“People's factories”: Worker co-operatives in South Africa

The aim is to investigate the recent emergence of worker co-operatives or people's factories in South Africa. The development of South African worker co-ops is situated in terms of key aspects of the restructuring of the economy and society during the 1980s. New production forms such as producer co-operatives are linked to recession and worsening unemployment, state attempts to reverse economic decline and promote inward industrialisation and to the strengthening of oppositional political forces, especially the trade union movement. The paper analyzes the role of worker co-operatives under late apartheid addressing issues of their formation, characteristics, location and developmental prospects.     

Challenging the gay ghetto in South Africa: Time to move on?

In recent years, there has been increasing interest in changes within gay ghettos, villages, precincts, and neighbourhoods in different cities and regions, particularly in the West. This includes concerns from some constituencies about the decline – or de-gaying – of some queer neighbourhoods, coupled with commentary about the emergence of newer places, sometimes espoused as mixed, gay-friendly, or post-gay. Drawing on the South African experience, the question of how central these debates should stand in gay geographical scholarship is posed. Although it is increasingly acknowledged that the “old gay ghetto debates” are in some ways parochial (both spatially and theoretically), the dominance of such concerns remains pervasive in Western gay space theorisation. In this paper, attention is focused on Western theorisations of the relationship between gay sexualities, its links to specific forms of gay space such as gay ghettos and neighbourhoods, and the South Africa context. The contention is that gay spaces (in the form of consolidated space, or villages) are not a necessary outcome of lived gay identities. It is argued that in South Africa differently constructed gay identities are differently spatialised and ultimately incongruent with Western theory. The investigation supports the growing scholarship that suggests Western theorisation of the links between gay sexual identity and space is not universally applicable.     

Animals as valuable instinctive and ‘learned’ beings in the field of disaster management: a comparative perspective

Natural Hazards - This article justified the role of animals in the field of disaster management by testing the hypothesis that if animal behavior is meaningful, then it deserves a systematic...     

African urbanization in Metropolitan South Africa — differential urbanization perspectives

The supersession of the process of urbanization by what has been termed polarization reversal and counterurbanization in advanced developing and developed countries has become a much debated issue over the past 15 years. Disaggregated migration studies indicate that in addition to mainstream population migration patterns, undercurrent migration patterns may be evident which could differ quite substantially from the former. Such divergent migratory patterns occurring at the same time in the same country are called differential urbanization. As a potentially important urban development policy consideration, attention is focused in this paper on differential urbanization trends in South Africa at the metropolitan level. Recent informal urban settlement patterns of the African population within the major metropolitan areas are contrasted against these differential urbanization trends to determine the implications of both for residential development in the metropolitan areas during the post-apartheid era.     

The political ecology of alcohol as “disaster” in South Africa’s Western Cape

While attention to the socio-ecological and political economic influences on health grows, there remains a paucity of political ecological analyses of health (King, 2010). At the same time, the growing burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the Global South demands new conceptual and pragmatic engagements with their modifiable risk factors. Drawing on the example of South Africa, this paper argues that alcohol consumption might usefully be theorised in political ecological lexicon as a “disaster”. To do so, it draws attention to the upstream causes of vulnerability, rather than just the downstream effects of risky drinking. This reorientation is needed for sustainable, publicly acceptable alcohol policies. To realise this, it draws on Blaikie et al.’s (1994, 2003) political ecological approach to risk, vulnerability and coping and, more specifically, applies their Pressure and Release model to explore liquor as a situated “disaster” in South Africa’s Western Cape province. In so doing, it aims to mark out an under-explored research agenda that considers alcohol as a pervasive governance dilemma. In addition, it also reflects on the model’s utility as a means of communicating findings that might reorient policy discussions on alcohol control in both South Africa and countries of the Global South.     

