Ercüment Çelik

Ercüment Çelik is a PhD Fellow in the Sociology Department at University of Freiburg, Germany, and Visiting Researcher in Industrial Organisation and Labour Studies at UKZN. His main areas of interest are Organising Informal Workers, Trade Unions and New Social Movements.

In their chapter, Normalising life in Durban: Bringing people back to its streets, Ercüment and Azad Essa draw from their frustrations (as international & local students) with crime and fear as ‘an obstacle towards having fun in this city.’ They write about how Durban's city centre is seen as a no go area by ‘the average middle class Durbanites,’ especially whites. While Indians may ‘man’ their businesses, there are few Indian pedestrians. Constructions of Durban city as dangerous are shared more widely at night: the city virtually shuts down. The paper raises questions about how to open up the city to everyone and reclaim the streets at night. It offers imaginative suggestions.

Reference:
Çelik, Ercüment, and Essa, Azad. 'Normalising life in Durban: Bringing people back to its streets', in Rob Pattman and Sultan Khan (Eds.), Undressing Durban (Durban: Madiba Press, 2007), pp. 235-242.