Transitional rural landscapes: The role of small-scale commercial farming in former homelands of Post-Apartheid KwaZulu-Natal

Geografisk Tidsskrift, Danish Journal of Geography 106(2): 87–102, 2006

The paper presents trends in past and present land use patterns in parts of a former homeland of KwaZulu-Natal, and discusses the changing role of farming. It suggests that an understanding of the transition in rural land must take into account the impact of rural-urban relations and the Colonial and Apartheid socio-spatial policies. A sequence of map data is analysed and compared with interviews with residents of the studied area and official data concerning actual and prospected development. The data demonstrate how population pressures and changing sources of income during the Apartheid period have resulted in a land use system dominated by home gardens and some attempts to develop small-scale commercial farming, while traditional subsistence farming has gradually decreased. On this background the prospects for small-scale commercial farming are discussed. It is argued that at least four aspects may explain why commercial farming is still marginal: the troubled land allocation system, the continued dependency on cash income for successful farming, the institutional obstacles to farmers from the homeland who wish to develop market relations, and the changing territorial logics that have characterized demarcation and land use in the post-Apartheid period.     

Environmental perceptions and practices of livestock keepers on the Namaqualand Commons challenge conventional rangeland management

In South Africa, interventions in communal rangelands proposed by most agriculture-sector institutions are still dominated by the belief that communal herders have little technical skills and by the tenets of “the tragedy of the Commons”, assuming that individual livestock keepers are selfish, norm free, and aiming at maximising short-term offtake and that there is no consistent management of the commons. In this study we show that practices of a diversity of livestock keepers on the Leliefontein Commons of Namaqualand are at odds with this viewpoint: access to rangeland and its use are structured by collective norms and concerns regarding both the sharing of resources and their long-term sustainability. We also show that part of the management of the commons relies on grazing practices which involve tacit and formalised technical knowledge that can be described and modelled. Livestock keepers assess the heterogeneity of the grazing quality of the commons. They are aware of the toxicity and unpalatability of some plants, of the way this differs according to the amount ingested and the availability of other forage, and of the variations of these two factors over seasons of grazing. They classify grazing areas and decide on daily grazing routes according to a complex set of criteria. Carrying capacity of each area is not considered as a fixed parameter but rather as a variable dependant on rainfall. Seasonal movements between areas are designed accordingly. These findings offer a new perspective for research agendas on technical models and extension measures for communal rangeland management particularly in arid and semi-arid areas.     

Resilient geographies: land, boundaries and the consolidation of the former bantustans in post-1994 South Africa

This paper focuses on the spatial impact of land reform and the redrawing of internal boundaries on South Africa's former bantustans. It argues that, in contrast to the democratic government's intention to use land reform and boundary demarcation to effectively change the spatial legacy of apartheid, these processes tend to cement the geography of the former bantustans. Though earlier research correctly projected that post-apartheid policies could result in the enlargement of the areas of the former bantustans, the ways in which this could happen were still unclear. This paper draws on experiences of land reform and boundary demarcation to demonstrate how and why the areas of the former bantustans have been enlarged over the 12 years of democracy in South Africa.     

The Knysna Basin, South Africa: geomorphology, landscape sensitivity and sustainability

The Knysna Basin, a southern Cape catchment, drains into the Knysna estuary. The landscape characteristics are the product of a long geomorphic evolution resulting in high sensitivity to change. Consideration of the geomorphology is followed by examples of impacts on the estuary and adjacent areas. The need for sustainability in the context of development is argued. The paper is a southern African contribution to the landscape sensitivity issue.     

