Black Housing, Ideology and the Media in South Africa 1970—1979 Oeffery McCarthy and Michelle Friedmann "Yet still this dormitory world of low new huts In ranked battallions, uniform by blocks, Quilts the tilting hugeness of the veld. House patterns A,B,C,D,E In turn insist their order to our eyes" (Lionel Abrahams - Soweto Funeral) INTRODUCTION As Keyan and Ruth Tomaselli indicate in the first paper, there is a tendency 1 on the part of the press to focus almost exclusively on the dramatic, the focussed, and the short-term in its treatment of social problems (1). The present paper concerns itself with this aspect of the black housing issue in South Africa as it emerged in certain sections of the media over the past decade. The authors' own interest in the problems stems only indirectly from a concern with the media itself and more directly from a concern with social science research into the problem of black housing in South Africa (2). It should become evident in the course of the paper, however, that we regard it as very difficult to separate the analysis of housing in the media from the analysis of housing as a social problem, and vice versa. Indeed, it is to be argued that both types of analysis tend to interlock at the point of understanding how and why it is that a given social problem becomes defined and redefined in the course of social struggle. From the majority of (black) South Africans, it might be argued, black hous- ing is a matter of deep significance that is sustained in the realm of every- day experience. The pitch at which it is sustained, if we are to accept the message of the likes of Abrahams' poem, is that of a monotonous and insist- ent drone. Social scientists may have been a little less perceptive so far than the poets in their interpretation of the existential role of the built environment assigned to blacks in South Africa. From the snippets of al- ready published research, however, it emerges that housing may well be the most important aspect of self defined "satisfaction" or "dissatisfaction" amongst urban black South Africans (3). 51 If it is accepted that black housing has long been regarded as a salient aspect of everyday experience by the majority of South Africans, a question arises as to how and why it is suddenly siezed upon by the media as a 'topic' meriting concern at a certain point in time. As we shall demonst- rate shortly, black housing became 'an issue' in the media in the late 1970's. Yet why did the media 'discover' black housing at this particular point in time; and did certain media detect the issue in a different tem- poral sequence because of their different positions within the political/ ideological spectrum? Against what background was the 'discovery' made by different sectors of the media and in what context was black housing dis- cussed once it had emerged as an issue? The objective of the present paper is to make a preliminary exploration of these questions. In so doing we hope it will serve as a stimulus to more extensive and, hopefully, deeper analyses along similar lines in the future (4). THEORETICAL NOTES ON HOUSING AND IDEOLOGY IN CAPITALIST SOCIETIES The Tomaselli's literature overview suggests that the concept of ideology, particularly a Marxist interpretation of that concept, can be regarded as central to an understanding of the media in capitalist societies. A parall- el arguement can be advanced with respect to housing. The Marxist literat- ure on housing and, more generally, on the built environment in capitalist societies is a rich and rapidly growing one that utilizes many of the Alth- userian and Gramscian concepts discussed in the Tomaselli's survey (5). We do not propose to review this literature in any depth here, but three points are worth stressing in the context of the present paper. First, it should be recognized that, in capitalist societies, housing ass- umes different roles in relation to different material interests. Harvey (6) identifies these interests as follows: 1) A faction of capital seeking the appropriation of rent either directly (as landlords, property companies, and so on) or indirectly (as finan- cial intermediaries or others who invest in property simply for a rate of return); 2) a faction of capital seeking interests and profit by building new ele- ments in the built environment (the construction interests); 3) capital "in general", which looks upon the built environment as an out- let for surplus capital and as a bundle of use values for enhancing the production and accumulation of capital; and 4) labour, which uses the built environment as a means of consumption and as a means for its own reproduction. Harvey goes on to argue that conflicts between these interests must emerge , for example, because (1) and (2) define the built environment in terms that are consistent with the needs of capital accumulation whereas (4) defines the built environment largely in use value terms (7). We will not examine details of such conflicts here except to note that Harvey, and others, con- vincingly relate an array of apparent micro level conflicts strikes, civic association involvement in 'development issues', etc the macro level divisions of interest identified above. rent to The second point to be made here is one that also derives from Harvey: that is, in the conflict that arises over housing between the interests identif- ied above, the contradiction between capital in general and labour is seen 52 to be central although it is a conflict that is mystified in the realm of (socially construed and created) everyday 'reality'. There are several com- ponents to the complex problem of mystification in housing struggles, but two may be isolated here because of their relevance to the 'black housing issue1 in South Africa at the present time. The components in question are those of homeownership and rent. The problems of homeownership and rent are very closely related in the sphere of social struggle, as Harvey observes: The struggle which labor wages in the living place against the appropriation of rent is a struggle against the mono- poly power of private property. Labor's fight against the principle of private property cannot be easily confined to the housing arena and the vexed question of the relation between rent and wages ... easily slides into that of cap- ital and labor. For this reason, the capitalist class as a whole cannot afford to ignore it because they have an interest in keeping sacrosanct the principle of private property. A well-developed struggle between tenants and landlords calls the whole principle into question. Extended individualized homeownership is, therefore, seen as advantageous to the capitalist class because it promotes: the allegiance of at least a segment of the working class to the principle of private property; an ethic of pbssessive individualism;and a fragmentation of the working class into 'housing classes'of homeowners and tenants. Homeownership not only assists in legitimating 'the principle of private property' and promotes internecine struggles within labour. It also contr- ibutes towards a mode of 'responsible' behaviour that capital is especially interested in promoting during periods of crisis and overt challenge to the legitimacy of the prevailing social order: The majority of owner-occupiers do not own their housing out- right. They make interest payments on a mortgage. This puts finance capital in a hegemonic position with respect to the functioning of the housing market: a position of which it is in no way loathe to make use. In reality, the apparent en- trance of workers into the petty form of property ownership in housing is, to large degree, its exact opposite: the entry of money capital into a controlling position within the consumption fund. Finance capital not only controls the disposition and rate of new investment in housing, but also controls labor, as well, through chronic debt encumbrance. A worker mortgaged up to the hilt is, for the most part, a pillar of social stability, and schemes to promote homeowner- ship within the working class have long recognized this basic fact. And, in return, the worker may build up, very slowly, some equity in the property (8). With more specific reference to rent, it must be recognized that the cost of housing is an important component of the cost of the reproduction of labour power. To the extent that labour links this cost to its wage demands, and hence to conflicts with capital in general, both inflated rents and housing costs can become practical obstructions to the general progress of capital- ist accumulation: 53 In the interests of keeping the costs of reproduction of labor power at a minimum, the capitalist class, as a whole, may seek collective means to intervene in the processes of investment and appropriation in the built environment. In much the same way that the proletariat frequently sided with the rising industrial bourgeoisie against the landed inter- est in the early years of capitalism, so we often find cap- ital in general siding with labor in the advanced capital- ist societies against excessive appropriation of rent and rising costs of new development. This coalition is not forged altruistically but arises organically out of the relation beween the wage rate and the costs of reproduction of labor power. The point that must be noticed, however, both with regard to homeownership and rent, is how capital in general can apparently alleviate some of the crises of everyday life for labour with respect to housing, and at the same time drag it further into a state of dependence within the prevailing order. Therein lies the power of mystification under capitalism. To the alienated worker a deeper level of co-optation apparently provides the ability to establish 'final control' ... even if it is only with regard to five hundred square metres on the earth's surface. In addition, to the debt encumbered homeowner or tenant, the occasional indignant forays of industrial capital into the realm of criticizing land speculation, excessive rentals or mort- gage interest rates, or 'bureaucratic inefficiency' in management of govern- ment housing estates all seems to indicate that the problem resides in an identifiable and circumscribed enemy outside any possible capital/labour contradiction. It is for this reason that Harvey argues tellingly that "the •overt forms of conflict around the built environment depend upon the outcome of a deeper, and often hidden, ideological struggle for the consciousness of those doing the struggling". The role of the media in the general pattern of conflict over the built environment, therefore, can hardly be regarded as incidental. . The third and final point to be made in this section, and one which Harvey unfortunately overlooks, is that the state plays a key role in a great deal of the conflict described above. The Marxist theory of the state is fraught with controversy, and there is relatively little literature linking the state to problems of conflict over the built environment (10). Perhaps the most