Detecting Randomness in Spatial Point Patterns: A “Stat-Geometrical” Alternative

There are several methods to test the hypothesis of complete spatial randomness of point patterns. This work involves a new geometrical-based strategy to detect spatial arrangements, which takes into account both Euclidean and angular distances, defining a triangle-based network. An asymptotic test based on the Kolmogorov–Smirnov statistic is proposed to accommodate this situation. To assess the usefulness of this method (Stat-Geo), simulations based on Monte Carlo procedures, conducted using SPLUS, give satisfactory results with a high degree of accuracy. As expected, the new technique proposed in this paper, performs better than traditional ones like distance-based or angle-based, since more information (combining distance and angle) is introduced in the decision-making system. This approach is a very simple way to offer high efficiency results for a low computational cost. Furthermore, this alternative method allows barycentric interpolation of the unsampled points into a two-dimensional simplex (triangular) framework.     

Theorising middle class consumption from the global South: A study of everyday ethics in South Africa’s Western Cape

Emerging research on the increasing significance of consumption in the global South is concerned with its links to the globalizing middle classes. Against the backdrop of optimism invested in the new global middle classes to fuel consumption-led growth, this paper contributes to new debate about the articulations and significance of ethical consumption in the global South. Missing from much current mainstream policy, media and academic debate is acknowledgement of the diversity of the global middle classes and an understanding of how ethical interpretations and behaviour differ in various consumer markets around the world. In response, this paper draws on qualitative research in South Africa’s Western Cape to explore the cultural significance of everyday ethical realities in shaping consumption in the global South. In addition to addressing the relative absence of research into ethical consumption in global South contexts, the paper makes two key contributions based our findings. First, it challenges the tendency, particularly in economic discourses, to generalise about the ‘new’ global middle class consumers by highlighting the significance of locality and context in shaping consumption practices in the Western Cape; specifically it finds that, for diverse middle class consumers, thrift is an important ethical choice and practice determining consumption patterns. Second, it highlights the significance of everyday ethical practices in shaping consumption in the Western Cape, focusing specifically on how thrift is imbricated in concerns with not just economic constraint, but also care, habit and aspiration. The paper concludes with reflections on the wider implications of these findings and suggests that they illustrate a need to theorise ethical consumption from contexts in the global South, on their own terms.     

Shock-induced transformations in the system NaAlSiO4—SiO2: a new interpretation

New internally consistent interpretations of the phases represented by the high pressure phase shock wave data for an albite-rich rock, Jadeite, and nepheline in the system NaAlSiO₄-SiO₂, are obtained using the results of static high pressure investigations, and the recent discovery of the hollandite phase in a shocked meteorite. We conclude that nepheline transforms directly to the calcium ferrite structure, whereas albite transforms possibly to the hollandite structure. Shock Hugoniots for the other plagioclase and alkali feldspars also indicate that these transform to hollandite structures. The pressure-volume data at high pressure could alternatively represent the compression of an amorphous phase. Moreover, the shock Hugoniot data are expected to reflect the properties of the melt above shock stresses of 60–80 GPa. The third order Birch-Murnaghan equation of state parameters are: K_os=275±38 GPa and K_os=1.6±1.5 for the calcium ferrite type NaAlSiO₄, K_os=186±33 GPA and K_os=2.6±1.7 for the albite-rich hollandite, K_os=236±45 GPa and K_os=2.3±2.0 for the orthoclase-rich hollandite, and K_os=190 to 210 GPa and K_os2.2 for the anorthite-rich hollandite.     

The evolving role of finance in South Africa’s renewable energy sector

In the last four years, carbon-intensive, coal-dependent South Africa has become one of the leading global destinations for renewable energy investment. This investment can be attributed to the unprecedented take off of the country’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers’ Programme (RE IPPPP), a bidding process for the procurement of privately generated, utility scale renewable energy, launched in August 2011. Asserting that energy must be studied within the broader economic, political and social forces in which it is embedded, I explore the fundamental role that different modes of finance have played in shaping South Africa’s emerging renewable energy sector within the context of the country’s unique system of accumulation characterised by its minerals-energy complex (MEC) (Fine and Rustomjee, 1996). I focus on finance and financialisation as growing features within the MEC. I further examine the tension or incompatibility between commercial demands for ‘bankability’, short-term shareholder value and impatient finance and RE IPPPP’s unique requirements for community ownership of projects and the realisation of economic development criteria. I find that a reconfiguration of long-standing MEC actors, particularly in the realms of finance is taking place as they merge with new sources of foreign capital.     

