Challenging City Imaginaries: Street Traders Struggles in Warwick Junction

Internationally there a few cases where street traders have been sensitively integrated
into urban plans. Warwick Junction, the primary transport node in Durban, South
Africa was for over 10 years one of the few exceptions. The article details the role
played by collective action among women street traders in securing a collaborative
planning approach. It argues that Warwick Junction for this period presented an
alternative to modernist and gender blind approaches to urban planning. In January
2009 the City Council however announced its plans to build a large shopping mall in
Warwick Junction threatening the livelihoods of all street traders in the area. The
article concludes by analysing these recent developments.