Dislocating modernity: Identity, space and representations of street trade in Durban, South Africa

South Africa’s cities have experienced dramatic changes over the past decade. Cities are now home to a multiracial population, and have been transformed by new forms of economic and social interaction. For some, these changes have become a significant source of fear and anxiety. In this paper, we examine reactions to urban spatial change in the city of Durban, as expressed in local newspapers and interviews with suburban residents. We describe how the discourses of urban change in Durban have centred on the increased presence of street traders within the city’s public spaces, and the various ways in which the activity of street trade has disrupted long-established modernist norms governing the occupation and use of the urban space. Specifically, we offer a detailed reading of three prominent narratives within the discussion of street traders in Durban--chaos, congestion and pollution. We argue that street traders have come to embody a wide range of more deeply seated cultural anxieties, which have been brought to the fore in the context of South Africa’s transition. These anxieties arise from the ways in which modern understandings of order, agency and subjectivity have been called into question by material changes in the city, and have implications for the nature of citizenship and civic engagement in post-apartheid South Africa.     

Urban land transformation for pro-poor economies

The transformation of land into a setting for clustering local economies can become an important cornerstone of poverty policy. This transformation has several functional aspects, which in turn have important institutional and political aspects. Underlying both the functional and institutional factors is the role of local government and local democracy. Such a conceptualization puts to center stage several paradoxes: A terrain that seems “slum-like” turns out to be highly productive and employment generating. Complex tenure forms and mixed land use seen as “unplanned” turn out to be pre-requisites for economic development. There are institutional paradoxes that contrast efforts at “transparency” and managerial “best practices”. Here, the messiness of local bureaucracies in municipal government turns out to be critical for poor groups to influence interventions in their favor. Influencing the public process may be more effective in stealth-like ways rather taking a more visible approach. Most fundamentally these issues remind us that the potential of cities to reinforce or reduce poverty moved far beyond projects and programs and the normative frameworks used by planners and administrators. Instead, it is the transformative process of turning land into economic settings that might be at the center stage. This is a stage where poor groups are the central actors who stealth-like draw on complex alliances across ethnic and class lines to shapes cities in their interests.     

The limits of ethicality in international markets: Imported second-hand clothing in India

Those of us living in the global north are increasingly urged to divert cast-off clothing from the local waste stream and donate it for reuse and recycling. It is argued that this is the right thing to do, since it is environmentally responsible behaviour, conserves resources, and supports charities via collection systems. Second-hand clothing is thereby culturally framed as waste, as a surplus, and as a morally-charged product that has a powerful redemptive capacity for donors, multiple recyclers and secondary consumers. Two-thirds of collected used clothing is commercially exported for reuse in developing countries, and it is as a freely-traded commodity that it is claimed to grow markets and support livelihoods in the global south, rather than a fairly-traded product. As policy-makers in Northern Europe seek to improve sustainable systems of textile reuse and recycling, ethical issues associated with distant destination markets in the global South are beginning to garner attention. Imported used clothing is ubiquitous in India despite highly restrictive tariff barriers, and the Indian market provides a thought-provoking example since in this case the trade is neither fair nor free. The paper evidences the complexity of the market as vertical hierarchies of dealers negotiate and expand the multiple spaces between legal and illegal commodity flows, and formal and informal economies, to build successful businesses. It reflects upon debates in India around democracy, development and neoliberal economics, and suggests that efforts to introduce ethical interventions in end markets will have to negotiate the nexus of power, politics and corruption.     

Who governs here? Informal resource extraction,state enforcement,and conflict in Ghana

Over the past two decades, “illegal” natural resource extraction has become a significant driver of environmental change and social conflict across the Global South. In response, numerous Sub-Saharan African states have engaged in governance reforms that heed calls to securitize – or, establish and consolidate state control over – natural resources. In Ghana, securitization has served to entrench the informal economy as domestic producers, marginalized in the process of reform, continue to utilize non-state institutions to maintain access. While the Ghanaian state has branded “illegal” resource extraction a major environmental, social, and national security concern, it has responded to this threat unevenly; it has violently enforced its authority in some contexts but remained relatively indifferent in others. This article explores the phenomenon of selective enforcement to explain patterns of violence that have emerged between state and society in response to both securitization and informality. Drawing on a multimethod approach, I find that natural resource governance authority remains fragmented across resource contexts, and that the configuration of authority and interests on the ground shapes the extent of state intervention. I propose a natural resource typology that identifies when the state is most likely to enforce its authority, and the degree of violent conflict likely to result. Ultimately, I contend that domestic patterns of enforcement are shaped primarily by: 1) competition with local power holders over resource entitlements and 2) global conservation and extraction priorities. While specific to Ghana, this argument can provide important insights into the relationship between informal extraction, state enforcement, and social conflict in other Global South contexts.     

基于GIS的农村居民点分布特征及景观格局研究——以揭阳市为例

农村居民点作为乡村区域空间人口集聚形态的一种表现,是构成乡村聚落景观的一个重要部分,对其特征的分析研究对于推动城乡一体化建设和美丽乡村建设等政策的理论研究和实践开展和促进农村土地节约集约利用有重要意义.运用Ripley's K函数和ArcGIS 10.2中的核密度法来研究广东省揭阳市农村居民点的空间分布特征,建立河流和...     

