The political economy of the Gauteng City-Region

The political economy of the Gauteng City-Region PDF Author: Stephen Greenberg
Publisher: Gauteng City Region Observatory (GCRO)
ISBN: 0620477997
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 56

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Gauteng city-region (GCR) is a relatively new concept for South Africa, although the model has been growing in other parts of the world for over a decade. This paper considers some of the global debates about the importance of city-regions in the current economic and political context. It provides an overview of the concept and the context within which it has been deployed. Debates about the role of cities in the global economy are regarded. Some critical reflections on the city-region, both conceptually and in practice, are made along economic, social, ecological and governance dimensions. This forms the backdrop for an analysis of the growth of the GCR, again both conceptually and practically along the same dimensions, with an emphasis on two key drivers of the city-region, transportation and housing/settlement.

The political economy of the Gauteng City-Region

The political economy of the Gauteng City-Region PDF Author: Stephen Greenberg
Publisher: Gauteng City Region Observatory (GCRO)
ISBN: 0620477997
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 56

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Gauteng city-region (GCR) is a relatively new concept for South Africa, although the model has been growing in other parts of the world for over a decade. This paper considers some of the global debates about the importance of city-regions in the current economic and political context. It provides an overview of the concept and the context within which it has been deployed. Debates about the role of cities in the global economy are regarded. Some critical reflections on the city-region, both conceptually and in practice, are made along economic, social, ecological and governance dimensions. This forms the backdrop for an analysis of the growth of the GCR, again both conceptually and practically along the same dimensions, with an emphasis on two key drivers of the city-region, transportation and housing/settlement.

The Changing Space Economy of City-Regions

The Changing Space Economy of City-Regions PDF Author: Koech Cheruiyot
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319674838
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 304

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book addresses the South African Space Economy and its stark disparities and dualisms through an assessment of the Gauteng City-Region – the largest economic agglomeration in the country and on a continent bedevilled by a myriad of development challenges. The book’s focus on understanding the overall character of Gauteng City-Region’s Space Economy – through data mining/analysis and mapping – comprehensively supplements the Space Economy literature on the region. It covers the disparities exacerbated by an overlay of apartheid planning ideology and top-down regional development based on selective encouragement of manufacturing investments in growth points or poles and how implementation of past policies intended to cure these disparities have yielded mixed results. This book further offers the Gauteng City-Region as a microcosm of the national economy in the form of evident significant placed-based variations in the intensity and character of economic structure that on the one hand enjoys massive agglomeration economies, while on the other, has high levels of poverty and large numbers of people living below the Minimum Living Level. This book should appeal to urban studies specialists, economists and development studies researchers in the Global South.

Governing Complex City-Regions in the Twenty-First Century

Governing Complex City-Regions in the Twenty-First Century PDF Author: Philip Harrison
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1776148525
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 288

Get Book Here

Book Description
Explores the challenges of large, complex, institutionally fragmented, and dynamic city-regions across the BRICS countries and the emergence of formal and informal governance arrangements.

Optimizing Regional Development Through Transformative Urbanization

Optimizing Regional Development Through Transformative Urbanization PDF Author: Benna, Umar G.
Publisher: IGI Global
ISBN: 1522554491
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 374

Get Book Here

Book Description
Assisted by globalization and the rapid application of advanced technologies, the transformative power of urbanization is being felt around the world. The scale and the speed of existing and projected urbanization poses several challenges to researchers in multiple disciplines, such as computer science, engineering, and the social sciences. Optimizing Regional Development Through Transformative Urbanization provides emerging research exploring the theoretical and practical aspects of applications within urban growth interventions. It also explores the strategies for new urban development tools such as the rise of new platforms for digital activities, concepts of sharing economy, collaborative economy, crowdsourcing, and crowdfunding. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as cryptocurrencies, public-private partnership, and urban governance, this book is a vital reference for city development planners, decision makers, policymakers, academicians, researchers, and professionals seeking current research on the delivery of transformative urbanization changes.

