Researching the South African tourism and development nexus

Under apartheid, tourism was essentially anti-developmental in focus and tourism research largely centred on the recreation of white South Africans. Since the 1994 democratic transition tourism has become recognised as an increasingly important sector for South Africa's economy and for achieving the government's goals for reconstruction and development. In this paper a review and critical analysis is presented of the changing directions and foci of tourism scholarship in South Africa. It is shown that South African scholars are beginning to respond to the challenges posed by tourism as a developmental focus. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Local government, local economic development and quality of life in Poland

The establishment of local self-government was a key part of the post-1989 transformation in East and Central Europe. Local government in both Western and East and Central Europe has increasingly been expected to play a role in local economic development (LED). Local government is one important agent in the complex processes of building 'institutional thickness' to ensure the development of local economies and the quality of life of inhabitants. This paper presents the results of a national postal questionnaire survey of the LED role of the lowest level of local self-government in Poland, the gmina or commune. The paper establishes a baseline of knowledge regarding: the local economic problems faced by communes; their attitudinal, strategic and organisational responses; and the main factors which are hindering the communes' LED role. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Learning and local competitiveness: the case of Turin

This contribution aims to illustrate the most recent initiatives of cluster strategy analysis and implementation to revitalise the Turin metropolitan region. In the paper, theoretical and methodological, analytical and political assumptions interweave inextricably. For these reasons, it is divided into a number of distinct but sequential parts. First of all, the problem of regional competitive advantage and the underlying logic of interpretation are established as the expression of the structural dynamics that involve the contemporary economy.The quantitative and qualitative methodologies that were used to outline the existence of clustered business systems in the Turin region are then examined. More particularly, the Turin manufacturing system has been broken down into eight clusters of three different types: (a) strategic, (b) innovative, (c) traditional. Starting from the clusters identified, I then try to grasp the logic of interpretation of the Turin system and, as a consequence, the strategies of political intervention.Finally, this contribution examines the problems of implementing an industrial policy strategy, which is centred on the creation of `Cluster Observatories', the reorganisation of the local economic and urban planning offices, and the establishment of a special agency for industrial policy.     

Late Quaternary glaciation in Southern Africa: moraine ridges and glacial deposits at Mount Enterprise in the Drakensberg of the Eastern Cape Province,South Africa

Late Quaternary moraines and diamictons containing striated clasts are described from near Elliot in the Drakensberg of South Africa. An equilibrium line altitude (ELA) of 2109 m is suggested for the palaeoglacier associated with the innermost moraine. This glacier was fed by a very extensive snowblow area and the ELA may reflect the temperature–precipitation–wind ELA rather than the temperature–precipitation ELA and be considerably below the ‘regional’ ELA. Mean annual air temperatures when glaciation occurred were probably at least 10.0°C below those of the present. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

南非重要金属矿产开发现状及投资前景分析

南非矿产资源非常丰富,储量巨大,是全球不包括能源在内的矿产资源范围价值最富有的国家。经研究,世界上最大的锰矿区、铬矿区,最大的黄金矿脉均位于南非,与我国形成了很强的经济互补性,因此对南非重要金属矿产进行开发投资具有重要的意义。结合本文整理的南非重要金属矿产锰、铂族、铬、金四大矿种资源禀赋、分布、产量、矿业公司及投资环境等,对南非进一步的投资方向和投资目标提出建议：对重点研究的锰、铂族、铬、金四大矿种提出了相关开发投资区域建议,而对于南非社会目前的不稳定性,建议中资企业可以参股形式参与当地的矿业投资,避免投资风险。     

Development from within: an evaluative research on economic development strategies

Research on the practice of adopting local economic development (LED) strategies is important to understand our local world as it is and what it might be made to be as a place for community. This article on economic development strategies (EDS) highlights the results from a survey of 82 small communities representing the Yukon Territory and ten provinces in Canada. The purpose was to evaluate the positive and additive effects of past local action and community initiatives so as to understand the variation in the adoption of local economic development strategies of Canada’s small towns and local municipalities. Using a questionnaire as instrument for data collection, the study employed hierarchical regression analysis and principal component analysis (PCA) as method for factor extraction and composite assessment on the effects of adopting EDS for community. The PCA solution was applied to evaluate the structure of correlation between the community characteristics as control variables in the baseline model for regression analysis and the past local action and community initiatives as independent variables. The results of the hierarchical regression analysis showed that local initiatives have significant and additive effects on the adoption of EDS by small communities. The study findings offer some insights into some perspectives of ‘development from within’ to mean the local economic development practice in Canadian communities.     

