Working with Context

(Source: Gustafson, 2008)

Working with local and regional economic development requires a level of ‘situatedness’

Absolute Space• Space = a hierarchy of scales

the town the provincethe country

the continentthe world

…. and all the spaces between and beyond

Relational Space• Space as a connection between

points/people/events governed by a relation• E.g. political, economic, social, cultural, kinship

connections• Complex and dynamic

Places are “a distinct mixture of wider and more local social relations… the juxtaposition of these

relations may produce effects that would not have happened otherwise"

(Massey, 1993:68)

The space of flows and the space of places (Castells, 1997)

• Context of interaction between the macro-forces of the global and the impact of local level characteristics of place

• The "space of flows" – social practices to occur between and across physical spaces

through the use of telecommunications and information systems

– society is uncoupled from physical space.

• The "space of places" – where people's interactions and society's institutions are

directly linked to physical spaces and are influenced by the characteristics of these spaces

• Within society the “most dominant processes, concentrating power, wealth and information, are organised in the space of flows" but in opposition to this "most human experience, and meaning, are still locally based” (Castells, 1997, 124).

• Because of different conditions at the local level, similar global forces (such as the greater economic power and technological expertise of the developed world) which reach a place can have different results.

FLOWS

PLACES: KwaZulu-Natal

Population = 10 456 900• Second largest in the country• 63% of that number is between 15 – 64 years• Of the population aged 5-24, 3 million were attending

educational institution.

• GDP = R2.95 billion• Unemployment rate = 22,5 %• Of that the youth (15-34) consists of 72% of the unemployed

• HIV/AIDS = 10% of South Africans and much higher in KZN

KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Growth and Development Strategy

Seven goals