The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Urban and Regional Futures

The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Urban and Regional Futures PDF Author: Robert C. Brears
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030877450
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 2334

Get Book Here

Book Description
While urban settlements are the drivers of the global economy and centres of learning, culture, and innovation and nations rely on competitive dynamic regions for their economic, social, and environmental objectives, urban centres and regions face a myriad of challenges that impact the ways in which people live and work, create wealth, and interact and connect with places. Rapid urbanisation is resulting in urban sprawl, rising emissions, urban poverty and high unemployment rates, housing affordability issues, lack of urban investment, low urban financial and governance capacities, rising inequality and urban crimes, environmental degradation, increasing vulnerability to natural disasters and so forth. At the regional level, low employment, low wage growth, scarce financial resources, climate change, waste and pollution, and rising urban peri-urban competition etc. are impacting the ability of regions to meet socio-economic development goals while protecting biodiversity. The response to these challenges has typically been the application of inadequate or piecemeal solutions, often as a result of fragmented decision-making and competing priorities, with numerous economic, environmental, and social consequences. In response, there is a growing movement towards viewing cities and regions as complex and sociotechnical in nature with people and communities interacting with one another and with objects, such as roads, buildings, transport links etc., within a range of urban and regional settings or contexts. This comprehensive MRW will provide readers with expert interdisciplinary knowledge on how urban centres and regions in locations of varying climates, lifestyles, income levels, and stages development are creating synergies and reducing trade-offs in the development of resilient, resource-efficient, environmentally friendly, liveable, socially equitable, integrated, and technology-enabled centres and regions.

The Sustainability Ethic in the Management of the Physical, Infrastructural and Natural Resources of Zimbabwe

The Sustainability Ethic in the Management of the Physical, Infrastructural and Natural Resources of Zimbabwe PDF Author: Chirisa, Innocent
Publisher: Langaa RPCIG
ISBN: 9956550450
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 500

Get Book Here

Book Description
Humanity has extensively exploited natural and physical resources, since the Industrial Revolution in Europe. A geological era, now called the Anthropocene, has been coined in environmental and developmental circles, to mark the increased domination of humanity on Earth and its resources. Today, the ecological footprint on the fragile planet continues to increase. Mass industrialisation, like what China is doing and pushing for, is one of the drivers for increased urbanisation that results in increased demand for land. It is also the stimulus behind increased deforestation, overfishing, and pollution. As the fragility of the Earth increases, global bodies like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are pushing to reduce the Earth’s temperature. Human efforts to manage the problem cascade from a global to a regional, to a national, as well as to much localised scales. Missing though are nuanced contributions at national and community levels, which this book is an attempt to bridge. The nagging sense of responsibility is what this book explores under the label of “sustainability ethic”. As a case study, the book examines the use of sustainability ethic in the management of the physical, infrastructural and natural resources of Zimbabwe. This ethic is built on pillars that include participation of people (households) in their pursuit for sustainable livelihoods, appropriate technology, tools and techniques for environmental protection. It also hinges on stewardship and structures, institutions, policies and processes of governance and sustainability. There are also the aspects of ethics, laws and indigenous technical knowledge for sustainability, capacity building and education plans and programmes for sustainability and population and demographic determinants, processes and outcomes for sustainability. The book is a timely contribution to an urgent global concern and climate change debate.

Land Use Management and Transportation Planning

Land Use Management and Transportation Planning PDF Author: C.B. Schoeman
Publisher: WIT Press
ISBN: 1784660779
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 241

Get Book Here

Book Description
The interface between land use management and transportation planning represents probably the most important spatial impact in sustainable land use, mobility and transportation development. Prior to this book, only limited attempts have been made to integrate these topics as to enhance smart growth and sustainable development principles within spatial systems. The approach followed differs internationally and specifically between different planning and transportation authorities. The spatial impacts of land use and transportation serve as the main catalyst in urban form, development and its associated problems. These impacts represent severe consequences from a built and environmental development perspective. All of these are covered in the book and its supporting chapters. The focus of the book is the application of best practice principles in managing the interface between land use management and transportation planning. Internationally the practice is the promotion of more sustainable urban and rural forms supported by improved levels of accessibility through the application of smart growth and sustainability principles. The focus however remains to successfully optimise land use and transportation integration. The structuring used within each of the chapters provide the reader with the basic and applicable theory and practical knowledge to attain system wide integration and sustainability within the dynamics of spatial and transportation systems. The inclusion of specific theme related case studies endorses the relevancy of this book’s topic.

