Rights and the City An Exploration of the Interac

Authors: Thomas Coggin Marius Pieterse

Publish Date: 2011/09/22

Volume: 23, Issue: 3, Pages: 257-278

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Abstract

In a rapidly urbanising society and against a background of rural underdevelopment cities are increasingly the locations for access to basic socioeconomic amenities and essential services Access to the city and everything that it offers therefore impacts profoundly on the manner and extent to which poor and marginalised persons access the objects of their constitutionally ensconced socioeconomic rights Conversely the content of the ‘right to the city’ is impacted by legal understandings of the ambit scope and enforceability of socioeconomic rights Either way the South African Constitution’s entrenchment of rights to access water housing health care services and education alongside its guarantee of a substantive right to equality mean that urban design policy making and regeneration processes have become increasingly legalized and will increasingly be tested for constitutional compliance especially in instances where they have the effect of excluding poor and marginalised persons from the city This article begins to unpack the interrelationship between constitutional rights and the right to the city focusing specifically on the impact of rightsbased litigation and judgements on urban policy making design and regeneration in South Africa

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