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This research uses the concept of 'urban scenes' to explore and characterise the economy of the city of Makhanda (Grahamstown). It is argued that this framework can create a thorough situational analysis on which to plan for locally-appropriate Local Economic Development (LED). It does this through characterising a local economic context that situates economic activity within a framework that acknowledges the role and interactions of consumers, culture, clustered amenities and economic activities, and urban place. It thus adds to traditional situational analyses by focusing on the urbanisms, activities, and character of the city—making these factors indivisible from the local economy. The framework reveals that two prominent scenes exist within Makhanda: the Education and Tourism Scenes. Education institutions like top public and private schools and Rhodes University are located within the city, and a tourism product exists in the form of creativity and the arts, festivals, edutourism, heritage, and wildlife safaris and hunting. These scenes bring significant money into the local economy through tourism and temporary education-led migration. They are both, however, under significant threat from a dysfunctional local municipality that has consistently failed in its mandate to support the local economy, engage with local stakeholders, and create an enabling environment for business. Intermittent and unreliable water supply, sewerage spills, and the deterioration of existing infrastructure are just some of the issues faced within the city. Any successful LED programme needs to tackle this issue and others to succeed. In addition to creating an enabling economic environment, cooperation within and between stakeholders in the identified scenes needs fostering. The local municipality also needs to create employment and a more inclusive economy to tackle issues of high unemployment and inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultivated exotic plants are often introduced for their aesthetic value and today comprise a substantial fraction of the flora of urban domestic gardens. Yet, their relative contribution to the functional diversity of domestic gardens and how it changes across different climate zones is insufficiently understood. Here, we investigated whether the effects of cultivated exotics on functional diversity of three plant traits related to plant aesthetics (that is, plant showiness, plant height, and leaf area) varied in suburban domestic gardens in three regions (Minnesota, USA; Alt Empordà, Spain; and central South Africa) that differ in aridity. For each garden, we calculated the mean and variance of each plant trait considering all co-occurring species and also splitting them into co-occurring cultivated exotics and natives. Our results revealed that mean plant showiness increased linearly with the proportion of cultivated exotics both across and within studied regions. Moreover, co-occurring cultivated exotics were, on average, showier than natives in all regions, but differences in their trait variances were context-dependent. The interaction between cultivated exotics and aridity explained variation in mean plant height and leaf area better than either predictor alone, with the effect of cultivated exotics being stronger in more arid regions. Accordingly, co-occurring cultivated exotics were taller and had larger leaves than natives in warmer and drier regions, while the opposite was true in cooler and wetter regions. Our study highlights the need to consider the combined effects of exotic species and climate in future studies of urban ecology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carpobrotus is a genus of succulent Aizoaceae originating from South Africa that has become invasive in the Mediterranean and represents a serious threat in coastal ecosystems. On the small island of San Pietro (Sardinia), Carpobrotus sp. pl. is invading also habitats far from the sea. We surveyed the distribution of Carpobrotus on the island using the transect method and defined two models of potential suitability for this taxon based on a set of variables predicting its occurrence at local scale. Our data corroborate previous evidence about the ecological synanthropy of Carpobrotus sp. pl. Using a representative sample of transects (70,720 m in total length), we obtained evidence of 39 sites of occurrence with a higher linear density along paved roads (with high traffic levels) when compared to unpaved dirt roads (with low traffic levels). When compared to other sites, in sites of occurrence we observed a higher density of urbanization and road infrastructure, both at 100-m and 500-m scales. However, after performing a logistic regression analysis using a set of selected non-autocorrelated variables as covariates, and the occurrence of Carpobrotus sp. pl. as the dependent variable, we observed that distance from the coastline was the main predictor. Suitability models suggest that the actual rate of invasion is likely to increase if disturbance (along particular roads) is not effectively managed and that this island can be at risk from a future wider invasion of this taxon, caused by progressive urbanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In South Africa, the informal sector, including food vending, is either criminalized or ignored. This is despite the fact that it plays an important role in the economy in terms of employment, income generation, food distribution and livelihoods for the urban poor. This paper assesses the nature, operations, strategies and challenges of the informal food sector in Cape Town. Data was collected through a survey of over 1000 informal food vendors in the city. Most of the enterprises were single-owner businesses, financed from personal savings and started by owners seeking employment, independence and improved financial security for their families. Most businesses had little or no access to finance from government agencies, banks and micro-finance lenders. Entrepreneurs faced various challenges ranging from insufficient