The tourist: A new theory of the leisure class.

Attention to global and world cities has directed the field of urban studies to the significance of international and transnational processes in shaping city economies. This article evaluates these approaches, from a position off their maps. I argue that the circulation of these approaches in academic and policy realms adversely impacts on cities which do not fall into these categories by setting up the idea of the global city as a ‘regulating fiction’, a standard towards which they aspire. It establishes a small sector of the global economy as most desirable in planning the future of cities. By contrast, mega–cities function as the dramatic ‘other’ of world and global cities, and highlight the developmentalist discourse through which most cities in poor countries are assessed as fundamentally lacking in qualities of city–ness. I argue that the long–standing categories of western/third–world cities have been translated into the apparently transnational accounts of global and world cities. Western cities continue to be the primary site of production of apparently unlocated urban theory; so–called third–world cities (and other cities off the map of the world cities cartography) are interpreted through a developmentalist lens and, where they are referred to at all, are framed in terms of ‘difference’ or irrelevance. This article draws attention to the emergence of an alternative set of theoretical approaches, which are more inclusive in their geographical reach and which are concerned with the diverse dynamics of ordinary cities. These approaches have not yet realized that they have the potential to broaden the base for theorizing about cities and, with this in mind, the article explores the potential for a more cosmopolitan urban theory. The policy stakes in this are high, and the article notes that there are important political reasons to promote the analysis of ordinary cities in the face of the persistence of ambitions in many cities to become ‘world cities‘.

L’attention accordee aux villes planetaires et mondiales a oriente le champ des etudes urbaines vers l’importance des processus internationaux et transnationaux dans la configuration economique des villes. Partant d’un point situe hors de leur cartographie, l’article evalue ces approches. La circulation de celles–ci dans les spheres politiques et intellectuelles a une incidence nefaste sur les villes qui n’appartiennent pas a ces categories, car elle instaure l’idee d’une ville planetaire en tant que ‘fiction regulatrice’, norme a laquelle aspirent les villes. Un secteur restreint de l’economie mondiale est ainsi etabli comme le plus recherche dans la planification urbaine. Par contraste, les megacities fonctionnent comme l’impressionnant ‘autre’ des villes mondiales et planetaires, valorisant le discours developpementaliste selon lequel l’evaluation des villes des pays pauvres indique le plus souvent des lacunes fondamentales dans les qualites propres a une ville. Les anciennes categories de villes (Occident/tiers–monde) ont ete converties en justifications apparemment transnationales des villes planetaires et mondiales. Les villes occidentales restent le site de production principal d’une theorie urbaine manifestement non–localisee; les villes dites du tiers monde (et autres villes ignorees de la cartographie des villes mondiales) sont interpretees a travers une optique developpementaliste et, si on en parle, sont depeintes en termes de ‘difference‘ ou d’inadequation. Cet article souligne l’emergence d’un autre ensemble d’approches theoriques, plus inclusives dans leur geographie et soucieuses des diverses dynamiques des villes ordinaires. Sachant que ces demarches ne sont pas encore conscientes de pouvoir etendre la base theorique sur les villes, l’article explore la possibilite d’une theorie urbaine plus cosmopolite. Les enjeux strategiques sont serieux et il existe des raisons politiques importantes d’encourager l’analyse des villes ordinaires face aux ambitions persistantes dans de nombreuses villes de devenir les ‘villes mondiales’.

Global and world cities: a view from off the map

The Creative City is now a classic and has been republished many times. It is an ambitious book and a clarion call for imaginative action in running urban life. It seeks to inspire people to think, plan and act imaginatively in the city and to get an ideas factory going that turns urban innovations into reality. Its aim is to make readers feel: ‘I can do that too’ and to spread confidence that creative and innovative solutions to urban problems are feasible however bad they may seem at first sight.

