Urban leisure and tourism-led redevelopment frontiers in central Cape Town since the 1990s

In the Global North, urban redevelopment through leisure and tourism interventions has been a keenly investigated research interface. These types of interventions, whether public, private, or in various combinations, have often led to the dramatic and extensive reworking of central city areas. Less attention has been focused on cities in the Global South – particularly Africa – that provide examples of how these processes of urban change manifest in this context. This investigation tracks the development of leisure and tourism-led interventions as central to the redevelopment of central Cape Town. It is shown how leisure and tourism development nodes developed, which in time consolidated into leisure and tourism urban redevelopment frontiers that have radically reworked Cape Town\u27s central business district along with adjacent neighbourhoods. It is shown that urban redevelopment has come to spill over to ever larger parts of central Cape Town and (if not governed with care) risks rendering vast parts of the central city effectively exclusionary to most of the Cape Town population. On the whole, this investigation serves as a further instance to be heeded by other cities around the globe that aim to deploy leisure and tourism-led interventions as central or part of their central city redevelopment initiatives

Social justice and geography: towards a South African geographical research agenda

Drawing on arguments seeking a grounded development of the concept of social justice, this article investigates the potential bearing of the concept on South African geographical research. It is argued that it is   philosophically desirable to conduct empirical research focused on the interpretations which agents give to the concept of social justice. It is then suggested that a re-thinking of the debates on normative social justice in the light of arguments for contextual interpretations of this concept provide a framework for a discourse of social justice within South African geographical studies. In particular, three avenues of enquiry are suggested. First, that South African geographers aim at uncovering what the concept of social justice represents with reference to multiple variables and institutions within various spatio-temporal settings. Secondly, that these empirical descriptions of social justice can be compared with various debates on social justice currently found in the social sciences. Finally, that geographical theorisation of the concept of social justice be developed with reference to empirical illustrations of the meaning of the concept

Preface

From text: The dramatic political changes occurring in South Africa during the 1990s not only ushered in a new chapter in the country’s history but also generated much academic interest in the problems and challenges of the transformation

Unvoiced and invisible: on the transparency of white South Africans in post-apartheid geographical discourse

Over the past decade South African urban geographers have developed a rich body of research ably narrating the changing spatialities of post-apartheid society. It is the contention of this paper that in mapping this transition the “white” geographies of the apartheid era have merely been replaced by “black” geographies and that situation is frustrating the development of truly post-apartheid geographies since the many-sided dialectic relationships that constitute South African spatialities are being overlooked. Drawing on poverty research as an example, the paper considers ways in which “white South African lives” may be reintroduced to the research practices of South African geographers. To attain this objective it first contextualises the “disappearance” of white geographies with reference to poverty research in South Africa. It then suggests some reasons why South African geographers have failed to offer any analysis of white communities and, in particular, of the marginalised  among them. Its final section provides some pointers to possible research themes that might address this oversight

Gentrification: prospects for urban South African society?

The objective of this paper is to highlight some of the current international trends in the study of gentrification and assess its potential as the research site in a postapartheid urban context. In the light of international experience and the changing spatialities of post-apartheid cities, it is argued that recent developments in South Africa’s city-centres present classic opportunities for gentrification processes to emerge as part of urban regeneration. This exploration assesses this claim in four sections. The first deals with issues of definition, while the second reviews the main theoretical approaches currently employed in understanding gentrification processes. The third section relates this to gentrification research undertaken in South African cities, with the concluding section considering the types of gentrification research issues we might address in the post-apartheid context

Backpacker tourism in South Africa: its role in an uneven tourism space economy

This paper focuses on the recent proliferation of backpacker establishments in South Africa and their potential contribution to development. Despite the rapid expansion of backpacker hostels, little is known about this industry in South Africa. The research reported in the paper seeks to address the absence of academic reflection on backpacker tourism, particularly in terms of its impact on development. It is suggested that, on the whole, backpacker tourists and backpacker hostels can make a valuable contribution towards the development of the South African tourism system in general and towards economic development in particular

Socio-cultural and socio-economic features of second homes in Rosendal, South Africa

Second homes have seen increased research interest over the last decade. On the whole, these investigations have mainly been understood in the spatial context of the developed North. Second homes have only recently been seen as a role player in the changing economic spatialities of small town geographies in South Africa. This growing scholarship on second homes has, however, been less concerned with the social impacts of the phenomenon. The investigation is set against the argument that second homes have social impacts on the immediate and surrounding areas in which they are situated. This investigation also demonstrates that second homes are phenomena with which not only the elite engage but a range of different socio-economic cohorts, including the poor. The social impacts of second homes in this investigation are shown to vary along race and class lines. Against the backdrop that second homes are relevant to very large parts of South African society, the social impacts associated with second homes need to be taken into account in future development planning in South Africa

A spatial analysis of gating in Bloemfontein, South Africa

Growing trends of fear and insecurity in cities have sparked the re-visitation of gating, posing significant problems for citizens and policy makers alike. Gated developments are a global phenomenon occurring in diverse countries in both the developed North and developing South. Metropolitan areas in South Africa have also witnessed a rapid increase in the number and spread of gated developments since the late 1980s. Development of enclosed neighbourhoods has become increasingly popular, gaining widespread support for their utopic lifestyle and safety features. On the whole, high levels of crime and fear of crime have led to the construction of defensible space, in the form of gated developments, resulting in elevated levels of segregation. This paper provides a spatial analysis on gated developments in the non-metropolitan setting of Bloemfontein. The pattern and timeframe of gating in this city is shown to be similar to those found elsewhere in South Africa and, indeed, globally. Overall, it is the contention that gating is a trend not only seen in large metropolitan areas, but across the entire urban hierarchy of South Africa, and, as a consequence, requires investigation far beyond its metropolitan regions to more fully understand gated developments

A decade of progress in African urban tourism scholarship

This article introduces a theme issue of Urban Forum on the topic of urban tourism in Africa. A context is provided for the issue by an overview of key themes which have been represented in a decade of African urban tourism research. Although most extant research is on urban South Africa, there is an emerging literature on other African cities. The major themes of research have surrounded tourism and urban economic restructuring with the establishment of new products for leisure tourism; slum tourism and pro-poor tourism; the role of the accommodation sector; African cities as non-leisure destinations; and, informal sector tourism. It is argued that within the evolving international scholarship on urban tourism, aspects of African urban tourism research exhibit distinctive features and offer challenges to Northern conceptions of urban tourism and urban tourists

Reflections on student tourism research in South Africa

CITATION: Visser, G. 2017. Reflections on student tourism research in South Africa. African Journal of Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure, 6(2):1-18.The original publication is available at https://www.ajhtl.comIn South Africa, the tourism system has seen considerable policy attention over the past twenty years. As a consequence, there has been a large body of scholarship tracing its development. Much of this work draws heavily on the contributions made in postgraduate dissertations and theses. This paper focusses on the production of South African postgraduate tourism research, and the analyses of a number of variables and themes within this particular literature. The first aim of this investigation was to unpack (among other variables) the number, flow, institutional affiliation, and themes of this research. The second aim was to furnish a reflection on the completed postgraduate research, highlighting a critique of postgraduate contributions to understanding the South African tourism system. It was found that the themes of investigation, research voices and range of variables (including institutional affiliation, race and disciplinary vantage points) have all changed considerably over time. A call is made for further in-depth content analyses of this body of scholarship.Publisher's versio