... www.hsrcpublishers.ac.za MartinJMurray22 The EvolvingSpatialFormofCities in a Globalising World Economy23Johannesburg after apartheid: the laager mentality redux In theirclassical formulation, ... canafforditspendanestimatedR50billion[$4.8billion] a yearonprivatesecurity,suchasperimeterbarricades,armedguardsandalarmsystems, a figure‘overandabove the highinsurancecosts’andwhatvariousstateagenciesalreadyspendon‘maintainingwhatpasses for lawandorder in the country’. The fearofcrimehasdrivenresidentsofmiddle-classneighbourhoodstoturntheirhomesintobunker-likefortresses,anexpensethathasdrainedmanyhouseholdsofdiscretionaryspending.Almost a fifthof ... “newtheories”aboutglobalcities,whilepersuasiveon the surface,areofonlylimitedvalue in explainingvariationsbetweenandwithinspecificurbanplaces’. In warningagainstwhatshecalls‘facilegeneralisations’,shecontendsthatglobalforces‘alwaysinteractwithpreexistingconditionson the groundtoyieldconsequencesthatarequiteplaceandclassspecific’(Abu-Lughod1999:400,412,417).Expressedsuccinctly, a significantnumberofurbantheoristshavereactedagainst the tendency in both the ‘global...