广西矿产资源开发利用与地方经济发展的良性互动关系探讨

通过对广西矿产资源开发与地方经济发展的关系进行研究,总结了矿产资源开发对地方经济发展的促进作用,同时分析了两者之间存在的矛盾。指出,国有企业在资源开发、利用和地方经济发展中起着主导作用,同时提出了构建广西矿产资源开发与地方经济发展良性互动关系的对策和措施。     

The co-production of land use and livelihoods change: Implications for development interventions

In a previous paper [McCusker, B., Carr, E.R., 2006. The co-production of livelihoods and land use change: Case studies from South Africa and Ghana. Geoforum 37 (5), 790–804], we argued that land use and livelihoods could best be understood as co-produced, where land use and livelihoods are not separate objects of knowledge related to one another through abstract processes, but different manifestations of social processes through which individuals and groups come to understand the challenges facing their everyday lives, the various resources available to them to negotiate these challenges, and the strategies by which they can conduct that negotiation. In this paper, we examine the theoretical basis for “co-production” with the goal of using this approach to inform development interventions.     

The etiquette of state-building and modernisation in dependent states: performing stateness and the normalisation of separate development in South Africa

The paper reflects upon the continuing allure of state-building and modernisation in peripheral, `new' states and regions. The central argument is to suggest that our understanding of the conflicts surrounding `nation-building' can be improved upon by looking at one of the most powerful symbols of the neo-colonial, economic and institutional dependency and territorial artificiality of the `nation-state'- the South African Bantustan. As enforced state-hood projects, their `newness' and illegality in the eyes of the international community suggest that the Bantustans provide a particularly striking evocation of both the limits of state-building and, above all, the significance of recognition for `newer' states. Efforts to overturn the illegal status and non-recognition of one `independent' Bantustan, namely Bophuthatswana, therefore, illustrate what are widely held to be the modern attributes and evolutionary etiquette (`growth', `building', `development') that need to be `performed' in order to legitimise or normalise a state internationally. To be given a `voice' internationally, states are seemingly required to enact state-hood and sovereignty through a range of normalising rituals associated with state-building. In this case- study, strategies promoting neo-liberal development policies and also clandestine diplomatic and economic manoeuvres were believed by the regime to deliver international recognition. Directed at locating Bophuthatswana within its place in the world, these strenuous efforts also show how crude territorial `divide and rule' tactics alone were not responsible for underpinning the apartheid project. Rather, spaces were provided for discourses and practices of state-led `national' development in the Bantustan periphery. Thought to deliver normality for the renegade Bophuthatswana state, these international and local policies exacerbated and induced further a range of crises at the heart of the Bantustan strategy and apartheid modernisation more generally. These debilitating, and in Bophuthatswana's case, disastrous, tensions between the internal and external realms of state-building point to a more general need to rethink alternatives both to neo-liberalism as well as the rituals associated with state- building.     

‘Bringing government to the people’: women, local governance and community participation in South Africa

This paper considers the ongoing political transformations in South Africa in the context of debates about good governance and participatory democracy. It first appraises the current transformations of local government in South Africa, focusing specifically on relationships between gender equality and citizenship on the one hand, and local government policy, legislation, and community participation on the other, and then explores meanings of participation and how they inform approaches towards local socio-economic development. The findings of primary research conducted with civil society organisations and black women in communities in the Cape Town metropolitan area are explored through three interrelated themes. First, the model of structured participation that is central to South Africa’s democratic transformation is assessed from the perspective of black women. Second, cultures of alienation, both within local governance structures and amongst black women and the extent to which recent restructuring is combating or contributing to these are explored. Third, how participation policies are dealing with conflict within and between target groups are analysed, whether stakeholder group politics obliterate important differences in interests and whether alternative structures might be more effective in terms of women’s participation and empowerment. Finally, the findings are interpreted in relation to theoretical concepts of good governance and participatory democracy, and the potential and problems of realising South Africa’s transformation process toward developmental local government are assessed.     