sales, competition, changing consumer food needs and rising stock prices. To survive in a challenging economic environment, they adopt various innovative strategies including changing the types of foods they sell, increasing food stock variety, monitoring formal food retailing prices and negotiating with suppliers for favourable stock prices. Despite the various challenges being experienced, the informal food sector has become an integral and indispensable component of the food system of the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities are the frontline for addressing issues of global sustainability. This notion has been inducted into the development discourse of the Global North with varying degrees of success. However, urban environments in the Global South face unique challenges, and Western-derived perceptions of sustainability are inappropriate for these regions. This paper examines issues of sustainability within impoverished urban communities in South Africa. Survey interviews helped inform and examination of South Africa’s urban morphology to determine the specific obstacles to sustainable urban development of marginalised communities in South Africa. In response, the study proposes the application of the principles founded in facilities management (FM) at a macro/urban scale. Urban facilities management (UFM) is a new alignment of FM that advocates a holistic view of an urban precinct to facilitate systemic solutions with a variety of urban role-players. A conceptual framework for a UFM aligned development process for marginalised communities of the Global South is developed based on issues identified through the interviews. This framework seeks to enable a comprehensive integration of social, environmental, economic, and institutional dimensions of sustainability into an urban development model. In doing so, it holds the promise of unlocking the opportunities for developing/emerging countries to pioneer global sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional authorities (TA) and democratically elected government structures have co-existed in South Africa since the democratic transition in 1994. This article compares growth and development trends and patterns of TA areas in relation to areas that do not fall within traditional authorities for two municipalities in South Africa. The comparative analysis deploys descriptive and multivariate techniques to compare three dimensions of growth and development: basic services and housing, socio-economic indicators and density measures. In 1996, statistically significant differences in the levels of development were evident in five of the 16 indicators considered, while this figure reduced to only four of the 16 indicators in 2001 and three in 2011. In addition, statistically significant differences in the rate of change were identified in only four of the 16 indicators. These four indicators are the growth in the proportion of households residing in formal housing (significantly higher in non-TA wards) and the three density indicators (all significantly higher in the non-TA wards). The results confirm a broadly convergent trend between the levels of development in TA and non-TA wards between 1996 and 2011. From an overall perspective, the findings of this research indicate that, based on a ward level analysis of a range of development indicators, traditional authorities in the two study areas did not impede growth and development between 1996 and 2011. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creative tourism is a growing field of inquiry in tourism studies and engages creative industry, creative city and urban regeneration debates. This research identifies creative experience-based tourism as an example of novel tourism product innovation in Cape Town. Creative spectacles and creative spaces in the Cape Town context are also investigated. Key findings are that creative experience-based tourism is a small, but emerging urban tourism niche market with considerable growth potential in Cape Town; creative events are well developed currently in Cape Town but as yet poorly integrated with the wider tourism destination mix as well as creative industry initiatives, and whilst creative clusters are emerging in Cape Town, minimal development of creative urban spaces for tourism purposes is evident. Critical policy issues emerging from this analysis surround recommendations for fostering creative networks, stimulating demand for creative tourism, developing a comprehensive creative tourism product mix, planning for creative precinct development, and integrating creative tourism into the Cape Town destination image. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Africa's sprawling, fragmented urban form remains essentially intact, despite the inequitable consequences and resource inefficiencies. Government policies have advocated urban integration-compaction for two decades, in the face of inertia and resistance from vested interests. This paper investigates the attitudes of developers towards the principles of sustainable urban transformation. Developers tend to favour a narrow agenda of new green buildings over more environmentally significant brownfield re-development and refurbished buildings. While they recognise the need for higher-density, mixed-use schemes within existing built-up areas, most remain reluctant to get directly involved themselves because of the perceived risks and uncertainties. Yet, several niche developers are breaking the mould and beginning to challenge such assumptions about the potential for profitable investment in hitherto neglected areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theoretically, the evident demand for housing in growing cities, particularly in the Global South would result in vertical consolidation of properties. However, unlike places in Latin America, where market and state responses to urbanisation are pushing cities higher and higher, in South Africa, the densification and land use intensity has, generally, remained horizontal, rather than vertical in nature. Du Noon offers an interesting counter position to this