'Emergency on planet Cape Town' introduces the emotional production of urban space as an important dimension for understanding urban dynamics in post-conflict societies such as South Africa. Drawing on a wide range of geographical, sociological, anthropological and psycho-analytical literature and on an analysis of three contemporary examples of urban transformation projects in the City of Cape Town, the author suggests that current integration politics are failing because of a lack of recognition of the politics of emotion that have shaped the city in the past. What is needed, argues the author, is a spatial politics of reconciliation that addresses both the emotional meaning attached to urban spaces, but also the very concept and image of Cape Town as a European city. <engl.>
