Diversified Housing Developments for Socio-Economic Integration in South Africa’s Urban Human Settlements

Abstract

This paper investigates the diversification of housing development in South Africa as a means to promote socio-economic integration in urban human settlements. The need to encourage the establishment and improvement of diversified housing developments in urban areas has been widely recognised as an appropriate measure to ensure that people from different social and economic groups share the same neighbourhoods. In South Africa, socio-economic diversity in towns and cities was introduced in the early 19th century as an attempt to put people from different backgrounds in one place in order to address the inequalities which existed as a result of the past settlement planning system. Furthermore, the strategy was meant to limit the degree of isolation that the poor are faced with due to the past urban planning in order to maintain community stability, social bond and cohesion within human settlements. Theoretically, the paper argues that socio-economic diversity of housing developments have the ability to promote economic integration, social cohesion and community stability in urban human settlements. The pragmatic effects of housing development diversity can be realised through measures such as densification, mixing of different building structures that accommodates people from different backgrounds and equal accessibility to infrastructure, amenities and services, among others. The paper concludes that socio-spatial diversity within urban housing developments can be used as strategy to bring together people from different social and economic backgrounds in order to address inequalities that are associated with segregation.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n25p44