A politics of land occupation: a perspective on state practice and everyday mobilisation in Zille Raine Heights, Cape Town

Jessica Paula Rose Thorn, Sophie Oldfield

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

In this paper we reflect on a contested land occupation in Cape Town, the informal settlement of Zille Raine Heights in the city’s southern suburbs, to explore the settlement’s struggle to gain a legal right to land and the state’s attempts to remove it. In occupying land and defending their right to a decent place in the city, Zille Raine Heights and other settlements like it challenge the state in precise ways. This paper explores the provisional and unstable ways in which land occupiers and the state access and defend resources such as land, and in the process, engage in a politics of occupation together.
Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of Asian and African Studies
Volume46
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2012

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