Beyond Tenderpreneurship

Beyond Tenderpreneurship PDF Author: MISTRA MISTRA
Publisher: African Books Collective
ISBN: 1928509142
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 244

Get Book Here

Book Description
Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) policies have been a central pillar of attempts to overcome the economic legacy of apartheid. Yet, more than two decades into democracy, economic exclusion in South Africa still largely re?ects the fault-lines of the apartheid era. Current discourse often con?ates BEE with the so-called tenderpreneurship referred to in the title, namely the reliance of some emergent black capitalists on state patronage. Authors go beyond this notion to understand BEEs role from a unique perspective. They trace the history of black entrepreneurship and how deliberate policies under colonialism and its apartheid variant sought to suppress this impulse. In the context of modern South Africa, authors interrogate the complex dynamics of class formation, economic empowerment and redress against the backdrop of broader macroeconomic policies. They examine questions relating to whether B-BBEE policies are informed by strategies to change the structure of the economy. These issues are explored against the backdrop of the experiences of other developing countries and their journeys of industrialisation. The relevant black empowerment experiences of countries such as the United States are also discussed. The authors identify policy and programmatic interventions to forge the non-racial future that the constitution enjoins South Africans to build.

A framework for a green infrastructure planning approach in the Gauteng City-Region

A framework for a green infrastructure planning approach in the Gauteng City-Region PDF Author: Christina Culwick
Publisher: Gauteng City Region Observatory (GCRO)
ISBN: 0620728515
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 131

Get Book Here

Book Description
As the population, economy and urban built environment in the Gauteng City-Region (GCR) expand, government is increasingly under pressure to provide urban infrastructure to support growth. It is increasingly important that this infrastructure is sustainable, minimising the negative environmental impacts often associated with traditional forms of urban development. Green Infrastructure (GI) is the interconnected set of natural and man-made ecological systems, green spaces and other landscape features that provide services and strategic functions in the same way as traditional infrastructure. In harnessing the benefits of ecosystem services, GI has emerged as a more efficient, cost effective and sustainable alternative – and sometimes accompanying approach – to conventional forms of infrastructure. Despite international evidence demonstrating how GI can be used as an alternative to, or in tandem with, traditional infrastructure, the GI approach has so far gained only limited traction in the GCR. In 2013 the GCRO published the State of Green Infrastructure in the GCR report. The report established the principles that underpin GI, used available data to map the extent of GI networks in the region, assessed to what extent municipalities were aware of and applying a GI approach, and demonstrated a possible way to value GI in local government financial systems. The conclusions of the State of Green Infrastructure report were used to guide the next phase of GCRO’s research in support of the adoption of GI approach – a phase focused on better understanding the opportunities for implementing GI in planning and infrastructure development programmes and on addressing some of the challenges associated with shifts towards this approach. A framework for a green infrastructure planning approach in the Gauteng City-Region, GCRO’s fourth Research Report, builds on the foundations laid in the State of Green Infrastructure report. It assembles expert inputs and reflections from collaborative stakeholder discussions in what was known as the Green Infrastructure CityLab to illustrate important considerations for the development of a GI planning approach in the Gauteng City-Region (GCR). The report is divided into three broad sections. Part A introduces the theoretical underpinnings of a GI approach and builds an argument for the importance of incorporating GI into planning and infrastructure development in the GCR. Part B presents three pieces written by external experts. They consider how GI and ecosystem services can be valued by municipalities, and how so-called ‘grey-green’ infrastructure design solutions can be implemented in the GCR. Part C reflects on the stakeholder engagement process that has been undertaken, primarily through the GI CityLab, to deepen understanding of how GI can be embedded in municipal practice. Based on these research findings, this report concludes with a strategy for GCRO’s next phase of work in its ongoing Green Assets and Infrastructure Project.

The Fluvial Imagination

The Fluvial Imagination PDF Author: Colin Hoag
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520386353
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 236

Get Book Here

Book Description
A free open access ebook is available upon publication. Learn more at www.luminosoa.org. Landlocked and surrounded by South Africa on all sides, the mountain kingdom of Lesotho became the world's first "water-exporting country" when it signed a 1986 treaty with its powerful neighbor. An elaborate network of dams and tunnels now carries water to Johannesburg, the subcontinent's water-stressed economic epicenter. Hopes that receipts from water sales could improve Lesotho's fortunes, however, have clashed with fears that soil erosion from overgrazing livestock could fill its reservoirs with sediment. In this wide-ranging and deeply researched book, Colin Hoag shows how producing water commodities incites a fluvial imagination. Engineering water security for urban South Africa draws attention ever further into Lesotho's rural upstream catchments: from reservoirs to the soils and vegetation above them, and even to the social lives of herders at remote livestock posts. As we enter our planet's water-export era, Lesotho exposes the possibilities and perils ahead.