Violence, xenophobia and insecurity in an informal settlement in Cape Town, South Africa

Datasets resulting from a case-study study of xenophobic violence and insecurity in Imizamo Yethu in Hout Bay, Cape Town, a settlement of around 30 000 people with a significant number of foreign residents and a history of at least some xenophobic violence. Data was gathered through mixed methods including a survey of 306 households, over a dozen interviews with key community leaders, and a series of half a dozen Participatory Action Research workshops with both local and foreign respondents, community leaders and ‘normal’ residents.

The project moved from the assumptions that the xenophobic violence was (i) driven by armed non-state actors,
and thus constituted a form of (ii) non-state rule by such groups, even if this rule was (iii) limited both in space to particular poor, black urban township, and in time to the expression of violence for moments (at most days) when the authority of the state was surpassed.

This research forms part of a wider study carried out in in Colombia, India, Lebanon, Niger and South Africa, on the relationship between populations living in areas of conflict and armed non-state actors controlling or contesting those areas results in forms of local governance and order, and how these in turn affect the access to and effectiveness of livelihoods.<p>The main purpose of this study is to fill this theoretical, empirical and policy gap by analysing how the relationship between populations living in contexts of violence and armed non-state actors controlling or contesting those areas results in forms of local governance and order, and how these in turn affect the access to and effectiveness of livelihoods adopted by individuals and communities in contexts of violence. The study is based on comparative qualitative and quantitative empirical work in Colombia, India, Lebanon, Niger and South Africa.</p>