Church–state relations in Spain: Variations on a National-Catholic theme?

Contrary to the absence of a uniform Spanish identity (a phenomenon that is often referred to as Spain being a ‘nation of nations’), Spain’s confessional map is remarkably homogeneous. From the beginning of its existence as a political conglomeration, Spain has been a mono-confessional Catholic territory. Even at present, Catholicism is an intrinsic feature of Spanish society and – though officially a secular state – of state policy. A closer look at Spain’s religious situation and its corresponding pattern of church–state relations reveals, however, some recent cracks in the century’s old bond between Spain and Catholicism. Particularly secularization and religious pluralism challenge Spain’s mono-confessional Catholic nature, a development that fits well into Spain’s post-Francoist focus on Europe and European (secular) values. This paper discusses Spanish church–state relations from the beginning of its political existence until present times. Special attention will be paid to more recent societal developments and their impact on religious Spain and church–state relations.

Metropolitan food systems in developing countries: The perspective of “Urban Metabolism”

The perspective of the paper is that of urban metabolism which views cities, metaphorically, as metabolic processes which take in people, food, resources, and energy, transform these into a distinctive quality of life, and emit people, products, and wastes. The paper focuses on urban food metabolism, by using the concept of the food system which includes the sub-systems of production, supply, distribution and consumption of food. The paper seeks to review the state of knowledge for each of these sub-systems, to provide examples that illustrate the functioning and determinants of urban food systems, to identify critical gaps in knowledge, to outline central research desiderata and to examine critically the analytic value of the concept of urban food metabolism.Revised version of a paper presented to the International Symposium on Urban Metabolism, held in Kobe, Japan, September 6–11, 1993     

Explaining low yields and low food production in Cameroon: a farmers’ perspective

While a bottom-up approach to identifying problems affecting food production among small-scale farmers has been urged as an appropriate means of finding sustainable solutions, few studies have determined the practical process of doing so and measured the outcomes of such an approach. This paper uses information gained mainly through focus groups with small-scale farmers and semi-structured interviews, to identify farmers’ perceptions of reasons behind low yields and low agricultural production in three communities of Cameroon’s North West region. Three biophysical factors are identified as the main reasons of low production: the long and more frequent dry spells and late start of the start of the rainy season. Three socio-economic reasons are identified as most important: land scarcity, money to invest in agriculture and labour scarcity. Farmers rank their reasons based on the importance to their agricultural production in their local area. Some of the important claims made by farmers are tested using field data and statistical analysis. These include the claims that: (1) the rainy season is increasingly starting later than it used to; and (2) the length of dry spells are increasingly longer than they used to be. The results of these statistical tests are significant, showing that farmers’ knowledge of some of the local problems affecting their activities can serve as an important input into formal research and policy design. Peoples’ understanding of a problem affects the way they will act on it—in terms of searching for solutions and implementing change. Farmers can therefore provide useful insights on why they think there are large yield gaps within their local production environments. The current agricultural development policy of the Cameroon government is advocating greater public–private engagement and can benefit from farmers’ inputs and opinions in the design of relevant policies. In the same light, nonlocal based researchers and research institutions can draw on farmers’ knowledge to create and accumulate knowledge on sustainable solutions to problems of low yields and low food production in Cameroon.     

