AbstractsGeography &GIS

Includes abstract. South African spaces are socially and politically important. Historically this is due to Apartheid's brutal exclusion. More recently, this can be attributed to the conscious building of the "new South Africa‟ after 1994. Concurrently, many foreign Africans come into South African spaces, claiming them and creating lives with varying degrees of safety and success. This claiming and 'invading' of local spaces by foreigners leads to changes for both foreigners and locals. A spatial lens is used to dissect the nuanced community and spatially mediated identities of refugees in Cape Town. Using space allows one to explain xenophobia more broadly. This thesis draws on ethnographic data gathered over 18 months in Muizenberg and Retreat, to make numerous theoretical claims about the nature of personal and national identity, community and the making of social space.