The creative city: A toolkit for urban innovators

Cities exist in a world of cities and thus routinely invite a comparative gesture in urban theorizing. However, for some decades urban studies have analytically divided the world of cities into, for example, wealthier and poorer, capitalist and socialist, or into different regional groupings of cities, with subsequently very little comparative research across these divides. Interest in drawing comparisons among different cities has escalated in an era of ‘globalization’, as economic and social activities as well as governance structures link cities together through spatially extensive flows of various kinds and intense networks of communication. Nonetheless, scholars of urban studies have been relatively reluctant to pursue the potential for international comparative research that stands at the heart of the field. Where an interest in globalization has drawn authors to explicit exercises in comparison, both the methodological resources and the prevalent intellectual and theoretical landscape have tended to limit and even undermine these initiatives. This article seeks, first, to understand why it is that in an intrinsically comparative field with an urgent contemporary need for thinking across different urban experiences, there has been relatively little comparative research, especially comparisons that stretch across the global North–South divide, or across contexts of wealthier and poorer cities. Secondly, through a review of existing strategies for comparing cities, the article considers the potential for comparative methodologies to overcome their limitations to meet growing demands for international and properly post-colonial urban studies. Finally, it proposes a new phase of comparative urban research that is experimental, but with theoretically rigorous foundations.

Resume
Les villes existent dans un monde de villes et invitent donc normalement a un mouvement comparatif au sein de la recherche urbaine. Toutefois, depuis quelques decennies, les demarches analytiques des etudes urbaines ont scinde le monde des villes en, par exemple, riches et pauvres, capitalistes et socialistes, ou en d’autres regroupements par regions, ce qui s’est traduit par de rares comparaisons entre ces grandes divisions. L’interet pour les travaux comparatifs entre villes s’est accentue au fil de la ‘mondialisation’, les activites economiques et sociales ainsi que les structures de gouvernance reliant les villes par des flux de plusieurs types et de grande envergure spatiale, et par d’actifs reseaux de communication. Pourtant, les auteurs d’etudes urbaines se sont montres peu enclins a approfondir le potentiel de recherches comparatives internationales qu’offre ce domaine. Lorsqu’un interet pour la mondialisation a pousse certains a des exercices comparatifs detailles, tant les ressources methodologiques que le contexte theorique et intellectuel dominant ont plutot limite, voire aneanti, ces initiatives. Dans un premier temps, cet article cherche a comprendre pourquoi, dans un domaine comparatif par nature ou un besoin urgent appelle a une reflexion associant differentes experiences urbaines, les etudes comparatives sont relativement rares, notamment les comparaisons qui depassent la division entre Nord et Sud, ou entre les villes les plus riches et les plus pauvres. Ensuite, faisant le bilan des strategies de comparaison existantes, il envisage les methodologies comparatives qui pourraient repousser leurs limites pour repondre aux demandes croissantes en etudes urbaines internationales et reellement postcoloniales. Pour finir, l’article propose une nouvelle phase experimentale d’etudes urbaines comparatives, egalement dotee de fondements rigoureux sur le plan theorique.

Cities in a World of Cities: The Comparative Gesture

We review and synthesize recent South African work that examines the role and importance of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) in the daily lives of rural people in South Africa. The most commonly used such products are wild spinaches, fuelwood, wooden utensils edible fruits, grass hand-brushes, and twig hand-brushes, used by 85% or more of households. More than half the households investi- gated also make use of edible insects, wood for construction, bushmeat, wild honey and reeds for weaving. Individual households may exploit dozens of animal and plant species. The range in annual, direct-use values is large, from less than R1000 per house- hold per year to over R12 000. The value to rural households is manifest through a daily net function which represents a cost saving to the families involved and to the state, as well as through an emergency net, which serves as an insurance in times of misfor- tune, such as drought, disease, and unexpected economic hard- ship. The emergency net function has hardly been quantified in South Africa and internationally. Ad hoc trade in NTFPs is a common emergency net, which in some instances evolves into a permanent way of life. Financial returns from trade are variable, depending on resource type and hours worked, but are typically low. Despite the small cash incomes from trade, they provide an important contribution that complement the diverse livelihood strategies within a household, especially for the poorer sectors of rural society. Moreover, there are non-financial benefits of NTFP trade that are commonly overlooked.

