TRANSFORMATION FROM BELOW?, white suburbia in the transformation of apartheid South Africa to democracy

158pp., illus., paperback, Basel, 2015

This study examines social dynamics in two formerly white neighbourhoods in Johannesburg.

"A significant contribution to our understanding of how different 'communities' at local level have reconfigured their relationships and social, political and economic interests in South Africa since 1994...Focusing on civil society institutions, schools and religious institutions, the author is able to access the potential for the development of new forms of social capital, and shows just how difficult this is in the context of the legacies of apartheid racialised spatial and social arrangements. She shows how race continues to trump class and that organisations tend to reflect 'old order' arragements of exclusion, but these are highly contested." Sheila Meintjies, University of the Witwaterarand

Ursula Scheidegger is a researcher at the University of the Witwatersrand and a consultant to different non-governmental organisations.