Gendered Spaces of Informal Entrepreneurship in Soweto,South Africa

Abstract

The full diversity of economic activities in the informal economy is not well understood. The apartheid legacy of limiting informal entrepreneurship explains the most obvious geographical patterns in South Africa. After a decade and a half since the end of apartheid, however, knowledge about the places from which informal entrepreneurs operate is incomplete. Retailing is overemphasized and production firm entrepreneurs, both male and female, remain a neglected spatiality. This study reports on a survey of 100 firms in Soweto and in-depth interviews with 30 firm owners. The findings challenge the representations of isolated urban entrepreneurs dependent on inherited social capital and of women's exclusive engagement in retail. Entrepreneurs create their own social capital in work-related realms, but there are important gender differences. More finely tuned conceptualizations of entrepreneurs and of gendered working spaces need to be developed so that policy does not perpetuate unitary myths and incomplete spatial representations. [Key words: entrepreneurship, Soweto, informal economy, gender.]     

From green spaces to vital places: connection and expression in urban greening

ABSTRACT

Urban greening, the improvement or increase of green spaces in cities, has purported environmental, individual, social and cultural benefits. The extent and qualities of urban green spaces, and our opportunities to engage with them, reflect and shape human responses to those spaces. Planning scholars recognise the traditional role and obligation of planning to help reduce social problems and see the potential for the public to be leaders in defining responses. However, use of technical, scientific and economic approaches by urban land managers can limit recognition of diverse connections to urban green and advance narrow conceptions of nature. We sample people’s responses to different forms of urban green and greening in three case studies from Melbourne, Australia. We show that modern connections and expressions are personal, social and dynamic. Human experiences are embedded in nature and connections develop from interactions with and about nature, in formal and informal spaces. Diverse connections prompt responses to nature, and actions affecting nature itself. Accordingly, we propose ways to develop more receptive, responsive, inclusive and connected forms of urban greening. These include recognising diverse connections and expressions, encouraging dynamic relationships with nature, and providing varied ways of engaging with urban green spaces that foster stewardship.     

Gender,migration and the organisation of work under economic devolution: Ecuador, 1982-90

This study examined the impact of economic deficits due to structural adjustment processes on shifts in the organization of work by gender and migration status in Ecuador. Work is organized according to Lawson's social hierarchy scheme: ownership; authority and control over employees; autonomy in one's own work; and the nature and range of skills used in production. After a brief review of the related empirical literature, the author describes the concepts, categories of, and study area of work and then begins the empirical analysis. Data were obtained from 1,884,816 individual records of economically active persons in 1982 and 2,946,547 persons in 1990, from the censuses of 1982 and 1990 for the entire nation, and from fieldwork observations by Lawson. Structural adjustment policies (SAPs) associated with devolution tend to further aggravate inequities, especially among the disadvantaged. Findings are presented for male and female nonmigrants, migrants, and female migrants. During the 1980s, female migrants experienced primary economic activity, especially as self-employed, family, or low skilled employees; and declines in high skilled public sector employment and service activity, especially in wage labor. The economic impact was greater by gender than by migration status. The shifts only improved the relative position of women in self-employed and ownership jobs. Females lost public-sector employment to males; overall wage declines were more severe in the informal sector. Down-sizing in the public sector and shifts toward capital-intensive production marginalized female migrants. Fieldwork operationalizes losses among females/female migrants.     

Race,Gender, and Constrained Work Trips in Buffalo,NY, 1990

This study investigates whether women's short commutes should be interpreted as constrained or convenient work trips by examining how race, gender, travel mode, occupation, residential location, workplace location, and Inc.ome affect commuting time. The analysis is restricted to a sample of European American and African American male and female workers residing in Buffalo, New York, and the surrounding county using data drawn from the Public Use Microdata Samples of the 1990 U.S. census. Given the pervasive gender wage gap, women unsurprisingly have more compromised (short commutes to low-Inc.ome jobs) work trips than do men. Multivariate analysis reveals that among those who reverse commute to suburban locations, African American women have the longest work trips.     

A GENDER-SENSITIVE URBAN FACTORIAL ECOLOGY MALE,FEMALE, GROUPED,AND GENDERED SOCIAL SPACES IN SASKATOON

Significant social, demographic, and economic changes related to gender have occurred within North American cities in the past generation. It is hypothesized that these changes may have led to the emergence of distinct male and female social spaces that have not been fully accommodated within the classical urban factorial ecologies. This paper compares and analyzes four gender-specific data bases (male-oriented, female-oriented, grouped, and gendered) through a series of four factorial ecologies for census tracts in the city of Saskatoon, Canada. It is discovered that, at an aggregate level of analysis, both male and female social spaces are similar when assessed in terms of the composition of the components, the saturation levels, the correlations between components, and the spatial distribution of the component scores. However, separation of gender into different data sets leads us to the conclusion that subtle gender-specific differences, formerly masked by classical factorial ecologies, are clarified by this gender-sensitive approach. These subtle distinctions also lead us to question the validity of the labels traditionally attached to the components in classical factorial ecologies     

基于女性主义地理学的消费空间性别关系建构——以西安“世纪金花”购物中心为例

近年来,女性主义地理学的研究内容转向身体、身份认同和象征空间等微观地理,消费空间的性别研究成为关注热点。文章基于女性主义视角,借助对典型消费空间的实证调查,考察空间性别化特征以及性别因素决定下的空间之权力隐喻关系,总结了人—地互动模式中的性别建构特征。研究发现,消费空间为女性提供了参与城市公共空间的场所,见证了女性空间权的觉醒与实践,但女性仍受男性规训与控制;现代女性在消费空间中的行为延续了传统的角色定位,公共空间参与度并未显著改变她们的性别角色和在家务上的性别化分工;消费空间再现和建构的性别关系、性别地位是一种典型的隐形歧视,女性处于实际上的不平等地位。因此,空间和性别不可分割且互为构成,两性在消费空间中的表现实质上是性别权力关系的投射,折射出这一地理空间中两性的宰控关系。     

The Place of Narrative in the Study of Third World Migration: The Case of Spontaneous Rural Migration in Sri Lanka*

Studies of migration in geography have most often been based on quantitative research approaches. Such studies cannot adequately shed light on the contextuality of migration and the individual decision-making processes involved. Personal narratives express individual experiences within a social context. The story of “Amma,” a female rural migrant in Sri Lanka, shows the role of women in migration, the importance of family ties, the contextual causes of migration, and characteristics of the migration flow per se. Personal narratives have an underutilized potential of capturing the variety of migrants' experiences and the complexity of the decision to migrate.     

Perceptions of climate variability and livelihood adaptations relating to gender and wealth among the Adi community of the Eastern Indian Himalayas

The impacts of extreme weather events and climate variability on natural resource dependent farmers will further increase their vulnerability. This study describes how Adi farmers in Arunachal Pradesh (India) perceive and adapt to climate variability, and how this is influenced by gender and wealth. A total of 65 male and 71 female Adi farmers were interviewed or participated in focus group discussions. Both men and women have noticed there are fewer rainy days, longer summers, shorter winters and more erratic rainfall. However, some perceptions of change were gender and/or wealth class specific. Adi women noticed changes across areas they control including collecting forest foods, crop harvesting, and fermenting and storing of food. Men noted climate variability had made hunting wild game and marketing agricultural produce more difficult. Wealthy people were better placed to adapt to climate variability than poorer people because they could intensify their production systems. They switched to rainfed maize with improved varieties and horticultural cash crops which need more costly inputs. Wealthy people, particularly men, also received more advice and training than poorer people. Poorer farmers, particularly poor women, adapted predominantly by diversifying activities, such as using drought tolerant oil seeds and subsistence horticultural crops, accessing forest-based resources, rearing pigs and poultry, increasing fishing and the making of handicrafts. Storage, exchange and pooling of local resources were further strategies of the poor. This deeper understanding of Adi livelihood adaptation strategies will help increase their resilience by improving targeting of location specific extension services and adaptation policies.     

Global economic imperatives,crisis generation and local spaces of engagement in the Chilean aquaculture industry

The authors use the 2007 ISA virus outbreak in Chilean salmon aquaculture, coupled with insights from post-structural political ecology, as an opportunity to examine the institutional architecture and discursive hegemony of particular production strategies that silenced local experiences with the industry in favour of continuing exploitation. The authors argue that the case makes visible some of the generally relevant processes in which the generation of the crisis takes place within governance structures that involve few spaces of engagement for local actors to influence and participate in decision-making. Municipalities have few opportunities to shape the development of an industry with significant socio-economic impacts on their jurisdictions. Finally, the authors show how the crisis opens spaces of engagement for local actors and argue that sustainable governance of aquaculture depends on such spaces through which critical perspectives and warning signs can be communicated and negotiated, and through which local entrepreneurs can enter the value chain.     