Spatial–temporal relationships of Mesozoic volcanic rocks in NE China: Constraints on tectonic overprinting and transformations between multiple tectonic regimes

LA-ICP-MS zircon U–Pb ages and geochemical data are presented for the Mesozoic volcanic rocks in northeast China, with the aim of determining the tectonic settings of the volcanism and constraining the timing of the overprinting and transformations between the Paleo-Asian Ocean, Mongol–Okhotsk, and circum-Pacific tectonic regimes. The new ages, together with other available age data from the literature, indicate that Mesozoic volcanism in NE China can be subdivided into six episodes: Late Triassic (228–201 Ma), Early–Middle Jurassic (190–173 Ma), Middle–Late Jurassic (166–155 Ma), early Early Cretaceous (145–138 Ma), late Early Cretaceous (133–106 Ma), and Late Cretaceous (97–88 Ma). The Late Triassic volcanic rocks occur in the Lesser Xing’an–Zhangguangcai Ranges, where the volcanic rocks are bimodal, and in the eastern Heilongjiang–Jilin provinces where the volcanics are A-type rhyolites, implying that they formed in an extensional environment after the final closure of the Paleo-Asian Ocean. The Early–Middle Jurassic (190–173 Ma) volcanic rocks, both in the Erguna Massif and the eastern Heilongjiang–Jilin provinces, belong chemically to the calc-alkaline series, implying an active continental margin setting. The volcanics in the Erguna Massif are related to the subduction of the Mongol–Okhotsk oceanic plate beneath the Massif, and those in the eastern Jilin–Heilongjiang provinces are related to the subduction of the Paleo-Pacific Plate beneath the Eurasian continent. The coeval bimodal volcanic rocks in the Lesser Xing’an–Zhangguangcai Ranges were probably formed under an extensional environment similar to a backarc setting of double-direction subduction. Volcanic rocks of Middle–Late Jurassic (155–166 Ma) and early Early Cretaceous (145–138 Ma) age only occur in the Great Xing’an Range and the northern Hebei and western Liaoning provinces (limited to the west of the Songliao Basin), and they belong chemically to high-K calc-alkaline series and A-type rhyolites, respectively. Combined with the regional unconformity and thrust structures in the northern Hebei and western Liaoning provinces, we conclude that these volcanics formed during a collapse or delamination of a thickened continental crust related to the evolution of the Mongol–Okhotsk suture belt. The late Early Cretaceous volcanic rocks, widely distributed in NE China, belong chemically to a low- to medium-K calc-alkaline series in the eastern Heilongjiang–Jilin provinces (i.e., the Eurasian continental margin), and to a bimodal volcanic rock association within both the Songliao Basin and the Great Xing’an Range. The volcanics in the eastern Heilongjiang–Jilin provinces formed in an active continental margin setting related to the subduction of the Paleo-Pacific Plate beneath the Eurasian continent, and the bimodal volcanics formed under an extensional environment related either to a backarc setting or to delamination of a thickened crust, or both. Late Cretaceous volcanics, limited to the eastern Heilongjiang–Jilin provinces and the eastern North China Craton (NCC), consist of calc-alkaline rocks in the eastern Heilongjiang–Jilin provinces and alkaline basalts in the eastern NCC, suggesting that the former originated during subduction of the Paleo-Pacific Plate beneath the Eurasian continent, whereas the latter formed in an extensional environment similar to a backarc setting. Taking all this into account, we conclude that (1) the transformation from the Paleo-Asian Ocean regime to the circum-Pacific tectonic regime happened during the Late Triassic to Early Jurassic; (2) the effect of the Mongol–Okhotsk suture belt on NE China was mainly in the Early Jurassic, Middle–Late Jurassic, and early Early Cretaceous; and (3) the late Early Cretaceous and Late Cretaceous volcanics can be attributed to the subduction of the Paleo-Pacific Plate beneath the Eurasian continent.     

Platinum-group element distribution in base-metal sulfides of the UG2 chromitite,Bushveld Complex,South Africa—a reconnaissance study