中国县域生态资产损益的影响机制及优化提升路径

生态资源资产化、生态资产资本化是实现“两山”转化的一个重要途径,开展生态资产及其损益核算有助于生态系统的有效保护、科学管理和可持续利用。本文在借鉴国内外生态资产相关研究的基础上,构建了县域尺度生态资产及其损益核算技术体系,分析了1990—2018年中国县域生态资产的时空变化特征,明晰了造成生态资产损益的影响因素及作用机制,并针对具有不同生态资源类型、损益状况、驱动要素特征的县域提出了差异化的优化提升路径。结果表明：① 以农田、森林生态资源为主的县域数分别约占县域总数的45%和37%;1990—2018年中国县域生态存量资产的质量整体呈波动中上升趋势,而生态流量资产的变化趋势差异显著,近70%县域水源涵养量减少。② 生态流量资产价值呈现损与益态势的县域数分别约占44%和37%,空间分布呈现与“胡焕庸线”一致的分割特征,即西北广大地区县域明显增益,而东部和南部县域有所减损。③ 1990—2018年中国超过70%县域生态资产变化受气候变化与人类活动共同驱动,人类活动对生态资产增益县域的平均作用率约80%,而气候变化对生态资产减损县域的平均作用率约为60%。④ 综合分析,可将全国县域分为适应、减缓气候变化和生态资源修复、保护、管理5种类型,采用差异化的生态资产优化提升路径。     

江苏典型县域城乡聚落规模体系的演化路径及驱动机制

新时代背景下,深入开展县域城乡聚落规模体系研究对促进城乡融合发展、推动乡村振兴战略的实施具有重要的理论意义和实践价值。本文从苏南、苏中、苏北选择张家港市、泰兴市、涟水县3个典型县市作为研究案例地,利用1995年和2015年遥感影像数据和土地利用数据,构建了县域城乡聚落规模体系的评价方法,对县域城乡聚落规模体系的时空演化过程进行了实证分析,发现不同类型县域城乡聚落规模体系的演化路径既有明显差异,也存在一般性路径,而且演化路径具有显著的城镇主导效应和集群分布效应。在深入分析经济发展、城镇化、交通网络、制度与管理4种主要影响因素基础上,进一步提炼出县域城乡聚落规模体系演化的“四轮”驱动机制。研究结果有助于深入认识城乡聚落有机整体的系统观,为推动城乡聚落优化重构提供了新的研究视角和方法支撑。     

'To define the indefinable': population classification and the census in South Africa

The population of many countries, including South Africa, has been classified into discrete groups from colonial times until the present day, for purposes of census enumeration. A reading of the census results requires an understanding of the subtleties and shifts of the classification system, which were frequently related to a definition of legal and political rights, including place of residence. The national census has tended to reinforce the groups it was initially meant only to observe.     

The nature, extent and causes of land degradation in South Africa: legacy of the past, lessons for the future?

The aim of this paper is to reassess the land degradation and desertification problem in South Africa. The country has a wide range of interrelated environmental and development challenges existing in a socio–political context recently subject to substantial change. The paper outlines the fundamental environmental constraints and opportunities that underlie degradation phenomena and illustrates the nature, extent and geographical distribution of the major forms of soil and vegetation degradation in the country. The principal causes of degradation are identified and some important land use and land tenure questions that need to be addressed in the near future are posited.     

Developing KaNgwane: geographies of segregation and integration in the new South Africa

This paper examines social, political and economic processes within the former KaNgwane bantustan to understand the changing relationships between society and space in the post-apartheid era. Research on rural development and reconstruction in South Africa attest to the spatial legacy of apartheid while suggesting that dynamic transformations are occurring within the former bantustans. A central concern of this paper is the ways the apartheid government constructed and presented KaNgwane as a development project in order to justify racial segregation and control. While the bantustans have been effectively erased from the popular imagination, these spaces continue to be framed developmentally in ways that provide limited attention to local context and change. In order to consider the shifts in environment and development discourses within these territories, a case study is employed to evaluate livelihood production systems, environmental change, and governance institutions. It is argued that these patterns reveal the simultaneously static and dynamic nature of the bantustans while demonstrating that their reincorporation will remain an ongoing process in the post-apartheid era.     

Water Materialities and Citizen Engagement: Testing the Implications of Water Access and Quality for Community Engagement in Ghana and South Africa

We analyze the relationship between perceptions of domestic water access, and quality, in relation community engagement. While others have suggested linkages between material conditions of water access and engagement (e.g., that poor water access might spur engagement), to date there have been no studies those test these relationships using statistical methods. Based on a quantitative analysis of survey data from underserved sites in Accra, Ghana, and Cape Town, South Africa, our results show that water access and quality are both predictive of community engagement. The analysis also makes a strong case that there are different dimensions when considering the material conditions of water—in this case, water access and quality each condition engagement in opposite directions. Furthermore, consistent with other studies, our study also shows different demographics (notably gender) mediate these relationships in important ways.     

