In the second in a series of photo essays from Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing, Leslie Vryenhoek and photographer Jonathan Torgovnik explore the lives of domestic workers in South Africa. Their tales highlight the advances and challenges of bringing workers' organisations into this traditionally hidden form of urban economic activity.
Over the next few weeks, The Global Urbanist, in collaboration with WIEGO will publish six photo essays that take us inside the daily lives of women working in the informal economy.
The Economist conference 'Future Cities: managing Africa's urban transformation' was held in Lagos last month. A rosy picture for foreign investors, but what kind of future is being offered the ordinary African?
Lots of 'solutions' get presented at events like the Urban and Housing Development conference in Cape Town, but can a model be sustainable if it excludes large parts of the city?
Abandoned by owners in the post-Apartheid years, 1,500 buildings in Johannesburg have turned into overcrowded tenements.
In the world's wealthy regions, economic activity is articulated through networks uniting cities around the world. So shouldn't we also be looking to intercity networks as the key to international development?
Having previously cleared informal traders away from World Cup stadiums and fan fests to accommodate FIFA's demands, the cities of Cape Town and Johannesburg have allowed many to return to venue vicinities under an accreditation system.
Andrew Fleming (Twitter: @AndrewSFleming) works as the Senior Researcher at the Cape Town Partnership, a non-profit company dedicated to the…
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The Global Urbanist is an online magazine reviewing urban affairs and urban development issues in cities throughout the developed and developing world.
Its readers are drawn from the urban policy and international development sectors, and include urban planners, officers in local, national or international government agencies, civil society leaders, and researchers.
