Stadler Jonathan, Dugmore Charles
Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute (WRHI), Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Witwatersrand University History Workshop, 1 Jan Smuts Avenue, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 2000, South Africa.
BMC Public Health. 2017 Jul 4;17(Suppl 3):444. doi: 10.1186/s12889-017-4345-1.
This commentary constructs a social history of Hillbrow, an inner-city suburb in Johannesburg, South Africa, based on a review of relevant published historical, anthropological and sociological texts. We highlight the significant continuities in the social structure of the suburb, despite the radical transformations that have occurred over the last 120 years.Originally envisaged as a healthy residential area, distinct from the industrial activity of early Johannesburg, Hillbrow was a prime location for health infrastructure to serve the city. By the late 1960s, the suburb had been transformed by the rapid construction of high rise office and apartment buildings, providing temporary low cost accommodation for young people, migrants and immigrants. In the 1980s, Hillbrow defied the apartheid state policy of racial separation of residential areas, and earned the reputation of a liberated zone of tolerance and inclusion. By the 1990s, affected by inner-city decay and the collapse of services for many apartment buildings, the suburb became associated with crime, sex work, and ungovernability. More recently, the revitalisation of the Hillbrow Health Precinct has created a more optimistic narrative of the suburb as a site for research and interventions that has the potential to have a positive impact on the health of its residents.The concentration of innovative public health interventions in Hillbrow today, particularly in the high quality health services and multidisciplinary research of the Hillbrow Health Precinct, creates the possibility for renewal of this troubled inner-city suburb.
本评论基于对相关已发表的历史、人类学和社会学文本的回顾，构建了南非约翰内斯堡市中心郊区希尔布罗的社会历史。我们强调了该郊区社会结构中的显著连续性，尽管在过去120年里发生了激进的转变。希尔布罗最初被设想为一个健康的住宅区，与约翰内斯堡早期的工业活动不同，它是为城市提供卫生基础设施的理想地点。到20世纪60年代末，该郊区因高层办公楼和公寓楼的迅速建设而发生了转变，为年轻人、移民和外来务工人员提供了临时低成本住宿。在20世纪80年代，希尔布罗无视种族隔离政权关于住宅区种族隔离的政策，赢得了宽容和包容的解放区的声誉。到20世纪90年代，受市中心衰败以及许多公寓楼服务崩溃的影响，该郊区与犯罪、性工作和无法治理联系在一起。最近，希尔布罗健康区的振兴为该郊区创造了一个更乐观的叙事，即它是一个有可能对居民健康产生积极影响的研究和干预场所。如今，创新的公共卫生干预措施集中在希尔布罗，特别是在希尔布罗健康区的高质量卫生服务和多学科研究中，这为这个陷入困境的市中心郊区的复兴创造了可能性。
