participation. From consolidation of individual social status and networks, to the construction and framing of the local community, the display of political or group loyalties and maintenance of clientelist exchange, access to information, rumors or gossip but also forms of education on who and what is the state, invited spaces of participation are also, crucially, places of emergence of collective awareness, through shared expressions of frustration, that can lead to political mobilisation and other, less institutionalised forms of participation. This book, unpacking community politics and rethinking the complex articulations between invited and invented spaces of participation, is of relevance for international and national audiences interested in urban governance and local democracy.
DOI: 10.14749/32384664
Author: Human Sciences Research Council
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: Human Sciences Research Council
OpenAlex ID: W7162197129
FWCI:
Cites:
Cited by:
Related to: