The sprawl of malls: Financialisation, service work and inequality in Johannesburg's urban geography

This paper considers the discussion of the growth of service jobs in arguments around inequality in greater Johannesburg. It provides a conceptual reframing by imbricating service jobs with the expansion of malls and retail property development through Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), an instrument of financial capital investment. It posits a conjunctural analysis bringing together low wage service jobs with transformations in urban geography in relation to property investment and local government practice. Thus, the site of the 'mall' becomes both a place of unequal relations and a conceptual node to think through the articulation of social relations reproducing inequalities of race, gender and class.