This article presents a contribution to recent efforts in South African geographical research to examine historical landscapes as an integration of concerns with the broader discourses of modernism with more established concerns about the production of racial discourse. It aims to show how the construction of the South Durban industrial zone, in the city of Durban, South Africa, was historically planned within an emerging modernist planning discourse. In the early twentieth century, modernist planners sought to design cities to promote industrial efficiency. The first of my three objectives is to demonstrate how South Durban was conceived of as a modernist industrial landscape as a result of the juxtaposition of the interests of industry, and the local and national state. The second aim is to outline how these interests used the technical planning tools of modernism, particularly zoning, to implement the vision of a modern industrial zone and to stamp out community resistance to these plans. The third objective is to show the outcome of the modernist planning process in South Durban. The article demonstrates that the vision of a planned industrial zone was, by the early 1970s, successfully implemented and became the home to 70 per cent of Durban's industrial activity. The joint goals of early local and national state politicians, officials and industrialists were hereby fulfilled. The industrialisation process, however, had severe consequences for communities living in South Durban. There was, therefore, continued resistance from local communities to the land alienation and relocation programmes that were instituted to make way for industry. This evidence confirms that the modernist project, even in contexts of political inequality, was never complete. The article provides a historical context for the current controversial plans to 're-industrialise' South Durban and the similarity of these proposals to earlier top-down processes of industrial modernisation.

Drawing on recent political theory that examines the relationship between inclusive deliberation and oppositional activism in processes of democratisation, we develop a case study of environmental justice mobilisation in post-apartheid South Africa. We focus on the emergence of a network of social movement organisations embedded in particular localities in the city of Durban, connected into national and transnational campaigns, and centred on grievances around industrial air pollution. We analyse how the geographies of uneven industrial and urban development in Durban combine with sedimented place-based histories of activism to make particular locations spaces of democratic contention, in which the scope and operation of formal democratic procedures are challenged and transformed. We examine the range of strategic engagements adopted by social movement organisations in pursuing their objectives, looking in particular at the dynamic interaction between inclusion in deliberative forums and more adversarial, activist strategies of legal challenge and dramaturgical protest. We identify the key organisational features of groups involved in this environmental justice network, which both enable and constrain particular patterns of democratic engagement with the state and capital. We also identify a disjuncture between the interpretative frames of different actors involved in participatory policy making. These factors help to explain the difficulties faced by social movement organisations in opening up the space for legitimate nonparliamentary opposition in a political culture shaped by norms of conciliation and consensus.

Piloting of the South African Waste Information System (SAWIS) provided an opportunity to research whether the collection of data for a national waste information system could, through a process of learning, change the way that waste is managed in the country, such that there is a noticeable improvement. The interviews with officials from municipalities and private waste companies, conducted as part of the piloting of the SAWIS, highlighted that certain organizations, typically private waste companies have been successful in collecting waste data. Through a process of learning, these organizations have utilized this waste data to inform and manage their operations. The drivers of such data collection efforts were seen to be financial (business) sustainability and environmental reporting obligations, particularly where the company had an international parent company. However, participants highlighted a number of constraints, particularly within public (municipal) waste facilities which hindered both the collection of waste data and the utilization of this data to effect change in the way waste is managed. These constraints included a lack of equipment and institutional capacity in the collection of data. The utilization of this data in effecting change was further hindered by governance challenges such as politics, bureaucracy and procurement, evident in a developing country context such as South Africa. The results show that while knowledge is a necessary condition for resultant action, a theoretical framework of learning does not account for all observed factors, particularly external influences.

There is a growing pressure, both internationally and particularly in South Africa, to include people in a more democratic form of environmental management necessitating a more holistic and interdisciplinary approach. Within this context, the paper documents a case study of public participation in the regulation of marine waste disposal. This involves examining the social input, via a Social Impact Assessment, into the decision-making procedure for the issuing of permits for marine waste disposal via three marine pipelines along the south coast of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. The SIA was designed to elicit the substantive social issues and facilitate a process aimed at consensus-building among stakeholders. The SIA revealed that such processes, while lengthy and costly, can provide the basis for sustainable environmental management if institutionalised mechanisms are set up through which the partnerships can be fostered and informed contributions made towards the environmental decision-making process.