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Victoria Mxenge: a Story About More Than Women Building Their Community

Victoria Mxenge: a Story About More Than Women Building Their Community During the 1990s, a small group of women constructed 148 houses near the townships of Gugulethu and Nyanga in Cape Town. The small neighbourhood became the flagship project of the South African Homeless People's Federation (SAHPF), and the government used the insights of these women to develop their People's Housing Process (PHP) housing framework. In this contribution, their story is told, and in explaining why these women were so successful, we use the theoretical concepts of Pierre Bourdieu and pay specific attention to the changed meaning of power. The paper argues that the coinciding of a “vacuum” in the planning field, the transition in South Africa to a democratic state and the personal motivation of the women of Victoria Mxenge created a momentum that enabled them to influence governmental policies on a national scale. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Urban Forum Springer Journals

Victoria Mxenge: a Story About More Than Women Building Their Community

Urban Forum , Volume 23 (2) – Apr 27, 2012

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References (39)

Publisher
Springer Journals
Copyright
Copyright © 2012 by Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
Subject
Social Sciences; Human Geography; Landscape/Regional and Urban Planning; Population Economics; Political Science; Sociology, general
ISSN
1015-3802
eISSN
1874-6330
DOI
10.1007/s12132-012-9150-4
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

During the 1990s, a small group of women constructed 148 houses near the townships of Gugulethu and Nyanga in Cape Town. The small neighbourhood became the flagship project of the South African Homeless People's Federation (SAHPF), and the government used the insights of these women to develop their People's Housing Process (PHP) housing framework. In this contribution, their story is told, and in explaining why these women were so successful, we use the theoretical concepts of Pierre Bourdieu and pay specific attention to the changed meaning of power. The paper argues that the coinciding of a “vacuum” in the planning field, the transition in South Africa to a democratic state and the personal motivation of the women of Victoria Mxenge created a momentum that enabled them to influence governmental policies on a national scale.

Journal

Urban ForumSpringer Journals

Published: Apr 27, 2012

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