narrative. Unlike other Reconstruction and Development Housing Programme settlements, many property owners are demolishing the state-delivered units and erecting double-storey rental accommodation. Drawing from interviews conducted with 21 of these structure owners, this paper explores the drivers of this 'vertical consolidation' in Du Noon drawing lessons for housing policy and practice in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent literature regarding population migration and urbanisation patterns in Sub-Saharan Africa indicates that migration patterns are far more complex than originally suggested, with evidence of counterurbanisation and reurbanisation patterns. Furthermore, migration patterns are strongly affected by diverse economic and policy pressures which often have unintended adverse effects on population movements. To this end, the study analyses long-term population migration and industry agglomeration patterns between 1996 and 2011 to evaluate the effects of economic growth and policy in population movements in post-apartheid South Africa. Moreover, the study disaggregates subpopulations in categories of age, ethnicity, income and education, enabling researchers to understand contradictory mainstream and substream migration trends based upon differential urbanisation theory. The study also debates the spatial effects of economic and social migration motivations on migration patterns in South Africa. The study reveals strong mainstream urbanisation patterns occurring amongst the lower skilled and black South African subpopulations. Substream counterurbanisation processes are also occurring with smaller subpopulations, particularly highly skilled, employed and white South African subpopulations. The Industry and capital are becoming more widely distributed, indicating possible polarisation reversal patterns. Finally, the study indicates that the trajectories are similar and that in the long run, different subpopulations are moving towards a more evenly and less spatially fragmented urban landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of the current planning discourse has come to reject master planned 'new cities' as both unrealistic and undesirable. However, with growing urbanisation challenges in the Global South, master planned cities, suburbs and communities have come back on the agenda driven by both public and private interests. This paper explores the WesCape Development (WD), a proposed satellite suburb to be located north-west of Cape Town, South Africa. Situating the WD in a longer lineage of utopian and new city planning approaches, I argue that the proposal is deeply flawed. Rather than being the solution to the urban ills facing Cape Town, it is an 'anti-urban' strategy which supports suburbanisation and assumes a particular and problematic urban growth scenario. It relies on 'environmentally deterministic' assumptions and depoliticised and deinstitutionalised designs. Ultimately, it tries to escape, rather than confront, the operational, political and social challenges of the city leading to the devaluation of planning instruments and citizenship engagement. The WD highlights the importance and power of radical and utopian thinking as well as the necessity of grounding and situating these impulses in the specificities and complexities of the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reflects briefly on the evolution of Urban Forum as it reaches the milestone of a quarter-century of academic publishing. In chronicling the past 25 years, a range of observations are made in terms of the institutional organisation of the journal, the thematic and spatial focus of research published, the flow of submissions and authorship. It is argued that much in the form of a unique investigatory research voice concerning the changing spatialities of African cities has been presented and explored. Nevertheless, there are further issues that require attention, which it is hoped will form part of future debates to be profiled in the pages of Urban Forum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper provides an overview of urbanization patterns and trends in the current era in South Africa, focusing in particular on the key dynamics and driving forces underlying migration and urbanization. It considers overall demographic trends with regard to migration and urbanization, and points to some of the difficulties with data, and with the analysis of trends and patterns. The paper explores the changing rural context and dynamics, and some of the significant processes in this context: large-scale displacement of black people off farms, the impact of land reform, and conditions in the former homeland areas. Circular migration continues to be an important way in which households in rural areas survive, but some are unable to move, and are falling out of these networks. International migration—the consequence of both conditions in the home country and the draw of the South African economy—is another significant process fuelling mainly urban growth. The paper demonstrates the importance of cities in terms of economic growth and employment, and thus their attractiveness to migrants. Continuing migration to cities is of course a challenge for city management, but important trends towards declining household size and the splitting up of households are also driving the physical growth of cities and demands for housing, services, and infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the South African context, the use of the judiciary as a means through which the poor can access housing and defend themselves from evictions has been addressed by several researchers (see, for example, Huchzermeyer, Urban Forum 14(1):80–106, ; Greenstein ). While some scholars seem to uncritically assume that the court offers the possibilities for redistribution and for the protection of the rights of marginalised South Africans (Gumede ), others, such as Huchzermeyer, have highlighted “the limitations of the judiciary as a route to democratic access to the city” (2003: 80). However, authors have not provided an in-depth analysis of