convincing analysis proceeds along the lines that increased levels of inter- dependence in the forces of production yet corresponding privatization of the relations of production in the advanced capitalist societies enforces growing state intervention and the proliferation of a wide range of urban planning and urban administration activities. Land use regulation, urban highway administration, urban renewal projects, and the like, can all be interpreted in this way (11). In addition, the contradiction referred to above and also.that which exists between Harvey's categories (1) and (2) on the one hand, and categories (3) and (4) on the other, leads to state housing programs and ,other forms of direct control over the reproduction of la>pur ppwer (12). Such measures, in turn, lead to what Castells terms as "the politicization of everyday Life" and the rise of "urban social move- ments" involved i.ni.squatting, rent- strikes, campaigns against traffic hazards .and pollution, etc. (13) There are some sophisticated empirical studies that have demonstrated the salience of Gastell's (14)- analysis, even at the level of national political •alignments (15). Nevertheless, it should be recognized that Castells and most of his cohorts (16) firstly adopt 54 a Poulantzian 'structuralist' position on the state (17) and, secondly, assume the (historically specific) conditions of advanced capitalism. It is, at the very least, argueable as to whether these assumptions apply in the South African case. Some thoughts on the question have been offered by Wilkinson (18), but they are, by his own admission, of a highly explora- tory nature. Whilst acknowledging that the role of the state is a difficult issue in the South African context, there are grounds for arguing that at least two features of state activity with respect to low income housing are shared with other capitalist societies. First, in order to facilitate periodic exits out of phases of under accumulation in the national economy, the South African government uses its expenditure on low income housing as a 'Keynes- ian regulator'. Thus, in common with many other capitalist societies, ex- penditure on low income housing is temporally cyclical tending to be concen- trated near to the end of downswings of the business cycle. The second parallel with other capitalist societies is that, when the state begins to recognize that it is unable to meet with demands for increased low income housing, it tends to fall back upon an ideology of self help: an ideology that attempts, in part, to shift the 'moral' obligation for providing hous- ing onto labour itself; and, in part, to displace to actual costs of repro- ducing labour power onto labour itself by requiring work in the evenings and the weekends in order to secure some form of access to housing (19). EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE ON BLACK HOUSING AND THE MEDIA IN SOUTH AFRICA Many of the points raised above with regard to housing and ideology in captialist societies can be illustrated in the treatment of black housing as an issue in the South African media. It is possible, on the one hand, to identify aamonaliti.es in the treatment of the black housing problem within the media and, on the other hand, differences in treatment, which suggest a good deal about both the role of black housing in the context of ongoing social struggles in South Africa, and the media's attempts at the definition of that role. The particular empirical strategy adopted here was to conduct a content analysis of a stratified random sample of editions of The Financial Mai-l and The Weekend World for the period 1970-1979 (20). It is recognized, of course, that neither of these weeklies escapes from the dual constraints of (i) authoritarian oversight by the South African government and (ii) the exigencies of profit and mass circulation imposed by their roles as 'businesses' (21). There are certain advantages, however, in being able to demonstrate comnon- alities between a lassez faire oriented businessman's weekly such as The Financial Mail and t more left leaning urban black weekly such as The Week- end w.irli (since banned). For instance, the identification of certain comm- onalities in the treatment of black housing might serve to undermine the widespread notions that The Financial Mai I and The Weekend World are or were somehow autonomously 'liberal' and 'radical' respectively in their treatment of social problems. By the same token, it must be recognized that each weekly does in fact occupy what might be termed as different 'ideological subregions' in South Africa, with the Hail's staff being largely integrated into the bourgeoisie proper, and the World's staff being more closely allied with an aspirant black petty bourgeoisie that is forced by the part- icular circumstances of neocolonial domination in South Africa to rub shoul- ders with the urban proletariat. 