McFarlane, C. and Silver, J. (2017) The Poolitical City: “Seeing Sanitation” and Making the Urban Political in Cape Town. Antipode, 49 (1). pp. 125-148. ISSN 0066-4812
Abstract
In an urbanizing world, the inequalities of infrastructure are increasingly politicized in ways that reconstitute the urban political. A key site here is the politicization of human waste. The centrality of sanitation to urban life means that its politicization is always more than just service delivery. It is vital to the production of the urban political itself. The ways in which sanitation is seen by different actors is a basis for understanding its relation to the political. We chart Cape Town's contemporary sanitation syndrome, its condition of crisis, and the remarkable politicization of toilets and human waste in the city's townships and informal settlements in recent years. We identify four tactics—poolitical tactics—that politicize not just sanitation but Cape Town itself: poo protests, auditing, sabotage, and blockages. We evaluate these tactics, consider what is at stake, and chart possibilities for a more just urban future.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2016 Wiley. |
Keywords: | urban politics; sanitation; social movements; Cape Town |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Sheffield Urban Institute |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 01 Feb 2017 09:34 |
Last Modified: | 01 Feb 2017 09:34 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12264 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/anti.12264 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:111290 |