As the dynamo of South Africa's economy, Johannesburg commands a central position in the nation's imagination, and scholars throughout the world monitor the city as an exemplar of urbanity in the global South. This book offers detailed empirical analyses of changes in the city's physical space, as well as a host of chapters on the character of specific neighbourhoods and the social identities being forged within them. Informing all of these is a consideration of underlying economic, social and political processes shaping the wider Gauteng province. A mix of respected academics, practising urban planners and experienced policymakers offer compelling overviews of the rapid and complex spatial developments that have taken place in Johannesburg since the end of apartheid, along with tantalising glimpses into life on the streets and behind the high walls of this diverse city. The book has three sections. Section A provides an overview of macro spatial trends and the policies that have influenced them. Section B explores the shaping of the city at district and suburban level, revealing the peculiarity of processes in different areas. This analysis elucidates the larger trends, while identifying shifts that are not easily detected at the macro level. Section C is an assembly of chapters and short vignettes that focus on the interweaving of place and identity at a micro level.
With empirical data supported by new data sets including the 2011 Census, the city's Development Planning and Urban Management Department's information system, and Gauteng City-Region Observatory's substantial archive, the book is an essential reference for planning practitioners, urban geographers, sociologists, and social anthropologists, among others.

Peter Ahmad is the senior manager for metropolitan planning in the City of Cape Town, South Africa.

Preface
Cartography
Chapter 1 Materialities, subjectivities and spatial transformation in Johannesburg - Philip Harrison, Graeme Gotz, Alison Todes and Chris Wray
Section A: The macro trends
Chapter 2 The 'thin oil of urbanisation'? Spatial change in Johannesburg and the Gauteng city-region - Graeme Gotz, Chris Wray and Brian Mubiwa
Chapter 3 Poverty and inequality in the Gauteng city-region - David Everatt
Chapter 4 The impact of policy and strategic spatial planning - Alison Todes
Chapter 5 Tracking changes in the urban built environment: An emerging perspective from the City of Johannesburg - Peter Ahmad and Herman Pienaar
Chapter 6 Johannesburg's urban space economy - Graeme Gotz and Alison Todes
Chapter 7 Changes in the natural landscape - Maryna Storie
Chapter 8 Informal settlements - Marie Huchzermeyer, Aly Karam and Miriam Maina
Chapter 9 Public housing in Johannesburg - Sarah Charlton
Chapter 10 Transport in the shaping of space - Mathetha Mokonyama and Brian Mubiwa
Chapter 11 Gated communities and spatial transformation in Greater Johannesburg - Karina Landman and Willem Badenhorst
Section B: Area-based transformations
Chapter 12 Between fixity and flux: Grappling with transience and permanence in the inner city - Yasmeen Dinath
Chapter 13 Are Johannesburg's peri-central neighbourhoods irremediably 'fluid'? Local leadership and community building in Yeoville and Bertrams - Claire Bénit-Gbaffou
Chapter 14 The wrong side of the mining belt? Spatial transformations and identities in Johannesburg's southern suburbs - Philip Harrison and Tanya Zack
Chapter 15 Soweto: A study in socio-spatial differentiation - Philip Harrison and Kirsten Harrison
Chapter 16 Kliptown: Resilience and despair in the face of a hundred years of planning - Hilton Judin, Naomi Roux and Tanya Zack
Chapter 17 Alexandra - Philip Harrison, Adrian Masson and Luke Sinwell
Chapter 18 Sandton Central, 1969-2013: From open veld to new CBD? - Keith Beavon and Pauline Larsen
Chapter 19 In the forest of transformation: Johannesburg's northern suburbs - Alan Mabin
Chapter 20 The north-western edge - Neil Klug, Margot Rubin and Alison Todes
Chapter 21 The 2010 World Cup and its legacy in the Ellis Park Precinct: Perceptions of local residents - Aly Karam and Margot Rubin
Chapter 22 Transformation through transportation: Some early impacts of Bus Rapid Transit in Orlando, Soweto - Christo Venter and Eunice Vaz
Section C: Spatial identities
Chapter 23 Footprints of Islam in Johannesburg - Yasmeen Dinath, Yusuf Patel and Rashid Seedat
Chapter 24 Being an immigrant and facing uncertainty in Johannesburg: The case of Somalis - Samadia Sadouni
Chapter 25 On 'spaces of hope': Exploring Hillbrow's discursive credoscapes - Tanja Winkler
Chapter 26 The Central Methodist Church - Christa Kuljian
Chapter 27 The Ethiopian Quarter - Hannah le Roux
Chapter 28 Urban collage: Yeoville - Naomi Roux
Chapter 29 Phantoms of the past, spectres of the present: Chinese space in Johannesburg - Philip Harrison, Khangelani Moyo and Yan Yang
Chapter 30 The notice -Caroline Wanjiku Kihato
Chapter 31 Inner-city street traders: Legality and spatial practice - Puleng Makhetha and Margot Rubin
Chapter 32 Waste pickers/informal recyclers - Sarah Charlton
Chapter 33 The fear of others: Responses to crime and urban transformation in Johannesburg -Teresa Dirsuweit
Chapter 34 Black urban, black research: Why understanding space and identity in South Africa still matters - Nqobile Malaza
Contributors
Photographic credits
Acronyms
List of plates
List of figures
List of tables
Index