Social structure and dynamics of metropolitan Durban

This paper seeks to examine the processes of social differentiation and decompression unleashed by the disintegration of apartheid reform and violence in the 1980 and 1990's in the Durban Functional Region. The term ''differentiation" refers to the processes by which the population of the townships was stratified in terms of income, as well as residential location and conditions; while the term decompression refers to the splitting and spatial relocation of township households previously held "compressed" together within matchbox houses by apartheid influx control and township regulations. The paper begins with a brief overview of the inherited spatial structure of the city and the impact of violence and crime in the breakdown of the racial urban form in parts 1 and 2. Part 3 examines the dynamics of movement and resettlement over a number of historical phases. Part 4 attempts to quantify the size, growth and spatial distribution of population. Parts 5 and 6 examine the processes and social differentiation and decompression in the urban population and in the metropolitan core areas. The final part is devoted to a discussion of basic needs and resource allocation in the DFR and how these influence the processes if differentiation and decompression