City of Broken Dreams

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Myth-making, nationalism and the university in an African rust belt city City of Broken Dreams brings the global debate about the urban university to bear on the realities of South African rust-belt cities through a detailed case study of the Eastern Cape motor city of East London, a site of significant industrial job losses over the past two decades. The cultural power of the car and its associations with the endless possibilities of modernity lie at the heart of the refusal of many rust-belt motor cities to seek alternative development paths that could move them away from racially inscribed, automotive capitalism and cultures. This is no less true in East London than it is in the motor cities of Flint and Detroit in the US. Since the end of the Second World War, universities have become increasingly urbanised, resulting in widespread concerns about the autonomy of universities as places of critical thinking and learning. Simultaneously, there is increased debate about the role universities can play in building urban economies, creating jobs and reshaping the politics and identities of cities. In City of Broken Deams, author Leslie Bank embeds the reader’s understanding of the university within a history of industrialisation, placing-making and city building.

Preface
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations and acronyms

Chapter one

On auto-freedom: The Mandela car and the lessons of history
‘Parking while black’: Auto freedom
The Mandela Car and the ‘lessons’ of history
Art as history: Red and black assemblies
An illusory occupation: The campuses and their students
Focus and structure of this book

PART 1 Exploring urbanism and the university
Chapter two

Racial modernism and occupy urbanism on the South African rust belt
Placing South African universities
Critical urbanism and the new university in the city
Racial modernism and the bifurcated city
Occupy urbanism and the right to the city
Confronting the rust-belt city

Chapter three

The prejudice, power and plight of global rust-belt cities
Racial nationalism and the fortunes of ‘rust-belt’ cities
Urban form, spatial inversion and economic divergence
Universities and rust-belt regeneration
Anchor strategies and the ‘spatial fix’
Conclusion

PART 2 Settler nationalism and the motor city
Chapter four

Settler nationalism in the making of a South African motor city
From settler town to white industrial city
The making of a South African motor city
The esplanade and the settler city
English-settler nationalism: Moments of ‘hyper-reality’
African nationalism and the urban crisis
The ‘speaking crows’ of the migrant city
Conclusion

Chapter five

The university and struggle for the hearts and minds of the city
English-speaking settler patriotism
The new cultural centre and the restructured factory
Rhodes University and the new liberals
Expanding science in agriculture: The Dohne research station
The University of Fort Hare’s focus: DDT Jabuva, ZK Matthews and progressive farmers
Conclusion

Chapter six

State capture, urban sprawl and industrial decentralisation
The rise and fall of the Border industrial parks, 1965–2000
Revisiting the industrial parks, 2015
Dismantling Dimbaza: Industrial nostalgia
Rhodes returns to save the white city
The East London Industrial Development Zone, 2002–2016
Conclusion
Acknowledgement

PART 3 The homecoming city
Chapter seven

The homecoming city and the style of the black middle class
The rise of the African middle class
The simulacrum and the modernity bluff
The beachfront and the re-scripting of African modernity
Displaced urbanism: The new countryside
Conclusion

Chapter eight

Post-apartheid austerity and the black university in the city
The austerity university and the double helix
Fort Hare in the city: Institutional and political dynamics, 2004–2009
Knowledge production: Training and learning at Fort Hare
A change in perspective: Embracing the city
Conclusion: Towards the centenary
Acknowledgement

PART 4 Student risings and the city–campus dynamic
Chapter nine

Student struggles and the right to the city
The inner city: Arrested development
The new student slums: Quigney and Southernwood
The 2015 Fort Hare student survey
The student rebellion ignites
Conclusion

Chapter ten

Nationalism and the #FeesMustFall protests
Millenarianism, neoliberalism and the politics of war at Marikana
Historically black universities: The right to higher education
Sobukwe’s children and the politics of evil
Conclusion

Chapter eleven

Race, planning and the culture of rust-belt cities
The urban university and the ‘third city’
Urbanity and the ‘stickiness’ of the African city
Master plans and precincts
Innovation-district and anchor-strategy models for place-making
Tactical urbanism and the ambiguity of encounters
Acupuncture and urban charisma
Conclusion

Chapter twelve

After car culture: Remapping the city
Back to the urban university
Remapping the city

References
Picture credits
About the author
Index

Leslie J. Bank is a Deputy Director at the Human Sciences Research Council in Cape Town and an emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Fort Hare, where he was formerly the Director of Social and Economic Research. His previous books include Home Spaces, Street Styles: Contesting Power and Identity in a South African City (Pluto Press, London, 2011), Inside African Anthropology: Monica Wilson and her Interpreters (edited with A. Bank, Cambridge University Press, 2013), Imonti Modern: Picturing the Life and Times of a South African Location (with Mxolisi Qebeyi, HSRC Press, 2017) and Anchored in Place: Universities and City Building in South Africa (edited with N. Cloete, African Minds, 2018). He is also finalizing an edited book on Migrant Labour after Apartheid (HSRC Press, forthcoming).