Regional variations in the female age at marriage in India: an analysis by agro-climatic zones

"The effect of agro-climatic factors on female age at marriage [in India] is studied by carrying out areal analysis of the 1981 Census data. The study found a close association between agricultural and climatic conditions in an area and corresponding female age at marriage. In general, women in Himalayan regions and coastal areas have higher age at marriage than most hinterland regions. Rainfall, altitude, forest area, land availability and productivity are observed to be associated with female age at marriage. In addition, female age at marriage in rural areas is found to be more sensitive to the agro-climatic conditions. It is hypothesized that with socio-economic and technological development, the agricultural and climatic factors are losing their grip on female age at marriage in India."     

Constructing Risk: multi-scale change,livelihoods and vulnerability in the Mekong Delta,Vietnam

ABSTRACT

Change has been at the heart of the livelihoods concept since its inception, allowing for a clear focus on how people perceive, respond to and experience risk. The ardent focus on ‘the local’ within livelihoods work, both in research and programmatic terms, has to some extent overshadowed attention on the role of wider-scale political economic and environmental processes in generating change and determining responses to change. Livelihoods in the Mekong Delta have never been ‘local’, having long been historically embedded in international, regional and national economic, political and environmental transformations. Drivers of change at these wider scales have intensified, complicating local responses to change, whether through economic, social or political means. A more nuanced appreciation of how scaled relations can be supported is required to better anticipate and respond to the political ecology of risk.     

(In)Formal memoryscapes and the unma(s)king of a Malaysian war heroine

The geographical literature on the politics tied to formal commemorations of the past is a burgeoning one. Yet, there has been less attention paid to similar practices undertaken by nonstate agents seeking to ensure that what is written out of official history is not forgotten. This paper explores how and why the story of Sybil Kathigasu, a woman who played a salient role in the resistance movement against the Japanese during the Second World War in Perak, Malaysia, has been peripheralized within formal memory making even as it has been informally revived elsewhere. It specifically suggests that, while the sidelining of her story may be the product of the tendency of the state of Perak to downplay its war past, Sybil's gender, race and political ideologies have also made it more difficult for her to be embraced as a ‘national’ heroine. Drawing on a private museum that was set up in her honor in Papan, the paper also reveals how factors impeding her formal remembrance also have implications for alternative efforts to recover her story. More broadly, the paper offers insights into women's absences in Malaysian public memory, and argues the need for more emphasis on memoryscapes ‘from below’ as a means of nuancing local remembrance politics.     

Female literacy in Rajasthan, 1961-1981

"The paper attempts to highlight the significance of female literacy in Rajasthan [India] as an instrument of socio-economic change, [especially] among its scheduled tribe and scheduled caste components."     

Obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD): Gendered metaphors,blogs and online forums

In order to understand social recovery from mental illness, it is important to examine the role played by social space, including virtual space. This article examined blogs and online forums for people with obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD). In particular, it addressed gender differences in the metaphors used by men and women in these virtual spaces. Empirical data illustrated that, in general, women are more likely to frame their experiences of OCD as a journey, whereas men are more likely to frame them as a battle. Use of these different metaphors has potential implications for social recovery.     

Health Seeking Behavior: Q‐Structures of Rural and Urban Women in India with Sexually Transmitted Diseases and Reproductive Tract Infections

I use a gender framework to examine why women need to utilize social networks to discover and resolve problems related to reproductive tract infections (RTI) and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). In India, women's health is linked with social status and perception of their health needs. This paper provides insight on how social networks are gender‐, location‐, and context‐specific and how they are linked to STD issues. This paper examines why social networks are integral to women. The health‐seeking behavior of rural and urban casual sex workers is examined via Q‐analysis, a language of mapping relationships. Results from Q‐analysis reveal women's use of four systems—kinship, belief, traditional medical, and western medical services. Finally, I conclude with important implications for research on gender relations and social networks.     