55 As far as results are concerned, the content analyses revealed first of all that both weeklies were very much more concerned with black housing as an issue during and after 1976 as opposed to before 1976 (figure 1, table 1). It is true, of course, that there are differences between The Financial Mail and The Wee<.,^1 World in this regard in that in irovot-tional (as opposed to absolute) terms the World was more concerned with black housing prior to 1976 and the 'Aail was more concerned with this issue during and after 1976 (table 1). These important aspects of media response will be examined shor- tly. The empirical regularity that is of immediate concern, however, is the :yyrnon intensification of interest in black housing during and after 1976. The reasons for the empirical realities identified here can only be indirec- tly inferred, unfortunately, and not directly assessed with further empir- ical tests. Yet, we would venture to hypothesize that the increased concern on the part of both weeklies beginning in 1976 was a reflection of a new editorial concern with 'environmental' and 'community' conditions applicable to urban blacks: a concern occasioned by the 1976 uprisings centred in Soweto. Such an editorial response would be entirely consistent with petite bourgeois and bourgeois responses to violent outbursts by the proletariat in other capitalist societies. Walker (22), for example, has commented on the 'discovery' of 'social disorganization' in 'the slum' in nineteenth century North America in the following manner: (In the process of escaping to the suburbs the American bouregoisie) had created ... like the British bouregoi- sie - a 'vast terra incognita', as Gareth Stedman-Jones has described it, which they dubbed 'the slum'. There- after, whenever the dominant classes heard rumblings from below, they had to reenter this strange land to discover its secrets and evils - from bad housing to bad politics - to be expunged. Stedman-Jones (23) and Walker, respectively, provide penetrating analyses of the way in which the ideology of 'community self improvement' was har- nessed by the bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie: an ideology that served both to mystify the sources of class oppression, and to alleviate some of the objective causes of dissatisfaction (and hence class action) amongst the urban poor in nineteenth centry Europe and America. It is interesting to note, however, how The Financial Mail in a special edition on The Urban Foundation (a liberal 'self improvement' organization for urban blacks sponsored by the likes of Harry Oppenheimer and Anton Rupert) drew some perceptive historical and cross cultural parallels in the reactions of American big business to the Watts and Harlem riots of the 1960's: The aftermath of the Shockwaves of the urban (read: black) (sic) riots in the U.S. in the second half of the sixties brought it forcibly home to big business there firstly that government was incapable of deal- ing with the crises on its own, and then that social responsibility was indeed 'the business of business1 - otherwise there might not be enough business in the longer run to luxuriate in continuing to lag behind, or in catch- ing up at leisure; there is a penalty to be paid for having delayed reacting to our first 'Watts' - Sharp- vile -until after Soweto. It is having to deal today with problems infinitely more pressing than those that confronted U.S. business in 1975. (24) South African business won't be permitted 56 9. 1 • r.rnsstabuiation of Reports on General Housing Conditions " Tnr Macks by Media Channel and lime Period Hail 38% N=3 69% N=31 Pre 1976 1976 & after World 62% N=5 31% N=14 Coleman Effect Parameters: Media channel effect = 0,31 Time period effect = 0,31 Figure 1 : Temporal Fluctuations in Reports on General Housing Conditions Applicable to Urban Blacks (Financial Hail and Weekend World)" r 1970 ID7I 1673 1173 57 It is no secret of either The Financial Mail or the Urban Foundation, of course, that the 'social responsibility' of big business in South Africa was and still is identified as being in the area of the rapid creation of a black petite bourgeoisie, and the promotion of the philosophy and practice of 'self help1 in areas such as housing and the provision of community facilities (25). The spate of articles during and after 1976 it might be argued, therefore, reflects this new political consciousness brought about by the 1976 'rumblings from below'. Exemplifying this trend was a lead article in the July 9th 1976 edition of The Financial Mail . The article implied, on the one hand, that the hous- ing problems of Sowetans could be attributed largely to 'bureaucratic insen- sitivity1 on the part of township administrators. On the other hand, it urged that the solution to the problem lay in the direction of the extension of freehold ownership rights to urban blacks, and greater degrees of 'local control' in township government and administration. The article in question opened in the following manner: 'The inhabitants of Soweto have all the amenities that make for a healthy community life' (West Rand Bantu Aff- airs Administration Chairman, Manie Mulder, in the recen- tly published brochure Soweto Kleidoscope). They also have riots. What they don't have is any perm- anent stake in an urban area. And if they don't get that soon there's the risk of more riots" (26) Without departing from its basic philosophy of 'free enterprise', then, the Financial Mail could simultaneously appear as the champion of the 'black cause' and the apparent opponent of 'insensitive bureaucrats'; and at the same time it could advocate a deeper and more subtle level of ideological dependence amongst urban blacks via homeownership and the 'municipalization' of the townships. The Financial Mail's support for homeownership will be examined in greater depth shortly. It might be noted with respect to the Mail's support for greater degrees of local governmental control by blacks, however, that their philosophy of 'run your own slum1 has parallels wi£h the bourgeois response to problems of political legitimacy in America foll- owing outbursts of proletarian