The transfer of agricultural technology and the development of small-scale farming in rural Africa: Case studies from Ghana, Sudan, Uganda, Zambia and South Africa

In many developing countries, research institutions or centres have been established to develop and/or adapt technologies that would help agricultural development. This is particularly true in Africa where national efforts have been supplemented with international research institutes. Although some modest progress has been achieved in improving agricultural technology, on the whole, the improvement record is not quite encouraging among the small-scale farmers. In many areas, either there are no improved technologies, or where they exist, are unacceptable by farmers. However, where useful technologies exist, their spread has been very limited and where they have been adapted, the benefits only accrue to a small segment of the community. The logical question posed is: why and how do we find ourselves in the current situation? This paper considers the view that to understand fully why the available technologies have remained largely at the research centres, there is need to examine the whole process of research, development, dissemination and utilization of agricultural technology. It is significant to investigate the structural constraints and prospects under which those involved in the process work, their motivations and the interactions between different groups. The traditional ‘top-down’ of development strategy should be supplemented with farmers' indigenous knowledge, and programmes encouraging transfer of agricultural technology should include institutional support. Only by the identification of farmers' environmental and resource utilisation, preferences, socio-economic circumstances and constraints can a development programme of optimum meaning to farmers be devised and implemented with success.     

The co-production of livelihoods and land use change: Case studies from South Africa and Ghana

Land use change and livelihood systems are often analyzed separately or with one “driving” the other. This “driver-feedback” relationship has been buttressed by approaches to social process that are often far too static. Actors are confronted with a bundle of choices that they must negotiate as they create pathways of change. These choices are always bound up in relations of power and the knowledges that are the conditions for and results of these relations. We suggest that land uses and livelihood are different manifestations of the social processes by which individuals and groups negotiate the everyday conditions that shape their lives. We propose a framework that extends current understandings of the relationship between land use change and livelihoods by treating social relations of power as the entry point into this complex relationship. We underpin our arguments with empirical examples from South Africa and Ghana that locate power/knowledge relations in the context of social change in both study areas.     

Petrogenesis of contact-style PGE mineralization in the northern lobe of the Bushveld Complex: comparison of data from the farms Rooipoort,Townlands, Drenthe and Nonnenwerth

In the present study, we document the nature of contact-style platinum-group element (PGE) mineralization along >100 km of strike in the northern lobe of the Bushveld Complex. New data from the farm Rooipoort are compared to existing data from the farms Townlands, Drenthe, and Nonnenwerth. The data indicate that the nature of the contact-style mineralization shows considerable variation along strike. In the southernmost portion of the northern Bushveld, on Rooipoort and adjoining farms, the mineralized sequence reaches a thickness of 700 m. Varied-textured gabbronorites are the most common rock type. Anorthosites and pyroxenites are less common. Chromitite stringers and xenoliths of calcsilicate and shale are largely confined to the lower part of the sequence. Layering is locally prominent and shows considerable lateral continuity. Disseminated sulfides may reach ca. 3 modal % and tend to be concentrated in chromitites and melanorites. Geochemistry indicates that the rocks can be correlated with the Upper Critical Zone. This model is supported by the fact that, in a down-dip direction, the mineralized rocks transform into the UG2-Merensky Reef interval. Between Townlands and Drenthe, the contact-mineralized sequence is thinner (up to ca. 400 m) than in the South. Chromitite stringers occur only sporadically, but ultramafic rocks (pyroxenites, serpentinites, and peridotites) are common. Xenoliths of calcsilicate, shale, and iron formation are abundant indicating significant assimilation of the floor rocks. Sulfides may locally form decimeter- to meter-sized massive lenses. PGE grades tend to be higher than elsewhere in the northern Bushveld. The compositions of the rocks show both Upper Critical Zone and Main Zone characteristics. At Nonnenwerth, the mineralized interval is up to ca. 400 m thick. It consists largely of varied-textured gabbronorites, with minor amounts of igneous ultramafic rocks and locally abundant and large xenoliths of calcsilicate. Layering is mostly weakly defined and discontinuous. Disseminated sulfides (<ca. 3 modal %) occur throughout much of the sequence. Geochemistry indicates that the rocks crystallized mainly from tholeiitic magma and thus have a Main Zone signature. The implication of our findings is that contact-style PGE mineralization in the northern lobe of the Bushveld Complex cannot be correlated with specific stratigraphic units or magma types, but that it formed in response to several different processes. At all localities, the magmas were contaminated with the floor rocks. Contamination with shale led to the addition of external sulfur to the magma, whereas contamination with dolomite may have oxidized the magma and lowered its sulfur solubility. In addition to contamination, some of the magmas, notably those of Upper Critical Zone lineage present at the south-central localities, contained entrained sulfides, which precipitated during cooling and crystallization.     

