A Review of Literature on Transformation Processes in South African Townships

The paper provides a literature review of research published on South Africa’s black townships in order to answer certain questions: how have the townships changed? In what directions are they changing? Which groups in the townships benefit from these changes? Which groups of actors who push for change in the townships can be identified? To what extent are these residential areas becoming multifunctional, shifting from their role as dormitory settlements to providing their residents with a higher quality of life than in the past? What new social and ethnic antagonisms arise in turn? The paper reviews township literature in four periods: up to the 1970s, the 1980s, the 1990s and 2000s (the bulk of the review is however on the last 20 years).