Leisure and community assessments: Emotional place relations among young teenagers in a Norwegian industrial stronghold

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the article is to explore the role of participation in organized leisure activities in young teenagers’ emotional place relations. Data from a survey of students in lower secondary schools were analysed using multivariate linear regression models to address the research questions concerning whether participation in organized leisure activities was associated with more positive community assessments in youths in line with early Nordic welfare theory and the role played by socio-economic hardships and gender in the association. The results showed that for boys there were no indications of a general positive association between participation in organized leisure activities and community assessments, while for girls the association was modest. Students who experienced socio-economic hardships had more negative assessments of community compared with well-off students, even when they participated in organized leisure activities. The author discusses the results according to a welfare theory approach to emotional place relations, supplemented by other theoretical perspectives. From a theoretical perspective, the findings point to social exclusion and inclusion dynamics instead of early Nordic welfare theory approaches to leisure participation. The author concludes that gender, class and school relations are strongly associated with young teenagers’ emotional place relations.     

Governance and territoriality in Norwegian fisheries

This paper focuses on the informal and institutional governance structures that are embedded within local production systems in Norwegian fisheries. Important issues concern the regional distribution of fish landings resulting from the tendency in some regional production systems to use large fishing vessels, and the negative consequences of this for peripheral regions and inshore fisheries. The influence of powerful central production systems is considered in terms of territorial dominance over fishing grounds.     

The difference that space makes. A way to describe the construction of local and regional gender contracts

The role that space and place play in the construction of gender relations on different geographical scales is examined in this article. It is easy to identify national variations in the relation between sexes, and such comparisons are common. In many cases, the nation-state constitutes the level of analysis in gender-oriented studies. Comparative studies within nations are not so numerous. Nevertheless, geographical research has the potential to develop an analytical model capable of identifying the spatial dimension in gender constructions. A place-based approach visualises how local places shape gender relations and contribute to gender identities and understanding of men and women. This article shows how geographical analysis can be used to describe how physical and human geography interplay with economy, politics, religion, culture, etc., in the construction of gender contracts at a local level. Gender contracts are unwritten rules that regulate relations between sexes, and re-create and reform relations as everyday actions within the framework of these local structures. Together these various local contracts construct a regional structure.     

The Influence of Community Size and Location on Different Dimensions of Vulnerability: a case study of Australian coastal communities

ABSTRACT

Coastal communities are part of the Australian identity but little is known about their characteristics and their long-term prosperity prospects. Increased migration to coastal areas and increased exposure to extreme climatic events indicates a need for social and economic data to inform socio-ecological systems planning. Here, we undertake a geo-spatial analysis to develop a typology of Australian coastal communities and assess relative vulnerability to climate-driven environmental change for a range of social and economic indicators. The aim of this study is to understand how the vulnerability of Australian coastal communities varies with geographic location or community size, and in comparison to other community types. Results show that both the population size and location of a coastal community matter and that coastal communities overall are more vulnerable on some socio-economic dimensions to climate-driven environmental change than their rural equivalents. However, results also demonstrate that the smallest coastal communities are strong in some important aspects of the human, social and financial domains, putting them in a good position to deal with some changes. Scale-appropriate and context-specific social policies are needed to address identified socio-economic vulnerabilities, supported by a range of formal and informal institutional structures, such as strategies to improve education and female workforce participation, and encourage participation in volunteering to increase human and social capital.     

制造地理视角下乡村传统工艺类非物质文化遗产的生产实践

随着西方第三次工艺复兴浪潮的兴起,“制造文化”成为西方地理学者关注的新兴话题,而传统工艺制造的具身和物质层面的生产形式也得到关注。论文以传统工艺类非物质文化遗产——贵州安顺石头寨布依族蜡染技艺为例,基于制造地理的理论视角剖析了布依族蜡染的生产实践。研究发现：蜡染生产是一种具身性、物质性、地方性和关系性的实践。在身体、家庭、工坊、社区和线上等不同空间,手工艺人的身体是蜡染生产实践的主体,通过具身练习提升蜡染技能,并充分发挥能动性对产品进行创新,同时制造实践也引发了手工艺人正面或负面的身体体验;蜡染生产流程具有鲜明的物质性特征,物质的活力和能动性引导着手工艺人进行“人与物质”的合作生产;地方自然环境、传统文化等地方要素是蜡染生产的基础和条件,同时蜡染的生产实践又塑造地方的身份和特性;蜡染生产不仅是手工艺人表达自我的创造性实践,同时建构了特定的社会文化关系。研究有助于加强对经济生产实践中的文化维度的关注,为文化经济的理论研究提供了重要实证,同时通过对手工艺人的身体技能、具身体验等方面的关注,也有助于在非遗保护实践中提供更具关怀性的保障措施。