Doing Boundary Work: Suburban Residents’ Associations in Johannesburg

Despite best hopes of social and urban transformation, Johannesburg’s middle-class suburbs have remained largely inaccessible to lower income and more marginalised communities. This article examines the everyday practices and repertoires of action by resident associations in Johannesburg, demonstrating their ability to moderate more progressive state impulses and other land use changes. It argues that resident associations have become the custodians of middle-class visions and aesthetics and carry out the boundary work and symbolic violence that maintains and defends suburban borders.