Political ecology and development: Intersections, explorations and challenges arising from the work of Piers Blaikie

While most contributions to this collection focus centrally on political ecology (PE), this paper approaches the work of Piers Blaikie through a somewhat different lens, situating his political ecological contributions within the broader context of his engagement with related themes in development studies. I trace and discuss his work in approximately chronological terms, from the spatial organization of North Indian villages through the political economy of agrarian change and of peripheral capitalist (under-)development in Nepal to political ecology, pathbreaking work on the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Uganda, more general disaster vulnerability and recoverabililty, and a survey of post-structural challenges in development theory. Not only does this approach provide a distinctive view of Blaikie’s evolving concerns over the course of his career and thematic connections between them, but it also reflects my personal experience of his work and its influence. This foundation then enables an exploration of several issues about current directions in, and possible future extensions of, PE which should help to ensure that PE does not, as some critics claim, have only limited remaining shelf-life.     

Some aspects of South Asia's groundwater irrigation economy: analyses from a survey in India, Pakistan, Nepal Terai and Bangladesh

Since 1960, South Asia has emerged as the largest user of groundwater in irrigation in the world. Yet, little is known about this burgeoning economy, now the mainstay of the region's agriculture, food security and livelihoods. Results from the first socio-economic survey of its kind, involving 2,629 well-owners from 278 villages from India, Pakistan, Nepal Terai and Bangladesh, show that groundwater is used in over 75% of the irrigated areas in the sample villages, far more than secondary estimates suggest. Thanks to the pervasive use of groundwater in irrigation, rain-fed farming regions are a rarity although rain-fed plots within villages abound. Groundwater irrigation is quintessentially supplemental and used mostly on water-economical inferior cereals and pulses, while a water-intensive wheat and rice system dominates canal areas. Subsidies on electricity and canal irrigation shape the sub-continental irrigation economy, but it is the diesel pump that drives it. Pervasive markets in tubewell irrigation services enhance irrigation access to the poor. Most farmers interviewed reported resource depletion and deterioration, but expressed more concern over the high cost and poor reliability of energy supply for groundwater irrigation, which has become the fulcrum of their survival strategy.

Nature of ore-forming fluid and formation conditions of BIF-hosted gold mineralization in the Archean Amalia Greenstone Belt,South Africa: Constraints from fluid inclusion and stable isotope studies

Orogenic gold mineralization in the Amalia greenstone belt is hosted by oxide facies banded iron-formation (BIF). Hydrothermal alteration of the BIF layers is characterized by chloritization, carbonatization, hematization and pyritization, and quartz-carbonate veins that cut across the layers. The alteration mineral assemblages consist of ankerite-ferroan dolomite minerals, siderite, chlorite, hematite, pyrite and subordinate amounts of arsenopyrite and chalcopyrite. Information on the physico-chemical properties of the ore-forming fluids and ambient conditions that promoted gold mineralization at Amalia were deduced from sulfur, oxygen and carbon isotopic ratios, and fluid inclusions from quartz-carbonate samples associated with the gold mineralization.Microthermometric and laser Raman analyses indicated that the ore-forming fluid was composed of low salinity H₂O-CO₂ composition (~3 wt% NaCl equiv.). The combination of microthermometric data and arsenopyrite-pyrite geothermometry suggest that quartz-carbonate vein formation, gold mineralization and associated alteration of the proximal BIF wall rock occurred at temperature-pressure conditions of 300 ± 30 °C and ∼2 kbar. Thermodynamic calculations at 300 °C suggest an increase in fO₂ (10⁻³²–10⁻³⁰ bars) and corresponding decrease in total sulfur concentration (0.002–0.001 m) that overlapped the pyrite-hematite-magnetite boundary during gold mineralization. Although hematite in the alteration assemblage indicate oxidizing conditions at the deposit site, the calculated low fO₂ values are consistent with previously determined high Fe/Fe + Mg ratios (>0.7) in associated chlorite, absence of sulfates and restricted positive δ³⁴S values in associated pyrite. Based on the fluid composition, metal association and physico-chemical conditions reported in the current study, it is confirmed that gold in the Amalia fluid was transported as reduced bisulfide complexes (e.g., Au(HS)₂⁻). At Amalia, gold deposition was most likely a combined effect of increase in fO₂ corresponding to the magnetite-hematite buffer, and reduction in total sulfur contents due to sulfide precipitation during progressive fluid-rock interaction.The epigenetic features coupled with the isotopic compositions of the ore-forming fluid (δ³⁴S_ΣS = +1.8 to +2.3‰, δ¹⁸O_H2O = +6.6 to +7.9‰, and δ¹³C_ΣC = −6.0 to −7.7‰ at 300–330 °C) are consistent with an externally deep-sourced fluid of igneous signature or/and prograde metamorphism of mantle-derived rocks.     