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The importance of non-timber forest products in rural livelihood security and as safety nets: a review of evidence from South Africa

The Spatial Development Initiatives (SDI) programme was launched in South Africa in 1995 and subsequently extended throughout Southern Africa by a series of regional SDIs. This article seeks to provide an introduction to the changing policy debates surrounding SDIs from the period of their birth to their current maturation and possible onset of decline. Three major sections are presented. First, an examination is undertaken of the origins, fundamental strategies and principles of the SDI programme. Against this background, the focus in the second section turns to an assessment of the progress and contemporary directions being taken by the SDI programme. Finally, the paper summarizes the findings of the research conducted by the New Industrial Spaces Project in relation both to the potential and actual impacts of SDI's on corridor communities and peoples, and to those marginal to the new space-economy.

New industrial spaces: evaluating south africa's spatial development initiatives (sdi) programme

Within the broad spectrum of tourism accommodation the timeshare industry is a distinctive segment which has attracted only limited research work. This paper represents a contribution to tourism geography as it investigates the location of timeshare resorts in Africa and comparative position of African destinations in the global timeshare economy. The analysis shows the timeshare resort industry in South Africa is the most significant on the continent and is distinctive in its reliance upon domestic rather than international tourists. In terms of the distribution of resorts the key locational consideration in Africa parallels that found in other parts of the world, namely the positioning of resorts in areas of high natural amenity. In the African context this has meant clustering resorts in coastal beach areas and attractive mountain locations, as well as in the areas which afford opportunities for timeshare consumers to experience the African bush. Finally, of note in South Africa is the growth of large timeshare property developments at casino resorts, a development which parallels the experience of certain timeshare developments in the USA.

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The timeshare industry of Africa: a study in tourism geography

This chapter examines certain major policy debates concerning the development of South Africa's tourism economy and to highlight issues surrounding the country's changing economic geography. It discusses the leading themes in the shifting national policy environment for tourism. Nature tourism is a further critical area for expansion that is linked to poverty alleviation in many rural areas. The introduction of various new forms of ownership and institutional arrangements for tourism projects is a final vital aspect for poverty alleviation. The promotion of new tourism growth and investment in tourism plant and product development is of central importance, not least for achieving certain goals of poverty alleviation. Another key element in transforming the spatial structure of the South African tourism economy is maximisation of the impacts of local-level initiatives for tourism-led economic development.

Tourism – A New Economic Driver for South Africa

Beer tourism is a growing dimension of culinary or food tourism. Although South Africa is traditionally associated with wine tourism the country is enjoying the development of beer tourism, in particular associated with the expansion of craft beer micro-breweries. Against this background the paper situates the emergence of South African beer tourism as part of the wider international growth of beer tourism. An analysis is presented of key trends in research on beer tourism, including of policy-related issues. It is argued that whilst lessons may be learned from the experience of wine tourism that there is a need for expanding the amount of beer tourism specific scholarship. In particular, there is a significant agenda for tourism scholars around the relationships between the burgeoning of craft beer and of incipient forms of craft beer tourism. This agenda includes the need to profile beer tourists, understand the participation of breweries in beer tourism, the importance of neo-localism for the craft beer industry in South Africa, and evaluate the impacts of beer tourism initiatives for local economic development.

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Developing beer tourism in South Africa: international perspectives

This paper interrogates the geography of tourism innovation in the Western Cape, South Africa. In particular, innovations by tourism firms are mapped and local tourism innovation networks are analysed. Networking behaviour is examined since it is regarded as indispensable for accessing knowledge and learning for innovation purposes. The analysis draws on a broader investigation of tourism innovation and networking within the Western Cape province. It is revealed that the main tourist regions in the Western Cape are also the most innovative. Whilst external networking relations are observed to be highly significant for tourism innovation, local embeddedness remains critical for stimulating path creation and exploiting local core competencies for the competitiveness and survival of tourism firms and destinations.

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Christian M. Rogerson

Papers

New industrial spaces: evaluating south africa's spatial development initiatives (sdi) programme

The timeshare industry of Africa: a study in tourism geography

Tourism – A New Economic Driver for South Africa

Developing beer tourism in South Africa: international perspectives

Unpacking the geography of tourism innovation in Western Cape Province, South Africa