Johannesburg: The Elusive Metropolis is a pioneering effort to insert South Africa’s largest city into urban theory, on its own terms. Johannesburg is Africa’s premier metropolis.
A powerful critique of urban development in greater Johannesburg since the end of apartheid in 1994. “Martin J. Murray navigates the slippery interfaces where mega-development, social progress, dystopian dread, racial enclaving, and ...
Features 28 of Johannesburg's culturally and historically relevant buildings. The book reveals something of the history of the city and the need to preserve the past if we want to protect the future.
The New Yorker calls this magisterial account of those years “[an] astute history.… Meredith expertly shows how the exigencies of the diamond (and then gold) rush laid the foundation for apartheid.”
This book investigates pragmatic approaches to urban economic development, service delivery, spatial restructuring, environmental sustainability and institutional reform in Johannesburg.
Martin J. Murray brings together urban theory and local knowledge to draw a picture of this city, where real estate agents and the very poor fight for control of space.
The story of gold is also the story of Johannesburg, and in a fascinating series of photographic juxtapositions, Johannesburg Then and Now chronicles the city’s expansion from dusty mining camp to economic powerhouse.