The Production of Space at Pieter Roos Park: Public Space as a Lens into Johannesburg’s Changing Public Culture 1968–2019

Abstract

ABSTRACT Johannesburg and South Africa’s history and contingencies of colonisation, apartheid and a complex transition to democracy shaped different iterations of Pieter Roos Park. I argue that the dynamics and contingencies of the park in turn played a role in shaping those same histories. Using public space as a lens into history is revealing of how the formation of different publics and their resultant conflicts have produced a public culture of contestation that is embedded in Johannesburg. These dynamics were refracted and reflected in Pieter Roos Park, the development, management and use of which contributed to the changing public culture of the city. Lefebvre’s spatial triad helps reveal how different drivers, motivations and processes interact to produce space, cutting through different levels of complexity and temporality in the interactions between public space and spatial (in)justice. Based primarily on archival research and interviews, this article shows how historical contestations that shaped the production of space at Pieter Roos Park demonstrate its shifting potential for publicness and spatial justice. This offers new insight into the micro-level realities of tensions and opposing sentiments that shaped public space and public culture during apartheid and the transition to democracy.