高温-超高温变质作用成因研究——来自华北克拉通西部孔兹岩带和南非Kaapvaal克拉通西南部Namaqua活动带与Bushveld变质杂岩体的启示

超高温变质作用是在变质地质学领域,继超高压变质作用研究高峰之后的又一重要前缘课题,对于认识地壳构造-热演化具有重要意义。本文总结了华北克拉通西部孔兹岩带和南非Kaapvaal克拉通西南部Namaqua活动带与Bushveld变质杂岩体的高温-超高温麻粒岩的化学成分、矿物组合、变质演化特征,及其相应的变质事件与构造属性。我国的超高温变质作用带,包括华北克拉通西部的孔兹岩带——从内蒙西段的大青山到东段的集宁-凉城地区的超高温变质岩,皆为Al-Mg质和Al饱和体系的超高温变质岩石,常见假蓝宝石+石英、尖晶石+石英的典型超高温变质组合,以及含假蓝宝石±尖晶石、但缺少石英的非典型超高温变质组合。南非Namaqua活动带与Bushveld变质杂岩体分别发现有独特的Fe-Al饱和的铁尖晶石+石英+大隅石、刚玉+高温石英等超高温矿物组合,罕见的高温硼硅酸盐和硅硼铝镁石等超高温矿物组合;以及Ca-Mg质饱和的钙镁橄榄石+镁硅钙石镁黄长石+镁橄榄石等超高温矿物组合的麻粒岩。研究的核心问题是矿物和岩石在高温-超高温条件下的特殊行为方式,不同构造环境和岩石化学成分下的变质反应及其热动力学过程。由此提出超高温变质作用成因研究中的科学问题:包括不同类型和地质属性的高温-超高温麻粒岩的成因特征;麻粒岩的形成条件演化过程和构造背景;高温-超高温变质过程中部分熔融和重新水化过程中流体的作用以及岩体形变过程中的部分熔融;变质反应以及变质作用P-T-t轨迹、元素地球化学和熔体作用行为;岩石保留的可能的变质事件和年代学记录,定量评价高温-超高温过程中变质演化的时间跨度和演化速率。     

Application of in situ-produced cosmogenic Be and Al to the study of lateritic soil development in tropical forest: theory and examples from Cameroon and Gabon

Depth profiles of in situ-produced cosmogenic nuclides, including ¹⁰Be (T_1/2=1.5×10⁶ years) and ²⁶Al (T_1/20.73×10⁶ years), in the upper few meters of the Earth's crust may be used to study surficial processes, quantifying denudation and burial rates and elucidating mechanisms involved in landform evolution and soil formations. In this paper, we discuss the fundamentals of the method and apply it to two lateritic sequences located in African tropical forests.     

Fluid systems and fracture development during syn-depositional fold growth: An example from the Pico del Aguila anticline,Sierras Exteriores,southern Pyrenees,Spain

This paper reports an integrated, spatio-temporal analysis of the fracture-controlled paleo-fluid system in the Pico del Aguila anticline, a N–S trending fold located in the Sierras Exteriores, the southern front of the Spanish Pyrenees. Eight fracture sets (joints or faults) are recognized throughout the fold and are separated into a fracture sequence that is defined using field relationships and the remarkable temporal constraints offered by the syn-tectonic sedimentary deposits. This fracture sequence records a complex Paleocene to Early Oligocene structural evolution, including map-view, clockwise rotation and tilting of the fold axis. The geochemical analysis of calcite cements from the different mineralized fracture/vein sets reveals a compartmentalized fluid system during most of fold development. This initial paleofluid system was later perturbed when bending-related fractures associated with foreland flexure and outer arc extension triggered small-scale, vertical fluid migration. Fractures developed in shallow strata facilitated downward migration of surficial fluids that controlled the paleo-fluid system in the Late Priabonian/Stampian continental deposits. The study of the Pico del Aguila anticline depicts for the first time the evolution of a fluid system in a shallow, syn-depositional compressional setting, and results further strengthen the statement that fluids migrate vertically across stratigraphic boundaries take place during fold hinge-related deformation.