Publication date: 22 January 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781800089785
Number of illustrations: 39
Extra/ordinary Johannesburg
Centrality, periphery, and the spaces between
Lindsay Blair Howe (Author)
Series: Urban Africa
Johannesburg, South Africa, is often associated with inequality and referred to as the quintessential ‘apartheid city’. Yet this book argues that Johannesburg, part of the highly urbanized Gauteng City-Region, is actually an ‘ordinary’ space where spatial changes both marginalize and create opportunities for people going about their lives.
Relying on more than a decade of empirical research, the book also interrogates the concept of ‘spatial dialectics’ proposed by Henri Lefebvre. Through deep insight into the practices and experiences of everyday life, Lindsay Blair Howe shows how cities and regions like greater Johannesburg are more than just a sum of their parts. Individuals, and the collectives they forge, influence processes of urbanization and capital accumulation. Extra/ordinary Johannesburg reveals how Lefebvre’s assertions about the production of space remain relevant today, but also where they reach their limits, and how theories on the production of space can be further developed by a stronger understanding of this African urban region. What we can learn from how people are able to navigate the urban fabric of centralities, peripheries, and the spaces between matter greatly in productively reimagining ways to encounter urban Africa.
List of figures
Acknowledgments
1 Introduction
2 Becoming Jozi
3 Deciphering societies on the move
4 Centrality: toehold urbanization and the production of popular centralities
5 Periphery: aspirational urbanization and the periphery
6 The spaces between: urbanization and the peripheral mesh
7 Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
DOI: 10.14324/111.9781800089785
Number of illustrations: 39
Publication date: 22 January 2026
PDF ISBN: 9781800089785
EPUB ISBN: 9781800089792
Hardback ISBN: 9781800089761
Paperback ISBN: 9781800089778
‘highly recommended for both classroom and research use’
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Extra/ordinary Johannesburg
Centrality, periphery, and the spaces between
Series: Urban Africa
Publication date: January 22, 2026
Open Access PDF ISBN: 9781800089785
Paperback ISBN: 9781800089778
Hardback ISBN: 9781800089761
Trim size (hardback): 23.4cm x 15.6cm
Trim size (paperback): 23.4cm x 15.6cm
Johannesburg, South Africa, is often associated with inequality and referred to as the quintessential ‘apartheid city’. Yet this book argues that Johannesburg, part of the highly urbanized Gauteng City-Region, is actually an ‘ordinary’ space where spatial changes both marginalize and create opportunities for people going about their lives.
Relying on more than a decade of empirical research, the book also interrogates the concept of ‘spatial dialectics’ proposed by Henri Lefebvre. Through deep insight into the practices and experiences of everyday life, Lindsay Blair Howe shows how cities and regions like greater Johannesburg are more than just a sum of their parts. Individuals, and the collectives they forge, influence processes of urbanization and capital accumulation. Extra/ordinary Johannesburg reveals how Lefebvre’s assertions about the production of space remain relevant today, but also where they reach their limits, and how theories on the production of space can be further developed by a stronger understanding of this African urban region. What we can learn from how people are able to navigate the urban fabric of centralities, peripheries, and the spaces between matter greatly in productively reimagining ways to encounter urban Africa.
‘highly recommended for both classroom and research use’
*African and Asian Studies8