violence in the 1960's in the likes of Watts and Harlem. The political commentator Altshuler (27) for example, urged it upon the status quo in America that the central issues (with respect to community control) ... are social peace and legitimacy, not abstract jus- tice or efficiency. (Community control has several advantages) ... But most important, it would give "blacks a tangible stake in the American political sys- tem. By giving them systems they considered their own, it would - hopefully - enhance the legitimacy of the whole system in their eyes. In addition to concerns for political legitimacy, one other factor might account for the heightened interest in black housing amongst all sectors of the commercial press in the period 1976-1979. During this period, and in 1977 and 1978 in particular, the state was gearing up for a major assault on the recession which had begun in 1975. By June 1978 the 'liquidity prob- lem' in the national economy was beginning to show signs of easing for the first time in several years and all indications were that, with the approp- riate stimulus from central government, new private investment opportunities 58 from the a c t i v i t i es of large scale const- - • g rt emerge V IJ 'spinoff efects' ••..c.-:" c^-npanies' V2:~'. ~he policy context, therefore, was ripe for dis- ;^5s-:'-s :f -jCt'C" ard low income housing projects: projects to allow government to 'srer.j -ts way out of the recession'. the need f;r state expenditure on items such as highway constr- In a publication such as The Finano- .' '.•;-., in p a r t i c u l a r, therefore, the interest in black housing may not ha^e been entirely provoked by a concern with black living conditions per .• , but by a macro-economists concern with those economic measures that - i - h» evance of this point is provided in the way in which the Financial Mail ••eacted t; news of new black housing projects in i ts May 5th 1978 edition: investment climate. Some indications of the rel- improve the national in the present economic climate, Finance Understandably v - r - s t er Owen Norwood's welcome R250m boost to black housing has received a great deal of publicity. As a confidence booster so it should. Evidence cf the .: '•::•:-:^' "_-:'.•'.• not entirely philanthropic interest in black housing was again manifest in July 20th 1979 when a lead article on -rban development and services upgrading in Soweto discussed the marketing implications of the e l e c t r i f i c a t i on of that suburb at length: the million or more the violent upheavals that shook Soweto and shocked If the world three years ago thrust people in the township onto the centre of the p o l i t i c al stage, businessmen in recent years have been waking up to the 'act that they are a large potential market. (An expert Soweto's residents aspired to replacing their coal stoves with e l e c t r ic stoves, and he estimated the market for e l e c t r i c al appliances and other electrical goods at R150m at 1978 prices. in the marketing f i e l d) said that nearly 70* of and the Financial Mail in the treat- "he arguments advanced thus f a r, of course, do l i t t le to explain the marked :';';'- .>•«-._*-_• o between the •*-£<*.-•:: ''rid ment of the black housing issue. are severely hampered by not being allowed to quote directly from the „.-_<•-:' *sr'i Such are the constraints upon c r i t i c al research in a proto-fascist society. Readers who can gain access to back issues of the Weekend World either over- seas or by permission ( in South Africa) may wish to follow up on articles based on page and date references however. in support of any of the points made in the present paper. indicated in the text of the present paper, In this regard it might be noted that we and the e a r l i er concern might also be explained by the fact that its staff We would argue that the difference in the relative level of interest shown by the ~:rli '.'i:'.'. on either side of the June 1976 time divide can be a t t r i b u t e d, in part, to the fact that the staff of the former weekly would have been much more l i k e ly to have personally experienced some of the frustrations of housing conditions In addition, the ~-r'.l\- to encounter and experience similar frustration would have been more l i k e ly amongst the black proletariat on a more or less daily basis. The more bour- geous, and white, reporters of 7~".e Financial Hail, on the other hand, will have beer, more closely networks cf •:'•:•' ''•••_• . - . . - - - .• "' ri:'.- the November 17th. 1974 e d i t i o n ). ( I ll UStrative Of the persoecitve is a page 2 a r t i c le on housing conditions in Soweto in individuals who take f r i g ht at black housing conditions only 'the integrated into different kinds of social networks: :."•" .-.re: '-' 're fc'eizially • : > ^ - . j ', in the black townships. thrt•-.• of socialism' to variables disturbing like ''he , etc. 59 The speculations above concerning differences between The Financial '-'.ail and The Weekend World's treatment of black housing are borne out, in part, by the relationships identified in tables 2 and 3. What is evident here is that when one considers the two major 'sub issues' surrounding black housing - those of rent and homeownership - The Financial Mail demonstrates relatively increased concern with homeownership after 1976, whereas The Weekend World manifests a strong and consistent interest in questions of rent. Table 2 Crosstabulation of Reports on Homeownership for Blacks by Media Channel and Time Period : Pre 1976 1976 & after Mail 22% N=2 50% N=16 World 78% N=7 50% N=16 Coleman Effect Parameters: Media channel effect = 0,28 Time period effect = 0,28 Table 3 : Crosstabulation of Reports on Rents Applicable to Black Housing by Media Channel and Time Period Mail World 25% N=2 21% N=4 75% N=6 79% N=15 Pre 1976 1976 & after Coleman Effect Parameters: Media channel effect = 0,54 Time period effect - 0,04 60 ri ' :, :• ..