制度变迁下农垦城镇空间演化及其动力机制研究——以湖北省五三农场为例

制度变迁是城镇空间演化的重要驱动,农垦城镇作为一类特殊且重要的城镇类型,受制度因素影响更直接、更显著。鉴于现有研究较少基于制度变迁探究农垦城镇空间演化,论文系统梳理了农场制度变迁的总体情况,并以湖北省五三农场为例,采用综合研究方法,揭示了制度变迁下农垦城镇空间演化及其动力机制。研究发现：① 农垦城镇空间演化主要体现在空间形态、空间关系和功能结构3个方面,即空间形态从缓变到剧变,空间关系从生产协作关系转为城乡关系,功能结构不断从公办到私营、从生产主导到消费主导、从单一化到多元化;② 制度变迁通过改变农场身份、利益关系和资源配置推动农垦城镇空间演化,其中农场身份变化直接影响农垦城镇空间的发展方向,利益关系变化促使农垦城镇空间产业化、市场化,资源配置变化通过改变资源配置主体、类型、尺度和速度作用于农垦城镇空间演化。通过研究,以期能更有针对性地指导农垦城镇在新时期的发展,同时也可丰富城镇空间演化的理论内涵。     

中国新型城镇化高质量发展的规律性与重点方向

中国新型城镇化高质量发展是一种人地和谐、高效低碳、生态环保、节约创新、智慧平安的质量提升型城镇化,是高质量的城市建设、高质量的基础设施、高质量的公共服务、高质量的人居环境、高质量的城市管理和高质量的市民化的有机统一。高质量推进新型城镇化发展需要遵循城镇化发展的四阶段性规律和渐进式规律,实现新型城镇化由数量型向质量型、由“一步到位”向“分步到位”、由激进式向渐进式、由诱发“负效应”向释放“正能量”、由被动性向主动型、由“地为本”向“人为本”的战略转型。考虑到中国新型城镇化发展的地域差异显著,新型城镇化高质量发展客观上要因地制宜、因类指导,可将全国新型城镇化高质量发展区域划分为城市群地区（Ⅰ）、粮食主产区（Ⅱ）、农林牧地区（Ⅲ）、连片扶贫区（Ⅳ）、民族自治区（Ⅴ）共5大高质量发展类型区和47个亚区。未来推进中国新型城镇化高质量发展的重点路径包括：增强新型城镇化高质量发展的整体协同性,提高城市群发展质量;推动产城深度融合发展,加快实现基本公共服务均等化,提升城市发展品质与质量;推动城乡深度融合发展,在新型城镇化高质量发展中实现乡村振兴;突出因地制宜,明确不同类型地区城镇化高质量发展的主体功能;创新体制机制,全过程推进城镇化高质量发展;量力而行,以特取胜,规范建设特色小镇,夯实新型城镇化高质量发展的基石;把新型城镇化高质量发展与区域资源环境承载力及高质量保护有机结合起来。     

Rural Local Economic Development and Land Restitution in South Africa: The Case of Schmidtsdrift,Northern Cape

Local Economic Development is (LED) an activity of increasing importance in the developing world as globalisation produces new roles for local governments. As compared to a growing number of urban initiatives for LED, rural LED initiatives are relatively undeveloped. In this paper, the focus is upon South Africa, where the post‐apartheid government has sought to encourage both urban and rural LED initiatives. Programmes of land reform and restitution in South Africa result in the resettlement or return to the land of communities formerly dispossessed under apartheid. A critical element of planning for successful resettlement is the implementation of LED programmes. Schmidtsdrift in Northern Cape is examined as an example of participatory LED in a developing rural context. Rural LED in South Africa is distinguished by its focus upon poverty alleviation in the context of addressing the legacies of apartheid.     

The geography of water conflict and cooperation: internal pressures and international manifestations

Studies on transboundary water conflict and cooperation generally consider interstate relations over shared water resources as distinct from intrastate relations. While connections have been made between international water relations and regional relationships in general, it is conceivable that international water conflict and cooperation may also be influenced by domestic water events and vice versa. This paper seeks to investigate the dynamics of water interactions across geographic scale and their relationship to broader international affairs. The research approach involves the creation of an analytical framework for assessing possible linkages between external and internal interactions over freshwater resources. The framework is applied to three case studies – the Middle East, South Asia and Southern Africa – utilizing 'event data'. To validate the findings from the quantitative analyses, the results are compared with conventional qualitative understandings of water and overall relations in the three regions. The comparison demonstrates not only the efficacy of the analytical framework in general, but also highlights, at least in terms of the specific case studies selected, the disparate water dynamics across geographic regions and the importance of considering water events, both national and international, within larger political and historical contexts.     

