A critical analysis of participation using the planning context of the Durban Back of Port Precinct

Abstract

Communities located in the Durban Back of Port area experience the compounded burden of environmental degradation with the legacy of untransformed Apartheid neighbourhoods. Despite the documented concerns and priority to deal with the cumulative environmental impacts on the communities of South Durban within planning policy documents, the participation process is unclear. Poorly defined participation processes not only inhibit the substantial issues being raised but fail to inform processes to address the concerns raised. These weakly defined civic engagements were found in the study to reflect some of the implementation challenges in the field of urban planning. The primary aim of the research study is to critically analyse participation processes for development as outlined in planning policy documents to make proposals within the context of the Durban Back of Port case study from sampled stakeholder categories; corporate community, civil society, and government. The Durban Back of Port case study is a geographical area under the authority of eThekwini Municipality in KwaZulu Natal. This precinct represents a situation where communities live near one of Sub-Saharan Africa’s busiest industrial areas, and at the backside area of one of the most active ports in Africa. This research study found the precinct residents to have been subjected to both environmental racism, and post-Apartheid environmental injustice. The study area presents contrasting land uses, where negative externalities of industrial development impact on the adjacent residential uses. In effect, the legacy of Apartheid spatial planning is layered with environmental racism and has evolved into environmental injustice in present time. This is a qualitative research study that applies hybrid analytical tools; document analysis, policy analysis and thematic analysis to critically analysis participation processes within the case study. This research study established three type categories of stakeholders representing varying interest; economic, social, and environmental. The purposely sampled categories comprised of corporate community, civil society, and the spheres of government, these are organisations that are either located or have jurisdictional authority in the Durban Back of Port. It uses the theoretical lenses of Environmental Justice, Advocacy Planning, Communicative Rationality and Action, Collaborative Planning, Participatory Planning, and Arnstein’s Ladder of Participation to better understand participation processes.