This chapter outlines the literatures that are critical to the larger project. These include a significant body of work on cities, on African cities, on theories of space, and perhaps most critically, on the right to the city. The chapter also provides context for the history of squatting in Cape Town—described as the “encroachment of the ordinary”—referencing present—that is, post-apartheid—initiatives to address a legacy of both housing and land scarcity in view of the persistence of informal settlements. While the new South African state has gone to considerable lengths to deliver homes, most notably through the Reconstruction and Development Programme (rdp), housing remains a central political issue, one that is as yet unresolved and that has led to a revival of older apartheid-era opposition politics.