Based on the case studies of two South African metropolitan areas (Johannesburg and Ekhuruleni in the Gauteng Province), this paper reflects on the relation between globalisation and local urban policies. We argue that in South Africa's metropolisation process (finalised in 2000) globalisation has been used in the political and urban planners discourse to justify a neo-liberal urban policy, for one, and to reinforce the role of the central state, for the other. This strategy is partly hidden by a general insistence on local democracy, " good governance " and participation. It thus allows the state to concentrate on public and private investments in some part of the cities (the shop window), and to manage poverty in some others (the back shop). The demonstration is based on an analysis of the general urban policy, as well as of local examples of problematic public participation in deprived areas. This does not imply that there is no hope and progress in South African large urban settlements, but that the risk of developing new socio-spatial gaps is high.
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Bénit et al. (2003) studied this question.