重庆直辖以来乡村人居环境可持续发展力及其时空分异研究

乡村人居环境是一复杂巨系统,其可持续发展力是各子系统间物质、信息与能量相互流通与交换的结果,本文从经济发展、生产生活、生态环境3个子系统入手构建乡村人居环境可持续发展力的评价指标体系,以1997—2015年重庆市37个区县的面板数据为数据源,运用发展水平(衡量乡村人居环境可持续发展态势)、发展效率(反映乡村人居环境发展趋向可持续的快慢程度)和协调指数(反映各子系统发展水平均衡程度)构建乡村人居环境可持续发展力测度模型,分析了乡村人居环境可持续力并探究其时空分异特征,为因地制宜践行《农村人居环境整治三年行动方案》提供策略支持。结果表明：1997—2015年,乡村人居环境可持续发展力时序上总体态势向好,其中发展水平逐步上升,发展效率波动剧烈,协调性稳步提高,各子系统间可持续发展力差异性较大;乡村人居环境可持续发展力在空间上总体呈现西高东低、“中心-边缘”的分异格局,区县间差异性明显,其中经济发展子系统呈“多级核心-外围”辐射圈层式差异化增长格局、生产生活子系统呈自西向东扩散式增长格局,生态环境子系统总体上先降后升,呈波浪式不均衡增长格局;从政府“制导引导”、城乡“双轮”联动、“点-极-核”整治模式等方面提出了相关整治策略。     

Integrating spectral and non-spectral data to improve urban settlement mapping in a large Latin-American city

ABSTRACT

Information on urban settlements is crucial for sustainability planning and management. While remote sensing has been used to derive such information, its applicability can be compromised due to the complexity in the urban environment. In this study, we developed a remote sensing method to map land cover types in a large Latin-American city, which is well known for its mushrooming unplanned and informal settlements. After carefully considering the landscape complexity there, we designed a data fusion method combining multispectral imagery and non-spectral data for urban and land mapping. Specifically, we acquired a cloud-free Landsat-8 image and two non-spectral datasets, i.e., digital elevation models and road networks. Then, we implemented a set of experiments with different inputs to evaluate their merits in thematic mapping through a supervised protocol. We found that the map generated with the multispectral data alone had an overall accuracy of 73.3% but combining multispectral imagery and non-spectral data yielded a land cover map with 90.7% overall accuracy. Interestingly, the thermal infrared information helped substantially improve both the overall and categorical accuracies, particularly for the two urban classes. The two types of non-spectral data were critical in resolving several spectrally confused categories, thus considerably increasing the mapping accuracy. However, the panchromatic band with higher spatial resolution and its derived textural measurement only generated a marginal accuracy improvement. The novelties of our work are with the successful separation between the two major types of urban settlements in a complex environment using a carefully designed data fusion approach and the insight into the relative merits of the thermal infrared information and non-spectral data in helping resolve the issue of class ambiguity. These findings should be valuable in deriving accurate urban settlement information which can further advance the research on socio-ecological dynamics and urban sustainability.     

新疆乡村聚落特征及其区域融合发展探析

把握兵地聚落差异,以期为新疆兵地融合发展提供理论依据。基于土地利用数据,运用探 索式空间统计模型定量分析天山北坡兵地乡村聚落空间格局与经济发展差异,并基于其差异对其 融合发展提出相应对策。结果表明：（1）天山北坡兵团与地方乡村聚落在空间、规模、区位以及形 态分布特征上均呈现出明显的空间差异,乡村聚落空间整体上呈集聚分布模式,地方聚落集聚态 势较明显;聚落规模呈低值集聚的分布特征,兵团聚落大多为大规模聚落斑块,地方聚落则相反; 乡村聚落的分布具有明显的高程、坡度、道路、河流、城镇指向性,而兵团聚落分布于区位条件较差 地区;在乡村聚落的外部形态复杂度上,地方聚落大于兵团聚落;（2）经济发展方面,天山北坡整体 经济发展较为良好,兵团人均地区生产总值较高,以农业作为主要产业,地方经济结构较为多样, 除农业外,牧业也是其主要产业;（3）基于兵地聚落间差异,提出相应的融合对策,在空间格局上, 根据实际情况适当进行兵地聚落的迁移合并;在经济发展方面,有效利用优势互补原则,推进兵地 间产业融和。     

论乡村聚落优化与乡村相对贫困治理

2020年后,中国反贫困将转入相对贫困治理的新阶段。乡村聚落居住、就业、教育、医疗、环卫、文化、防灾减灾等功能的发展不充分和多维剥夺,是乡村相对贫困的重要表现和重要原因,乡村相对贫困治理必须从乡村聚落的整体优化出发。论文在梳理相对贫困概念内涵的基础上,着眼于乡村聚落与相对贫困治理的内在关联,分析乡村聚落与乡村相对贫困发生、乡村聚落优化与相对贫困治理长效机制建立之间的关系,提出基于相对贫困治理的乡村聚落优化策略,以期为2020年后的乡村相对贫困治理和乡村振兴提供理论依据。研究认为：① 乡村相对贫困的形成与聚落要素、功能密切相关,并因区位、布局、规模、形态的差异而有所不同;② 乡村聚落是缓解乡村相对贫困长效机制建立的空间基础,乡村相对贫困治理长效机制的建立要充分发挥乡村聚落的要素支撑与空间载体功能;③ 基于相对贫困治理的乡村聚落优化策略包括振兴村落产业、优化村落空间组织、强化村落文化认同、建立绿色生态村落、促进村落多功能协同转型、坚持分类施策等6个方面。