Pathways toward a dialectical urbanism

In this chapter, the author argues for an explicit centring of relational tracings of the production of urban space, as these transverse multi-sited and systemic relations. He presents two short narratives on modes of the production of space in Cape Town intensified by COVID-19, to illustrate the contours of his argument. The tension in the water sector between municipal commitments to realise equitable service provision and simultaneous drives for fiscal austerity are evidenced again in the struggle to access land and housing. The chapter reveals the ways in which the practices can be given effect through an instrumental rationality and draw connections between finance and indebtedness that move all the way through, connecting global finance, national and local states and households. © 2021 selection and editorial matter, Michele Lancione and Colin McFarlane.