This issue of Public Culture attempts to overturn perceptions that
frame Africa as an object apart from the rest of the world. By
placing the city of Johannesburg-the preeminent metropolis of the
African continent and a city facing a complicated legacy of racial
strife and wealth accumulation-at the heart of new critical urban
theory, Johannesburg: The Elusive Metropolis broadens discussions
of modernity, cosmopolitanism, and urban renewal to include Africa.
The issue brings Johannesburg into direct dialogue with other world
cities, creating a space for the interrogation and investigation of
the metropolis in a properly global sense.Contributors to this
issue-a mix of scholars, urban planners, and artists, many of whom
hail from South Africa-reveal Johannesburg to be a polycentric and
international city that has developed its own cosmopolitan culture.
In a detailed study of three streets in the modern precinct of
Melrose Arch, one essay shows how the thoroughly commodified and
marketed Johannesburg cityscape has shaped the cultural
sensitivities, aesthetics, and urban subjectivities of its
inhabitants, at times even overriding the historical memory of
apartheid. Another essay, focusing on the emergence of a new urban
culture, examines how the city itself becomes a crucial site for
the remixing and reassembling of racial identities. By tracking the
movement of people with AIDS to various locations in the city to
seek relief and treatment, another essay reveals an urban geography
very different from what is seen from the highways. Finally,
through interviews and commentaries, journalists, artists, and
architects of Johannesburg offer reflections on the geography and
shifting culture of the city and its townships, on the complicated
relationship between Johannesburg and other African cities, and on
the search for an architectural style that adequately expresses the
complexity of this cosmopolitan city. Contributors. Lindsay
Bremner, Nsizwa Dlamini, Mark Gevisser, Grace Khunou, Frederic Le
Marcis, John Matshikiza, Achille Mbembe, Sarah Nuttall, Rodney
Place, AbdouMaliq Simone, Michael Watts
General
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