Sense of Neighbourhood in a South African Urban Locale

ABSTRACT

The nature of the unfolding social cohesion in previously racially segregated residential spaces has attracted attention since the collapse of apartheid in South Africa and the subsequent transition to democracy in 1994. This paper uses sense of neighbourhood to investigate the emerging social interactions in Cambridge, a former whites-only residential suburb in East London, South Africa. Fitting a binary logistic regression on survey data from a sample of residents of Cambridge, the paper tests the likelihood of race and gender influencing three indicators of the sense of neighbourhood: the sense of safety, trust and norms of reciprocity. The results show that relational dimensions of the sense of neighbourhood differed along racial lines, with low levels of interracial trust mirroring studies elsewhere in the country, and the national-level South African Reconciliation Barometer survey reports. Due to the voluntaristic nature of relational ties, social integration will remain elusive, and regardless of the extent of racial changes, variations in the sense of neighbourhood will characterise the urban residential spaces.

KEYWORDS:

• Post-apartheid
• sense of neighbourhood
• social interaction
• social cohesion
• Cambridge
• East London

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Interview with CM 01 16 May 2010.

2 Interview with CB 11, 11 May 2010.

3 Interview with CM 13, 16 May 2010.

4 Interview with CM 16, 16 May 2010.

5 Interview with CM 09, 16 May 2010.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

John Bwalya

John Bwalya is Associate Professor in the Dag Hammarskjöld Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies at the Copperbelt University, Zambia.

Cecil Seethal

Cecil Seethal is honorary research fellow in the School of Agricultural, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, an Ombudsperson of the Society of South African Geographers, and a former Professor of Geography at the University of South Africa, and at the University of Fort Hare.

Mikala S. Bwalya

Mikala S. Bwalya is a Lecturer and Head of the Department of Geography at Kwame Nkrumah University, Zambia.