In his essay on walking in the city, de Certeau spoke about how the act of walking by ordinary people reflects broader manners of consumption by which individuals manipulate the walkways and invent their own order, which is at odds with what the city's regulatory platforms formulate. Adams (1969) spoke about "spatial vocabularies" of city dwellers and underscored the importance of intra urban movement, highlighting how people carry cognitive imagery of the city in their minds. The structuring of the city, according to Adams (1969) necessitated mobility by urban dwellers in order to access different services and engage in daily transactions. Daily mobilities in this study include movements to and from places of employment and places of education (see tables, 23 and 24). While daily mobilities are often discussed as standalone phenomena in the literature, in this study I connect them to the residential and weekly movements as they are directly influenced by the decisions involving where participants choose to reside in the city. Walking is the preferred mode of travel in the city and perhaps speaks to the decisions pertaining to place of residence and proximity to places where
participants go (see Table 6.25 and 6.26). Tables B9-B16 in the appendices show the travel times to different places where participants move on day to day and on an ad-hoc basis.
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Table 6.23: Places where participants go for employment Place of residence Inner
city Suburbs
Inner
ring Township Not working
Outside Joburg Total Inner city Frequency 13 24 0 0 9 0 46 Percentage 28.3 52.2 0.0 0.0 19.6 0.0 100 Suburbs Frequency 1 26 0 0 10 1 38 Percentage 2.6 68.4 0.0 0.0 26.3 2.6 100 Inner ring Frequency 4 13 5 0 22 0 44 Percentage 9.1 29.5 11.4 0.0 50.0 0.0 100 Township Frequency 1 7 1 2 4 2 17 Percentage 5.9 41.2 5.9 11.8 23.5 11.8 100 Total Frequency 19 70 6 2 45 3 145 Percentage 13.1 48.3 4.1 1.4 31.0 2.1 100
Source: author's survey data
Table 6.24: Places where participants go for education
Place of residence Inner city Suburbs Inner ring Township Not Studying Outside Joburg Total Inner city Frequency 11 4 1 0 29 2 47 Percentage 23.4 8.5 2.1 0.0 61.7 4.3 100 Suburbs Frequency 5 21 1 0 10 1 38 Percentage 13.2 55.3 2.6 0.0 26.3 2.6 100 Inner ring Frequency 2 19 2 0 21 0 44 Percentage 4.5 43.2 4.5 0.0 47.7 0.0 100 Township Frequency 1 2 0 1 11 2 17 Percentage 5.9 11.8 0.0 5.9 64.7 11.8 100 Total Frequency 19 46 4 1 71 5 146 Percentage 13.0 31.5 2.7 0.7 48.6 3.4 100
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Daily and weekly movements are generally structured and purposeful. It is important however to note that in the act of moving, rather than enunciating the spatial regimen of city planning authorities as intimated by de Certeau, the participants of this study enunciate a different order that is governed by spaces of fear and avoidance of the police and criminals in the city. It is an act of tactical navigation, which is informed by the levels of identity comfort in the city as the places where participants go for their weekly activities such as entertainment correspond to the overall feeling about place. I discuss identity comfort and belonging as well as feelings about place in the following chapters.
