5.4. Conclusion
This report examined how Johannesburg's CSOs could
facilitate a greater social justice for FMs, following several
challenges they face in the inner city which include the denial of
access to the health care and also relate to education, unemployment, lack of
accommodation, xenophobia, exclusion, and discrimination. Fainstein's
(2005) conceptualisation of the `Just City' was used as the guiding
theory for this study, followed by Sandercock's (2005 and
2006) approach to the multicultural and intercultural
cities, and Healey's (1996) politics of difference. The just city approach,
the theories of multicultural and intercultural cities, and the politics of
difference, were urban planning theories and approaches used to review,
examine,
argue, and analyse the findings of the fieldwork that I conducted
for the purpose of this study.
Broadly, this report was divided into five chapters. The
first chapter was introductory,
presenting the aim, rationale, methodology and the
study's limitations. Johannesburg experiences a flow of FMs coming from
all over the world, fleeing their countries for various reasons, including
civil wars, political pressures, and persecutions. However, in the inner city,
where most of FMs are concentrated, there is a lack of social justice (in a
administrative way,
as mentioned in Chapter One) whose the consequences
are the challenges previously mentioned. These challenges have a severe
impact on their human rights and dignities, and prevent them from
accessing the opportunities that the city offers to all its residents.
For this reason, a case-study on Africa's FMs living in the
inner city (particularly in Hillbrow and Yeoville) was carried out; and
in-depth interviews were conducted with the FMs, CSOs, a police officer, an
official from the DHA, and an official from the city
council of Johannesburg, in order to examine the challenges facing
FMs in the inner city, and their relationships with the cit y's CSOs. The
outcomes of these findings served also to evaluate the impacts of the CSOs'
actions regarding their efforts to promote social justice for FMs and
make Johannesburg a just city.
To see how this objective could be achieved, a number
of works on civil society, social justice, forced migration, and
`just-city', were reviewed in Chapter Two. The aim of these literatures
reviewed was to understand the meaning and role of civil society, the
importance of promoting a greater social justice in cities, the content of
international regulations on FMs, as well as to highlight the meaning of the
just city from a planning perspective. Most of these works reviewed defined
the civil society as an agent of social transformation (Friedmann,
1998) and as a `way of thinking about power and the state'
(Friedmann and Marris, 1998); while others defined social justice in
terms of fairness, equity, equality, democracy, social integration, and
respect for the differences (Rawls, 1997; Harvey, 1973; Campbell, 1988; and
Oelofse, 2003). Regarding the concept of the `just city', it has
been defined in terms of democracy, equality, diversity, growth,
sustainability (Fainstein, 2005; Sandercock, 1998; and Young, 1990), and
participation (Fisher, 1990).
The Chapter Three focused on the methodology used in the study,
and presented the findings
of the fieldwork conducted for its purpose. Regarding the
methodology, this stud y used the case study research as this method
may help to examine social phenomena such as xenophobia and
discrimination (Yin, 1993; McNeil, 1985Tellis, 1997), which are some of the
causes of the lack of social justice in the inner city of
Johannesburg. In-depth interviews and
participant observation were the two sources of information
that were used to collect the data presented in this study. Through
in-depth interviews, FMs expressed their views on challenges they
face, and the members of the CSOs explained how they tackle issues facing FMs,
challenge the government policies and the City's exclusionary decisions, and
how they facilitate greater social justice for FMs.
The strengths and weaknesses of CSOs were analysed and evaluated
in Chapter Four, as well
as the voices of FMs. The review of the civil society
activities and efforts confirmed that the inner city CSOs have the potential to
bring social and economic transformation in the city and help it to become a
just city, according to Fainstein's vision.
And finally, in Chapter Five, some recommendations were
formulated for the purpose of Johannesburg's CSOs, the City of
Johannesburg (CoJ) and for the national government. With regarding to the
national government, it was recommended that it should include the interests
of FMs among its priorities to create a more just
city; while from the civil society's side, recommendations that were
formulated included: encouraging greater participation, mobilisation and
inclusion of South Africans in their struggle for greater social
justice for FMs; adopting sometimes radical or `rebellious' procedures to
tackle or challenge government policies and exclusionary decisions towards FMs;
encouraging strong collaboration between CSOs and the city's planners on
matters relating to the FMs; increasing the awareness campaign through
the use of the media for the social and economic transformation of the city;
reinforcing partnerships with international financial institutions
in order to avoid the government subsidiaries which may impact
negatively on their autonomy vis-à-vis the state; and increasing a
greater collaboration with research centres as well as academic institutions,
such the Forced Migration Department of the University of the
Witwatersrand for them to stay informed frequently enough on the
conditions of the FMs. Some directions for future study were also given
in this chapter to encourage development planning students to continue
the research on the subject of social justice for the
Johannesburg FMs.
In relation to the main research question (see Chapter One),
this study showed that the CSOs could facilitate a greater social justice for
FMs by adopting a collaborative, participative, and educative (constructive)
attitudes in their relationships with the city council, South Africans,
and FMs. It would be collaborative, in the sense that,
to change the FM's conditions, they
should collaborate with the city council (especially with
city's planners); and participative,
because they should invite local people to support
efforts to challenge government policies and decisions. Finally, it
would be educative, because their efforts to promote social justice
should be constructive, as it is about teaching people who are
different to live together,
despite their differences.
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