-,Ci -,<• course, but this is an issue that it jry vigour after 1976, presumably because it per- r3S bee" an i m p l i c it supporter of home ownership rights r s, ,e «-t" £••->•••: «js t i er particularly desirable to f u l f i ll the z 'r: •'J'-;fons identified by Harvey (29), above. The t>-e other hand, perhaps because of their : position as a petite bourgeoisie without pri- rew3""ting rather energetically on the home- see, 'or example, the page 6 editorial on ?a;e 6 editorial on February 6th, 1972 of the t'"at was merely augmented after 1976 when The ' e 't f-at • t now had the example of proletarian ; 3 trer2 H J - J J ', •- t>-e case it was building for the black petite bourgeois 3- e - i - c 'e o* such an a r t i c le is on Dage 4 of April, 1977, t — e > ; • • *• 1-1 -f ~~e r.-s-'-~r : e " > j ;s e r ' . T ^ ei •-"e r e s " .1:" « r a; -s to t>« 3ore' after -: :' the Soweto uprising: t^e •"-.:• •'.-.' V::": and the weekend World, however, is r :>-e «ay 1 r. which the former weekly cited with approva' tf-e e or : » c : 'e can Survive without doing reason- a:;e > s f ce to 3 t i er people . .. The focus of concern :? •.'•e .'•Ban Fojrjation during the i n i t i al period s i c 'J cz"-% ti *ute the general area and condition of n o u s n j. ure 'or > it TS to say the normalization of land ten- ,r:an Blacks. (30) «-•" -s 'ena--«aSie "ere, of course, is the assumption, f i r s t, that 'social s - ' v . i ", as ie'med by the Urban Foundation, could be best achieved via ' j u s t i c e' applied to black housing (note, •"» i o o ' c j f on of some norm of -:•. r ' - u j ' - ly -ages), a^d, second, that such ' j u s t i c e' is defined in the ho« deeply a group is embedded in capitalist relations i -r; e ' . 's 0' r'-oduct-or land tenure is assumed to be capitalist ' lr : ' . f ' . re unich, in t u r n, is considered to be ' j u s t i c e ' ). 'normalized' ter-ns if ; : . e. It is noteworthy that temporal fluctuations in the concern-with rent Perhaps the jnost interesting results of a l l, however, are contained in tabl 3. •ss>es a<-e -nuc* 'ess marked than, for example, in the cases of general blac - c ^ s -; •is-es and homeownership issues. The Coleman parameter estimates :•' * . i* ; r ; 3 c rt • on of reporting variance explained by time period for the re • i: . " ? : * • - ." ".ojs-ng : ; r r » ms *.••» : ^ ?r: ' j! Tie-d'i -n general were less inclined to link their post '.werty eight percent of the variance of reports on to questions bearing upon the wage rate and 61 the costs of reproducing labour power than they were, for example, to link with the socially conservatizing theme of homeownership. Inpurely statistical terms, moreover, the most clearly demarked of all rela- tionships identified in this present paner is the relationship between the media channel (World/Mail) and levels of variation in reporting on rent issues (table 3). The Coleman parameter estimate of the proportion of var- iance in reporting on rents that is explained by media channel is 0,58, as opposed to merely 0,04 for the temporal effect. In other words, fifty eight percent of the variance in reporting on rent issues in relation to black housing is accounted for in terms of the difference between the Ucrli and the Ma-I, and only four percent as a result of the difference between pre and post June 1976 consciousness. This marked difference, one assumes, can partly be attributed to the .•:~rld'.-. staff's greater degree of ideological and physical proximity to the urban proletariat for whom rents and rent strikes are central and continuing concerns related to the broader struggle with capital in general. In addition, insofar as government control over black housing has been instrumental in the "politicization of everyday life" (32) in the black townships, the Worll's concern with rent issues reflects, in part, a deepening legitimation crisis of the state that is popularly expressed in "urban social movements" (33) such as rent strikes, protests of the costs of upgrading physical infrastructure in the townships, etc. (See, for example, articles in : page 2 of the 28th January, 1970 edition of World; page 1 of 28th April, 1977 of World; and page 1 article and page 2 editorial of 13th November, 1977 edition of Weekend Post). It is, perhaps, the World's greater sensitivity to such manifestations of the state's legitimation crisis that led to its being banned, whilst the danger of such banning for a weekly such as the Financial Mail seems remote indeed. In the meantime the only media that demonstrates much interest in rent strikes, issues of the legitimacy of the 'community councils', and the emergence of radicalized civic associations like Port Elizabeth's PEBCO are the non commercial media, scattered and erratic as they are (34). CONCLUDING THOUGHTS ON FURTHER RESEARCH The present paper is seen by the authors as a beginning rather than an end in the process of investigating 'the black housing issue' in South Africa. We are, for example, only too aware of the restricted nature of our empir- ical base and the suggestiveness, as opposed to the conclusiveness, of the statistical regularities presented here. In this regard the principal author is currently engaged in a larger research project concerned with media representations of what Castells would term as the 'urban issues' in South Africa during the period 1920-1980. In this more ambitious and em- pirically extensive project it should be possible to situate specific issues such as the current black housing issue against a broader historical canvas of capital accumulation and conflict over the built environment in semi-peripheral capitalist societies. Such an analysis would hopefully be complimented by parallel macro analyses by media specialists on the chang- ing role of the media in the historical evolution of the South African social formation. Hopefully Crit'-aal Arts could become the forum for such an exchange of insights. 