Critically Understanding Race‐Connected Practices: A Reading of W. E. B. Du Bois and Richard Wright

In this article, I argue that race‐connected practices should be understood in their appropriate historical and geographical context. While race is mediated by language, texts, and interpretation, a reading of W. E. B. Du Bois and Richard Wright suggests that it is in some fundamental sense beyond text, located in space and time.     

Livelihoods and the transformative potential of cities: Challenges of inclusive development in Rustenburg,North West Province,South Africa

Urban geographers increasingly incorporate the potential of so‐called informal livelihood activities to provide resources that can be creatively managed in the transformation of urban space, particularly to the benefit of less well off and marginalized residents. This paper reports a case study in Rustenburg, North West Province, South Africa, where city managers began to promote inclusive development in the early 1990s, just prior to the formal dismantling of the apartheid system. The findings reveal that Rustenburg's urban transformation process, over a decade later, continued to reproduce repressive practices that limit the informal livelihood activities of the urban majority. Apparently efforts of well‐meaning city managers to implement a sustainable and inclusive development process are often rendered futile at the point of actually defining the constituents of urban socioeconomic transformation.     

Paper-Based GIS: A Practical Answer to the Implementation of GIS Education into Resource-Poor Schools in South Africa

Abstract

Geographical information systems (GIS) were phased into the geography curriculum of South African schools from 2006–2008 as part of the National Curriculum Statement (NCS) for grades 10–12. Since its introduction, GIS education in schools across the country has been met with a number of challenges including the cost of purchasing the hardware and software required to elucidate the basic concepts of GIS to learners. This article examines the introduction of GIS education in schools in South Africa. The development and distribution of a paper-based GIS educational package for resource-poor schools in the country is also highlighted. Preliminary educator and learner evaluations of the paper-based GIS package are discussed and the broader learning opportunities and benefits associated with flexible teaching mechanisms are examined.     

“Die man is die hoof en vat voor”: Women's attitudes to land and farming in the communal areas of Namaqualand

In the former coloured rural reserves of Namaqualand, land is held under an evolving form of communal tenure. This study, using in-depth interviews with both women farmers and non-farmers in Namaqualand, explores women's attitudes towards land and their experience of agriculture. It finds that women gain access to land for residential and production purposes mainly through dependent relationships with husbands, fathers and sons, and that unmarried women find it virtually impossible to obtain land rights in their own name. In the event of divorce or widowhood, women are vulnerable to loss of land rights and other resources. Women were found to engage in a range of agricultural activities, both on land allocated for their own use and on land controlled by male relatives, while a few better-off women engage in independent livestock farming. While the South African government's land reform programme has extended the area of communal land and attempted to secure the rights of existing land holders, this has largely benefited existing male farmers and appears to offer little to women farmers. Women's attitudes to the patriarchal system of land holding were found to be largely conservative. Few are willing to challenge the highly gendered nature of land rights within families, and women generally feel excluded from public processes around land. Nonetheless, women in the study expressed a demand for more secure access to land and an interest in agriculture as part of wider livelihood strategies.     

Chinese Trade in Latin America Compared to the European Union and the United States: The Case of Technology-Intensive Exports

Using trade data submitted by United Nations member states from 1995 to 2013, this article contributes to understanding China's trade with Latin America. By employing and building on the TECH score methodology, this project highlights China's growing economic connectivity with nine large and important Latin American economies. The analysis conducted here shows that compared with exports originating from other, more traditional foreign investors (i.e., the United States and the European Union member states), Chinese exports to these Latin American countries—although growing in sophistication over time—are relatively less technologically sophisticated during the study period. This work clarifies that in spite of these Latin American economies being highly complementary (for their natural resources and consumer markets) to China's manufacturing-intensive economy and despite the rapid growth in bilateral and biregional trade, China's displacement of traditional foreign actors, in terms of its technology-intensive exports to the region, is not supported by the data to date.