the relationship between the demands made by a community-based organisation and their involvement in a court case. Drawing primarily from in-depth interviews with a community-based organisation in Alexandra called the Wynberg Concerned Residents (WCR) and local government officials involved with the Alexandra Renewal Project (ARP), this article illustrates the process through which the WCR becomes disempowered after its victory in court. Furthermore, it suggests that court cases do not always challenge the amount of resources provided by the state for the local level, in this case the ARP. As a result, victories in court do not necessarily have a positive effect on the living conditions of the poor as a whole. Instead of transforming development through the court system, the court may merely offer a potential means by which to re-manage specific local decisions so that the demands of particular residents can be addressed. The article concludes by offering a possible way forward given the disjuncture between community-based activists and movement theorists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities in the South are faced with the double challenges of underdevelopment and poverty on the one hand and urbanisation on the other. As the developing regions of the South continue to urbanise at an incredible rate, it is clear that many cities do not have the necessary capacity to respond to the increasing needs and demands by urban residents. As a result, many new city residents have no other option but to settle in informal areas. These areas have long been associated with poor and unhealthy living conditions and, more recently, the links between these living conditions and HIV/AIDS have become increasingly clear. Research suggests that developmental factors like poverty, unemployment, gender inequality and inadequate shelter, water and sanitation all play a role in increasing vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. These conditions further affect the ability of HIV-positive individuals, households and communities to cope with the consequences of the epidemic. This in turn leads to further impoverishment and reduces the likelihood that people living in informal settlements will be able to improve their livelihoods. Yet, little attention has been paid by policy makers and planners to the relationship between HIV/AIDS and informality despite the challenge it provides for cities and the implications of the epidemic for government institutions and local government in particular. This paper argues that informality is complex and that its heterogeneous nature is not effectively understood and thus not given appropriate recognition and support. It looks at the effects of the HIV/AIDS epidemic within this context of informality and the inevitable wave of urbanisation. The paper suggests that the only way to deal effectively with HIV/AIDS (and informality) is through planning and building integrated and sustainable urban settlements that respond to the complexities of informality in cities of the developing world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of land is a critical one in post-Apartheid South Africa. Growing informality and poverty in urban areas, driven to a large extent by urbanisation, necessitates greater concerted action around land use management in urban areas to ensure more equitable, environmentally and socially sustainable use of finite land resources. The operation of the urban land market has been identified as a significant obstacle preventing the urban poor from accessing affordable land. A new approach, advocated by the UK Department for International Development and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation entitled “Making Markets Work for the Poor—M4P” emerged in the 1990s. The M4P approach recognises that even successful market development will not distribute land to the poor and intervention in the land market is therefore required to promote more equitable land distribution patterns. The M4P perspective however has been accused of an obsession with economic solutions to the problem of landlessness and informality to the exclusion of other socio-political and legal remedies. The Brazilian case provides an example of a more progressive approach as it combines social policy and legal reform to regulate the use of urban land to ensure that land fulfils its “social function”. The presence of large tracts of vacant and unused land in cities is an important issue in the context of growing informality and competition for land and therefore requires urgent policy attention. The paper discusses the Brazilian case and the instruments used in that country to deal with vacant/unused land in cities. It argues that the progressive taxation of vacant land in cities could be a potentially valuable policy instrument in South African cities. Land-based fiscal instruments can be utilised by local government to manage the use of land and to access additional revenue which can be redistributed to the poor for the provision of infrastructure and services. Although these tools are not a panacea for challenges of informality and poverty in the developing world, they do have the potential to augment municipal income and to facilitate urban renewal, infill development and a more compact city. The paper argues though that these tools should be applied on a city-wide scale; part and parcel of an overall urban land reform strategy and plan for the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The challenges of rapid urbanisation in large parts of Africa are beyond the capacity of local government to manage. The paper explores the arguments for a national urban policy to complement local strategies, reflecting the unique power of the central state and the special circumstances of cities. With appropriate support, urbanisation could become a more positive force for economic and human development. Recent experience in South Africa illustrates some of the difficulties and possibilities for agreeing a systematic approach to planning and managing urban growth and transformation. Key stakeholders in the