62 NOTES AN3 REFERENCES 1. See also Cox, K.R. and McCarthy, J . J. 1980: "Neighbourhood activism in the American c i t y: Behavioural relationships and evaluation", Urban Jv/.riu:-::- , Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 22-38. 2. The principal author is currently engaged in a survey research project concerned with the ways in which urban blacks in the Eastern Cape const- rue t h e ir environmental and locational contexts. 3. Human, P. 1981: "The quality of l i fe for Sowetans", Bousing/Bekuising, March/April pp.2-9. 4. As indicated in the conclusion of the'present paper, we are mindful of our own responsibilities a larger research project on the problem at hand. in this regard and we are currently completing 5. See, for example, Cox, K.R. 1981: "Capitalism and Conflict around Communal >. :^,':-J.^'J: l i v i ng space", in Scott, A.J. and Dear, M.J. (eds.): Urbanization and I'rix-: rlai.r.it.j J^^i^--d. Maaroufa, Chicago; Harvey, D. 1978a: "Labor, c a p i t a l, and class struggle around the built environment in advanced c a p i t a l i st s o c i e t i e s ", in Cox, K.R. (ed.): Urbanisation and ^ > : - ~ ; j j; M. Politic i>: Varket JaC^tCcs.. Maaroufa, Chicago. Also see Rackoff» R. "Ideology in everyday l i f e: The meaning of the house", arS Soo-ety, Vol 7, pp. 85-104 1977: 6. Harvey, op. ait. 1978a. 7. See also Cox, op. sit. 8. Harvey, op. ait. 9. Ibid. 1Q. See, however, C a s t e l i s, M. 1977: ?h-e Urban Question: A Marxist Approach. MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass, and Scott, A.J. 1980: The Urban Land Heats ar.d the State. Pion, London. 11. cf. Scott, Ibid. 12. See Harvey, op. lit. d k i' by Capital in Great Britain. Edward Arnold, London. and Massey, D. and C a t a l a n o, A. 1978: Capital and Land: 13. C a s t e l l s, M. 1978: Cix.y, Class and Pover. MacMillan, London. 14. See C a s t e l l s, both 1977 and 1978. 15. See Dunleavy, P. 1979: "The urban basis of political alignments", British Soier.ee, , Vol. 9, pp. 403-443. See also Kemeny, "Homeownership and privatization" , International -•>:*: .=-. c~jaro>., Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 372-338. Journal of . • ; : , T O: sf T^iitinl J. 1980: Irijr: :•--?,;- 16. Refer to Lojkine, J. 1980: "Contribution to a Marxist theory of capit- a l i st urbanization" in Pickvance (ed.): urban Sociology: Critical i.-.r-.-. St Martins Press, New York; Olives, 0. 1976: "The struggle against urban renewal in 'Cite d' A l i a r t' (Paris)", in Pickvance, Ibid. 63 17. See, e g ., Poulantzas, N. 1973: New L e ft Books, London iflitical i ' ^ ir tv.,1 ::.>ai. 18. Wilkenson, P. 1980: "The Housing Qustion Reconsidered: Towards a P o l i t i c al Economy of Housing in South A f r i c a" No. 4, pp. 23-34 " . '; •; i-,H •'•-,•••' , 19. See B o r j a, J. 1977: "Urban Movements in Spain" in Harloe ( e d . ): in the Political Economy of cities and Captive Citi,.J.- Studies Regions. Wiley, New Vork; Burgess, R. 1978: "Petty Commodity Housing or Dweller Control? A Critique of John Turner's Views on Housing Policy", World n veloj-tent , Vol. 6, Nos. 9/10, pp. 1105- 1133, aadiWilkenson op. di. 20. The sample was s t r a t i f i ed according to time period (year and month) and media channel (World versus Hail) and samples were drawn randomly from within strata. A f i f ty percent sample was drawn. Notice that The Weekend World was banned in 1977 but it continued as Sunday Potst which was also banned in 1980. Back copies are only available in ths State Copyright Libraries and no quoting is permitted from any issue 21. Switzer, L. and Switzer, D. 1979: The Black Press in South Africa and Lcnotho: A Bibliographical Guide to Newspapers, Newsletters and Magazines, 1927-7 e. G.K. Hall, Boston; Tomaselli, K.G. and Toraaselli, R.E. 1981: Apartheid Ideology" Dept of Journalism and Media Studies, Rhodes University. "The South African Mass Media and the Dissemination of in The Sociology of Neas, First Year Reader, 22. Walker, R.A. 1978: "The Transformation of Urban Structure in the nine- teenth Century and the Beginnings of Suburbanization" in Cox, K.R. (ed.): Urbanization and Confliat in Market Societies. Maaroufa, Chigago 23. Steadman-Jones, G. 1971: Outcast London: A Study in the Relationship Between Classes in Victorian Society. Penguin Books, Harmondsworth 24. Special Report on the Urban Foundation (supplement to The Financial Mail, 16 February 1979, p. 4) 25. Statements of such views are contained in the Special Report referred to in note 4 above, and in numerous editorials of The Financial Mail and the occasional publications of the Urban Foundation. 