Conflicting quality of life rationalities between spatial decision-makers and the South African poor

Abstract

With high levels of inequality, poverty and high crime rates, South Africa tends to rank relatively low on the quality of life indexes, i.e. South Africa forms part of the bottom 10 countries on the Happy Planet Index. In view of this, spatial decision-makers are often criticised to have failed in delivering meaningful improvements in settlements with an urgent need for an improved quality of life. Urban areas are, however, quite complex and the various role-players within this system have different and often conflicting, views and visions towards a "good and happy" human settlement. These conflicting rationalities are regarded as one of the key obstacles in overcoming the life quality challenges in South Africa. Considering these life quality challenges in South Africa and the substantial influence that the spatial organisation of urban areas has on life quality, it is argued that finding solutions to these life quality problems are, in part, the responsibility of the spatial planner. Subsequently, this thesis explored conflicting quality of life rationalities between spatial decision-makers and the South African poor. The research followed a grounded theory research approach to ground the analysis in data without preconceived ideas. Qualitative storyline and case study analyses followed a preliminary literature review to avoid repetition and to enhance sensitivity to nuances in the data. The storyline analysis considered the underlining quality of life rationality in South African directives guiding spatial decision-making, along with that in four Quality of Life Index reports. The case study analysis explored the quality of life rationality in 8 low-income settlements, namely Alabama, eMbalenhle, Freedom Park, Kanana, KwaDela, Lebohang Matlwangtlwang and Zamdela. Secondary data of semi-structured interviews regarding broad quality of life topics were utilised for this case study analysis. The data for both analyses were respectively reduced by a process of coding on ATLAS.ti, a computer-aided qualitative data analysis software. The coding set revealed the broad categories of the quality of life and the quality of life rationalities were reflected upon according to these categories. To consider conflicting quality of life rationalities, the findings of the two analyses were juxtaposed. The research concluded that the conflicting rationality between spatial decision-makers and the South African poor mainly stem from the diversity of the South African context. Subsequently, this research contributed a conceptual framework towards avoiding conflicting quality of life rationalities during strategic spatial planning and recommended spatial strategies to address life quality challenges and scope for future research.