Extending the analysis of urban land conflict: An example from Johannesburg

Abstract

Social conflict can be mobilised to achieve progressive and/or regressive change. Focusing on urban land conflicts that relate to property rights, I examine how commonly held understandings of this phenomenon may risk glossing over conflict that emerges because of the property rights themselves, as well as legitimating only certain types of conflict as worthy of activism and scholarly engagement. Using the example of Thokoza, a largely residential area outside of Johannesburg, I juxtapose an understanding of conflict as being related to ‘distributional’ inequalities with that of conflict emerging from the inherent nature of property rights. This illustrates the complementary value of thinking about conflict caused by property rights themselves in analysing urban land conflicts.