policy process have focused on urban poverty as an immediate priority and broadened the traditional economic argument for nations targeting cities to spell out a long-term environmental and economic development agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores and explains the phenomena of city growth and city regions in the South African context. It reflects on the process of urbanisation and city region growth in South Africa in an attempt at contributing towards the development of a discourse and analysis that better appreciates city region areas as crucial components of the growth, development and well-being of the nation as a whole, including communities living in rural areas of the country. The paper also raises questions around the increasing challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality, as well as the growing ecological dilemmas that city regions in South Africa are faced by. The paper is based on a study and analysis of quantitative data on urban areas and more specifically ‘city regions’, aptly called the ‘National Spatial Trends Overview (2008)’, for the South African Cities Network, the national Department of Provincial and Local Government and The Presidency. The innovative spatial analysis and data platform used enabled the identification and comparative analyses of a wide range of settlements based on their functional urban areas. It is argued that regardless of where on the contentious scale city regions are viewed as positive or negative, they are important for the country as a whole. Taking cognisance of benefits as well as costs of city region areas, the paper concludes that an appreciation for city region planning dynamics will be crucial for the achievement of the South African Government’s national developmental goals and objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the mid-1950s, the City of Cape Town was part of a wider area demarcated as a Coloured Labour Preference Area. The free movement of African people into the city was strictly controlled and the residential areas were segregated along racial lines. In terms of Apartheid’s grand design, an area designated Mitchell’s Plain was demarcated for occupation by Coloured people in 1973 while another designated Khayelitsha was allocated for African people in 1984. The two areas were incorporated in one magisterial district, Mitchell’s Plain, in the mid-1980s. A sample survey of the area was conducted in late November and early December 2000 with a focus on labour market issues. Its aim was to capture occupants of households aged 18 or older. The survey data has been interrogated to describe the connections between migration, poverty and health in a city where recent rapid urbanisation is changing the demographic profile significantly. As a consequence, the need to provide adequate infrastructure, decent housing and employment poses a daunting challenge ten years after the new democracy has been ushered in. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes the various government policies that spawned the principles that favored urban integration in South Africa. Policies including White Paper on Housing (in 1994), the Development Facilitation Act (in 1995) and the Urban Development Strategy (1995) are discussed. Concerns for the implementation of urban development programmes flowing from these policies, which may have possibly worsened the apartheid geography of segregation, fragmentation and inequality are also mentioned.

Background South Africa offers a valuable study environment to assess the impact of political and social changes on health. Increasing urbanisation has led to a focus on city development and its effect on its residents. The study assesses whether sex- and race-specific suicide rates differ across six of South Africa's major cities. Regional differences may reflect varying contextual and individual underlying mechanisms. Those need to be understood for appropriately targeted prevention efforts. Methods Suicide mortality data (n=4,946) for the six cities between 2001 and 2003 were used to assess whether there are differences in rates for age-standardised race and sex groups across cities and whether these differences are constant across cities. The overall age-standardised rates for the six cities was 25.3/100,000 for men and 5.6/100,000 for women. Results Suicide rates are most often highest among whites and men, but both the magnitude and distribution of suicide vary considerably for different race and sex groups within and across cities. There is a strong association between the method of suicide used and the city. Conclusions Despite some common trends in the suicide profile across South African cities, city does matter for the magnitude and distribution of suicide mortality across race and sex groups and for the method of suicide used. The need for locally based suicide research investigating possible reasons for these differences is highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on integrated area development projects in South Africa. The growing influence of sustainability concepts and developmental approaches to housing and urban development is leading to multi-faceted projects that incorporate economic, social and environmental dimensions. The promise of integrated area development projects is that they offer the space to initiate innovative approaches that promote integration and sustainability and link planning closely to implementation. The article further explores the main ways in which integrated area development has been used internationally and its varying institutional forms.

Deals with an example of commodification of urban space and services in Cape Town, South Africa. Transformation of South African cities into archetypal postmodern cities; Exploration of theoretical and practical questions that Century City raises; Reinvigoration of public realm; Expansion of globalized capital.

Deals with urbanization and settlement patterns in South Africa. Plausibility of the normalisation thesis; Migration into most metropolitan areas; Major critiques of neo-classical approaches to migration.