Agonistic City?

<p>An exploration of Johannesburg's post-apartheid's city administration's governance of conflict from 1996 to the current day in the case of service delivery protests and shifts in city policy. The author Li Pernegger focuses in-depth on the water wars in Orange Farm insurgent informal traders in the inner city and the billing battle fought by the middle class. <p/>This book provides deep insights into facets of protests: from the local state's qualification of the conflicts; its portrayals of protestors; its agonistic and antagonistic responses to protestors' claims; to power dynamics and the forms of agreement reached. <p/>Pernegger considers what the practical prospects of agonism might be for the local government to regard city strife in its practices of governance as a constructive - rather than destructive - force for change and the realisation of democratic ideals for its ordinary citizens.</p>