Residential segregation in post-apartheid Vredenburg : the role of racial preference

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:South Africa has a long history of divided towns and cities. The grave inefficiencies andinequalities that developed between the racial communities during these periods must now beredressed in post-apartheid South Africa by integrating and unifying the physical and socialstructures of the country's urban settlements. In spite of the positive general trends in racerelations and attitudes towards residential integration, South African towns and citiesgenerally remain hyper-segregated. This could be an indication that White attitudes pertainonly to the principles of integration, but that they do not actually want to live in integratedneighbourhoods themselves.The aim of this study is to assess the influence of racial preference in the dismantling orcontinuation of segregation in the South African town of Vredenburg during the postapartheidera. This is done by determining the influence that the population groupcomposition of a neighbourhood has on the desirability of living in that neighbourhood whenaccounting for varying levels of crime and neighbourhood deterioration. A factorial surveyquestionnaire was used to gather the data, which were then analysed by way of multipleregression analyses.The results of the analyses indicate that the sampled residents of Vredenburg are generally notinfluenced by the population group composition of the neighbourhood. However, the moreunsafe the neighbourhood, the more litter that is strewn about, the lower the housing qualityand the more unfriendly the neighbours, the less respondents liked the neighbourhood. Theresults also indicate that members of the upper socio-economic class are more critical of theirneighbourhoods and tend to evaluate them according to stricter criteria than the lower socio-economic classes do.The findings suggest that the racial composition of a neighbourhood per se does notsignificantly affect the attitudes of Vredenburg's residents towards a neighbourhood. Rather,high levels of crime and residential environmental deterioration are the factors that stronglyaffect both White and non-White people's views of a neighbourhood. Higher levels of crime and environmental deterioration are commonly associated with thelower socio-economic class. In the case of Vredenburg, vast socio-economic differences existbetween the White and non- White residents of the town. These differences are not likely tochange considerably in the short term. The continuation of these class differences will mostlikely be the cause of continued segregation in Vredenburg.Keywords: Apartheid city, Centralisation, Concentration, Evenness, Exposure, Factorialsurvey, Hyper-segregation, Integration, Multiple regression analysis, Neighbourhoodcharacteristics, Racial preference, Segregation, Segregation indices.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University