26. Financial Mail 9 July 1976, p. 101 27. Aitshuler, A.A. 1970: Community Control: The Demand for Participation in Large American Cities. Pegagus, New York 28. The l i q u i d i ty situation is reflected in the fact that the bank rate had risen consistently from the beginning of 1974 (5.5%) u n t il mid 1978 (9.02). Interest rates are, of course, an Indication of the relative scarcity of capital fcr deployment in the accumulation process. 29. Harvey, op. ait. 1979a 30. Mr Justice Steyn quoted in Financial Mail 22 July 1977, p. 316 31. The Coleraan parameter estimates used in this study derive from Coleman's (1964, 1970) classic work on mathematical sociology. The Coleman para- meters have their basis in a continuous time Markov model of causation for two states. For a discussion of the model i t s e l f, the reader is 64 31. The Coleman parameter estimates used in this study derive from Coleman's (1964, 1970) classic work on mathematical sociology. The Coleman para- meters have their basis in a continuous time Markov model of causation for two states. For a discussion of the model i t s e l f, the reader is referred to Coleman's (1964, 1970) original work. It may be noted, how- ever, that Coleman (19705 conceived of his effect parameters as "provid- ing a linkage between cross tabulations as frequently used for attribute data, and regression methods (where it variance in a dependent variable that are accounted for by a number of independent variables)". The parameters themselves can be thought of as analagous to correlations insofar as they measure the proportion of variance that a given independent variable explains of the behaviour of a dependent variable. is possible to gauge levels of 32. Castells, 1977. 33. Ibid. 34. For a discussion of the non-commercial black press in South Africa see Swit Switzer and Switzer op, ait. The authors of the present paper have found that student newapapers such as SASFV :;^:'D>ial are, at the present time, the most consistent source of information on the matters referred to. References B o r j a, J. 1 9 7 7: ' U r b an m o v e m e n ts Captive. C-LU.U : Stu.cU.ei in oi CiXXeJ> and Regioni, in S p a i n ', in M. H a r l oe ( e d . ), the Potitical Economy John Wiley, New York. Burgess, R. 1978: 'Petty commodity housing or dweller control? A critique of John Turner's views on housing policy', Uolld Development, 6 (9flO), 1105-1133. Castells, H. 1977: The. Unban Question : A MaAx-iit Approach, M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, Mass.. Castells, M. 1978: City, Clan and POUXA, MacMillan, London. Coleman, J.S. 1964: "inVwduction tc Mathematical Sociology, The Free Press of Glencoe, New York. Coleman, J.S. 1970: 'Multivariate analysis for attribute data', in E.F. Borgatta and G.W. Bohrnstedt (eds.), Sociological Methodology 1970, Jossey Bass, San Francisco. Cox, K.R. 1981: 'Capitalism and Conflict around the communal living s p a c e ', and Unban Planning in Capitali&t Society, Maaroufa, Chicago. in A . J. S c o tt and H . J. Dear ( e d s . ), Urbanization Cox, K.R. and McCarthy, J . J. 1980: 'Neighbourhood activism in the American city Unban Geography, 1 ( 1 ), 22-38. : Behavioural relationships and evaluation' Dunleavy, P. 1979: 'The urban basis of p o l i t i c al alignments', Btctiah Jounnal o$ PoCctical Science, 9, 409-443. Harvey, D. 1978(a): 'Labor, c a p i t a l, and class struggle around the built environment in advanced capitalist societies', in K.R. Cox Maaroufa, Chicago. ( e d . ), Wiba>u.zatA.on and Con$tict in MaAkzt Societlu, 65 Harvey, D. 1978(b): 'The urban process under c a p i t a l i sm : a framework for analysis' , lntu.incrfj.unaZ Jouinat at, Uiban and Rsgicnat R e i e a - i c h, 2 ( 1 ), 1 0 1 - 1 3 1. Human, P. 1981: 'The q u a l i ty of March/April , 2 - 9. l i fe for Sowetans', Wii)/Bi'/ii«4oii), Kemeny, J. 1980: 'Homeownership and p r i v a t i z a t i o n ', of, Uiban and Regional RcMaich, International 4 ( 3 ), 372-388. Joainal L o j k i n e, J. 1976: ' C o n t r i b u t i on in C.G. Pickvance (ed.), Uiban Sociology St. Martins Press, New York. to a Marxist theory of c a p i t a l i st : CILLLCOI u r b a n i z a t- Eaayi, Massey, D. and Catalano, A. 1978: Capital, and Land : Landouneuhip in GiexU Bfiitain, Edward Arnold, London. Capital by O l i v e s, J. 1976: 'The struggle against urban renewal A l i a r t e' in C.G. Pickvance Sociology New York. : C/Utxcal ( P a r i s ) ', tuayi, ' C i te d' in (ed.),Ut6an St. Martins Press, Poulantzas, N. 1973: Political London. PouieA and Social Ctaiiti, New Left Books, Scott, A.J. 1980: The Uiban Land hlzxu& and the State., Pion, London. Stedman-Jones, G. ]971: Outcait London : A Study in the -in Victo/Uan Society, Re-tatiomkip Penguin Books, betm.e.n ClaA& Harmondsworth. Switzer, L. and Switzer, D. 1979: The. Slack Pteii in South Arnica and Lesotho HwiletteM : A Bibliogiaphical Guide to Heuapapeti, and Magazine*, 1936-1976, G.K. Hall, Boston. Tomaselli, K.G. and Tomaselli, R.E. 1981: 'The South African media and the dissemination of apartheid ideology', in The Sociology o& Hem, Department of Journalism and Media Studies, Rhodes University, Grahamstown. Walker, R.A. 1978: 'The transformation of urban structure in the nineteenth century and the beginnings of suburbanization', in K.R. Cox (ed.), Uibanization and Conflict Maaroufa, Chicago. in Matiket Socie,tlei, Wilkinson, P. 1980: 'The housing question reconsidered: Towards a p o l i t i c al economy of housing in South A f r i c a ', in 0c6afe on Housing, D.S.G. Publication No. 4, 23-34. Wilkinson, P. 1981: 'The politics of housing in South Africa for analysis'. Work in Progress (17), 61-69. : A framework 66