Beyond the development impasse: the role of local economic development and community self-reliance in rural South Africa

1999 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 389-408 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tony Binns ◽  
Etienne Nel
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Local Economic Development ◽  
Eastern Cape ◽  
Self Reliance ◽  
Western Development ◽  
Successive Generations ◽  
Rural South Africa

The failure of successive generations of imported, Western development strategies and projects to deliver meaningful reductions in poverty and achieve basic needs in Africa, has provoked a deep questioning of Western concepts and methodologies of development. Non-governmental organisations and development practitioners are increasingly focusing their attention on strategies which build upon local knowledge, skills and resources. The concepts of ‘self- reliance’ and local economic development are examined in the context of development challenges which face Africa. This is followed by a detailed case study of local economic development in the rural Mpofu District of the former Ciskei Homeland, which was incorporated into the Eastern Cape province of South Africa with the demise of apartheid in 1994.

scholarly journals Industrial strategy and local economic development: The case of the foundry industry in Ekurhuleni Metro

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 448-464 ◽  
Author(s):  
T Phele ◽  
S Roberts ◽  
I Steuart
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Local Economic Development ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Action Plans ◽  
Foundry Industry ◽  
The Past ◽  
Concrete Action

This  article explores the challenges for the development of manufacturing through a case study of the foundry industry in Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality. Ekurhuleni Metro covers the largest concentration in South Africa, but the industry’s performance has been poor over the past decade.  The findings reported here highlight the need to understand firm decisions around investment, technology and skills, and the role of local economic linkages in this regard.  The differing performance of foundries strongly supports the need to develop concrete action plans and effective institutions at local level to support the development of local agglomerations.

Taking responsibility for entrepreneurship development in South Africa: The role of local municipalities

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 257-268
Author(s):  
Thanyani S Madzivhandila ◽  
Mazanai Musara
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Local Economic Development ◽  
National Development ◽  
Academic Journal ◽  
Entrepreneurship Development ◽  
Local Municipalities ◽  
Poverty And Inequality ◽  
Entrepreneurial Development

Local economic development policies around the world increasingly emphasise entrepreneurship as a tool to mobilise local and indigenous economic potential. This paper explores the role of local municipalities in entrepreneurship development in South Africa. In particular, it provides a critical review of local economic development strategies and their effect on entrepreneurial development. Special attention is placed on deeply rural municipalities, primarily because of their marginalisation from national development efforts and the acute need for entrepreneurial development to tackle the triple challenges, which are unemployment, poverty and inequality. The paper argues that local municipalities should play a pivotal role in enhancing the development and upliftment of entrepreneurs in their areas of jurisdiction. The paper uses an integrative literature review method in which sources such as academic journal articles, reports and books are analysed, critiqued and synthesised. Lessons are drawn from other developed and developing nations, combined with the observations and thorough review of literature, to develop a framework that can inform South African Local Municipalities in mobilising entrepreneurship development in their communities. The paper concludes that for entrepreneurship development to be strengthened and for local economic development to be accomplished, local municipalities should invest in the development of entrepreneurship within their municipalities.

Agritourism and local economic development in South Africa

2014 ◽  
Vol 26 (26) ◽  
pp. 93-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian M. Rogerson ◽  
Jayne M. Rogerson
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Local Economic Development ◽  
Special Significance ◽  
Research Issues ◽  
National Economic ◽  
Policy Suggestions ◽  
National Economic Development

Abstract The role of tourism for local economic development (LED) is a topic of critical importance for geographers. In the case of South Africa tourism is a priority sector for national economic development. The significance of research issues around tourism and LED is underlined by the ‘developmental’ mandate of local governments. Although tourism has received attention in a growing body of LED writings on South Africa issues around agritourism so far have been overlooked. Agritourism represents an evolving form of rural tourism which is targeted at mainly urban consumers. Against the background of a review of international scholarship on agritourism this article explores its potential implications for LED planning in South Africa. A national audit of agritourism is presented which shows its uneven geographical distribution. Agritourism is of special significance for small town economic development in South Africa’s intermediate tourism spaces. Policy suggestions are offered for strengthening agritourism as a driver for LED in South Africa.

Civic Boosterism in the Politics of Local Economic Development—‘Institutional Positions’; and ‘Strategic Orientations’ in the Consumption of Hallmark Events

1997 ◽  
Vol 29 (11) ◽  
pp. 1975-1997 ◽  
Author(s):  
M Boyle
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Local Economic Development ◽  
European City ◽  
Local Identity ◽  
Problematic Relationship ◽  
Strategic Orientations ◽  
Cultural Festivals ◽  
Central Argument

The author sets out to interrogate the manner in which cultural festivals have been theorised in the context of accounts of the role of civic boosterism—or what he terms ‘Urban Propaganda Projects' (UPPs)—in the politics of local economic development. Attention is focused primarily upon how authors account for the way in which ‘locals' respond to boosterism. Based upon the thesis advanced by the Ohio School, and a review of later work, the central argument pursued is that work to date has operated with remarkably impoverished conceptions of the antecedent material and cultural contexts within which hallmark events are being organised. In regard to their conception of the ‘audience’ for UPPs, authors have worked with the unacknowledged assumption that locals consume and relate to events largely in terms of the extent to which they buy into, resist (culturally or economically), or become disoriented, by the versions of local identity which are being promoted. Even when critical or Marxist in nature, this form of analysis limits enquiry to the terms of reference of the boosterist agenda itself. The author argues that more imaginative conceptual frameworks might orient analysts to look for other modes of consumption—modes which indeed might refuse to recognise the language of boosterism (for good or bad) and which might require a different entry point to analysis. Using a case study of Glasgow's role as European City of Culture 1990, the author develops the contours of one such framework, with the aid of key concepts of institutional positions and strategic orientations. Although amenable to appropriation within existing critical or Marxist accounts, these concepts are not the products of that framework and thus generate, at the very least, a problematic relationship with it. It is concluded that accounts of local reactions to cultural festivals in particular, and to civic boosterism in general, must escape the epistemological straightjacket that the Marxist/boosterist agenda presents.

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