Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2025

Grounded in Power: How Soil Shapes Racial and Ecological Violence in Cape Town’s White Suburbs

Résumé

My proposal addresses the intertwined relationship between nature and structures of power by examining how soil production in Cape Town's wealthy suburbs and formerly White only contributes to the reproduction of social domination and generates ecological violence. By focusing on the transformation of land by privileged white populations, I argue that soil production is not just a natural or technical process, but a socio-political one that reinforces exclusionary urban geographies and materializes long-standing inequalities. My case study focuses on Cape Town, where the transformation of soils reflects broader global processes, such as the legacies of settler colonial violence, racial and social inequalities in a post-apartheid context, and ecological injustices, particularly highlighted by the 2018 drought in the biodiverse Cape Floral Kingdom. In these spaces, soils have been reshaped through specific techniques—irrigation systems, composting, and the introduction of allochthonous plants, particularly European species—that render them hostile to endemic and endangered indigenous vegetation and ensure exclusive control of suburban environments. This system relies on racialized and underpaid migrant labor to maintain these spaces according to the norms of the dominant class, while perpetuating the erasure of local knowledge and relationships with the land. My ethnographic research, based on over 60 interviews with landscapers, suburban residents, and Black workers, highlights how the control and transformation of the non-human world by dominant groups (re)produces cycles of inequality and violence.

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Dates et versions

hal-05326446 , version 1 (22-10-2025)

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  • HAL Id : hal-05326446 , version 1

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Juliana Mazzucotelli. Grounded in Power: How Soil Shapes Racial and Ecological Violence in Cape Town’s White Suburbs. Rencontre annuelle de l’association des géographes américains (AAG), Mar 2025, Detroit (Michigan), United States. ⟨hal-05326446⟩

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