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Table 6.25: Participants' mode of transport to places of employment
Walk Metrobus Bus Rapid
Transit Mini-bus taxi Metro-rail
Own private car
Someone else's car
Not
applicable Other Total
Inner city Frequency 12 4 0 10 1 6 3 9 2 47
Percentage 25.5 8.5 0.0 21.3 2.1 12.8 6.4 19.1 4.3 100.0
Suburbs Frequency 4 1 0 10 1 9 3 10 0 38
Percentage 10.5 2.6 0.0 26.3 2.6 23.7 7.9 26.3 0.0 100.0
Inner ring Frequency 6 3 1 5 0 4 2 23 0 44
Percentage 13.6 6.8 2.3 11.4 0.0 9.1 4.5 52.3 0.0 100.0
Townships Frequency 2 0 0 8 0 1 1 4 0 16
Percentage 12.5 0.0 0.0 50.0 0.0 6.3 6.3 25.0 0.0 100.0
Total Frequency 24 8 1 33 2 20 9 46 2 145
Percentage 16.6 5.5 0.7 22.8 1.4 13.8 6.2 31.7 1.4 100.0
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Table 6.26: Participants' mode of transport to places of education How do you get to your place of education
Total Walk Metrobus Mini-bus taxi Metro-rail Own private
car
Someone else's car
Not
applicable Other
Inner city Frequency 11 0 5 0 1 0 28 2 47
Percentage 23.4 0.0 10.6 0.0 2.1 0.0 59.6 4.3 100.0
Suburbs Frequency 2 1 12 1 9 3 10 0 38
Percentage 5.3 2.6 31.6 2.6 23.7 7.9 26.3 0.0 100.0
Inner ring Frequency 10 5 4 0 3 1 21 0 44
Percentage 22.7 11.4 9.1 0.0 6.8 2.3 47.7 0.0 100.0
Townships Frequency 2 0 4 0 0 0 11 0 17
Percentage 11.8 0.0 23.5 0.0 0.0 0.0 64.7 0.0 100.0
Total Frequency 25 6 25 1 13 4 70 2 146
Percentage 17.1 4.1 17.1 0.7 8.9 2.7 47.9 1.4 100.0
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6.8
Conclusion
In the foregoing discussions, I have engaged the nature of migrants' mobility in Johannesburg, particularly, the transnational cross border movements, the temporal residential changes, the weekly and monthly movements as well as the daily movements. The main argument is that, while changes in residence are common, it is the frequency of the movements that need further analysis and interrogation of the reasons, beyond those stated by the participants. Such
frequent movements take place within the context of a Johannesburg that has been described in academic scholarship as a city in continual flux (Dinath 2014), in- between or liminal (Kihato 2013) and breeding transience and non-permanence (Landau 2006). Some factors, within this enabling or facilitative context include the availability of single room accommodation and the accessible informal markets for the trading of such accommodation. While traditionally, urban scholarship discussed intra-urban movements with an inclination towards the perspective that immigrants intended to settle permanently in the destination countries, in this research I have shifted the dimensions and engaged intra urban movements in the context of a permanent migrants' settlement that is not fixed in place but in motion and transient. Importantly such movement requires or takes place within an enabling environment, within a social field which structures and is structured by a Bourdieusian transnational habitus. I look at such transnational habitus and social field as cautionary instruments for this research and the academy in general as the description of migrants as tactically responding to strategic entities may be misleading if not adequately theorised. The point here is that, in spite of the agency that migrants possess, they do not necessarily sit down and construct a response to the strategic entities within their socio-economic environment but such response happens in the course of their long-term and day- to-day activities.
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7
Chapter Seven: Sociability and the City
7.1
Introducing the chapter
This chapter focuses on the participants' communication with relatives and friends in Zimbabwe and the maintenance of networks of friendship in South Africa. I argue that, the cultivation of links with people back home is tactical and by so doing, immigrants place themselves in a voluntary state of non-belonging and permanent temporariness in both South Africa and Zimbabwe. As such, by cultivating networks in both Johannesburg and the home country, they keep their options open should a permanent or temporary return to Zimbabwe be necessary. In chapter six of this thesis, I discussed the intensity of suburban movement, and argued that, the participants of this study are highly mobile and such mobility is a tactical resource that they employ when responding to the socio-economic
environments in South Africa and Zimbabwe. The theme of mobility, which I discussed in detail in chapter six, connects to this chapter insofar as I engage the depth of participants' transnational connections with home. In this regard, connections with home are part of the immigrants' everyday life and "home" in Zimbabwe becomes a site of belonging and a backup option that supports the lack of total commitment to permanency in the Johannesburg. Part of the discussion in this chapter is about the intensity of the communication with home as well as the role that social networking platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp play in aiding and intensifying this communication. The chapter also discusses the nature and strengths of participants' existing networks in Johannesburg, arguing that such networks have a role in the decisions to move place in the city as well as create zones of identity comfort for the immigrants (I discuss issues of identity comfort in detail, in chapter eight). While feelings of non-attachment and non-belonging to Johannesburg persist, at least in sentimental terms, there is still recognition that social networking and the cultivation of enduring connections with South African citizens and other migrants constitutes an important part of existence in the city.
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As such, a significant proportion of participants maintain friendships and interactions with South Africans, other Zimbabweans and migrants from other countries within the city.
Pursuant to the preceding discussion, I further engage migrants' transnational connections to Johannesburg, the texture of their relationships and social
interactions with the city in its physical and networked form as well as the diverse South African populations and migrant groups. I discuss and deploy Bourdieusian
thinking tools of habitus and social field, arguing that, for participants of this
study to manage and operate within the socio-economic networks that they have created in South Africa and in Zimbabwe, they undergo certain processes that condition their lives in the city and create degrees of fit with the socio-economic environment.