Two drill cores of the UG2 chromitite from the eastern and western Bushveld Complex were studied by whole-rock analysis, ore microscopy, SEM/Mineral Liberation Analysis (MLA), and laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) analysis. The top and base of the UG2 main seam have the highest bulk-rock Pd and Pt concentrations. Sulfides mostly occur as aggregates of pentlandite, chalcopyrite, and rare pyrrhotite and pyrite or as individual grains associated mostly with chromite grains. In situ LA-ICP-MS analyses reveal that pentlandite carries distinctly elevated platinum-group element (PGE) contents. In contrast, pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite contain very low PGE concentrations. Pentlandite shows average maximum values of 350–1,000 ppm Pd, 200 ppm Rh, 130–175 ppm Ru, 20 ppm Os, and 150 ppm Ir, and is the principal host of Pd and Rh in the studied ores of the UG2. Mass balance calculations were conducted for samples representing the UG2 main seam of the drill core DT46, eastern Bushveld. Pentlandite consistently hosts elevated contents of the whole-rock Pd (up to 55 %) and Rh (up to 46 %), and erratic contents of Os (up to 50 %), Ir (2 to 17 %), and Ru (1–39 %). Platinum-group mineral (PGM) investigations support these mass balance results; most of the PGM are Pt-dominant such as braggite/cooperite and Pt-Fe alloys or laurite (carrying elevated concentrations of Os and Ir). Palladium and Rh-bearing PGM are rare. Both PGE concentrations and their distribution in base-metal sulfides (BMS) in the UG2 largely resemble that of the Merensky Reef, as most of the Pd and Rh are incorporated in pentlandite, whereas pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, and pyrite are almost devoid of PGE.     

Gated communities,heterotopia and a “rights” of privilege: a `heterotopology' of the South African security-park

This paper attempts a two-tiered analysis of what has come to be referred to as the `security-park', i.e., that South African variation of the `gated community' which combines Blakely and Snyder's [Fortress America: Gated communities in the United States, Brookings Institution Press, Washington, 1999] typically separable `lifestyle', `prestige' and `security zone' gated community types. The first part of this analysis reviews the existing literature on gated communities and relates it back to the South African situation. The second part, both theoretical and empirical, draws on Foucault's [Utopias and heterotopias, in: N. Leach (Ed.), Rethinking Architecture: A Reader in Cultural Theory, Routledge, London, 1997] notion of the heterotopia, and on a variety of textual representations of Dainfern. The heterotopia, as an `analytics of difference' becomes a particularly important means of critique here, drawing attention to security-parks as: (1) possessing a precise and well-defined function within society (a function which typically coalesces around points of social crisis), (2) operating distinctive systems of admission and exclusion, (3) containing certain `juxtaposed incompatibilities' (of which a paradoxical `heterochroneity' is one of the most pronounced elements), (4) embodying – via the espousal of a certain `utopics' – an `alternate mode of social ordering' (in Hetherington's [The Badlands of Modernity: Heterotopia and Social Ordering, Routledge, New York, 1997] term). Each of these analytical strands constitutes a discursive relay through which one might deduce wider networks of social power or in the case of Dainfern or security-parks more generally, historical structures of the race- and class-structuring of privilege and poverty. Representations and practices of the security-park are in this way indicative of a far larger political rationality – a self-justificatory set of entitlements, warrants and exclusionary prerogatives which we have labelled a “rights” of privilege.     

Radon in “nonradonic” ground waters of the Baikal region: Spatial and temporal variations

Based on the analysis of radon concentrations in several dozen springs and wells, three groups were distinguished for the waters classified as “nonradonic.” The spatial regularities of the distribution of these groups were revealed, along with the quantitative characteristic of the anomalies and the background, in view of their belonging to the Baikal and Transbaikal hydromineral provinces of the region.     

Spreading change of Africa–South America plate: insights from space geodetic observations

The results derived from geological data show that the half-spreading rate between the African and South American plates has remained relatively constant at 2 cm/year over the past 80 million years (Silver et al. in Science 279:60–63, 1998). In this paper, we have reestimated a new relative angular velocity of Africa–South America plates using the selected space geodetic station data through a new method. Our angular velocity estimates the spreading rates of Africa–South America plate over several years that are similar in azimuth but significantly slower in rate than the NUVEL-1A predictions averaged over the past 3 million years. The implied rates of deceleration coincide with longer-term trends over the past 35 million years and may reflect the effects of plate interaction and coupling of Africa–South America plates. An erratum to this article can be found at