The global financial crisis of summer 2008 rocked markets throughout the world. Evidence of its impact on the urban working poor is only just emerging but is likely to be profound. The paper challenges the accepted argument that globalization and economic growth is good for poverty reduction,...

Urban growth has been accompanied by the development of bimodal labour markets and increasing inequalities in both North and South. In Southern cities, many of the poor have turned to the informal sector, in particular to street trade. This has resulted in a multiplicity of urban conflicts and...

The poverty and dramatic alteration in geographical composition of African cities have been associated with rapid urbanisation, the growth of the informal economy and migration. The latter has separated individuals from long-established social and kinship networks, and from familiar livelihood...

Using South Africa as a case study for the workings of community agency in partnerships with the public and non-profit sector, this paper focuses on community-driven developments in townships in the Western Cape. The hypothesis is put forward that although structural factors are a major...

Summary Post-disaster reconstruction often fails in its stated objectives. These failures may be traced to the centralizing approaches generally taken to reconstruction, which are encouraged by the political economy of post-disaster situations. Approaching the reconstruction undertaken after...