The South African Research Chair in Spatial Analysis and City Planning

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10539/37292

The South African Research Chair in Spatial Analysis and City Planning is situated in the School of Architecture and Planning, at the University of the Witwatersrand and is headed by Prof Philip Harrison. This collection includes research outputs from the programme, including those under its previous name, the South African Research Chair in Development Planning and Modelling. For information on this collection content, please contact: Bongi Mphuti via email : Bongi.Mphuti@wits.ac.za or Tel (W) : 011 717 1978.

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2012 - 20132

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Subject: search.filters.subject.SOCIAL SCIENCES; economic development; spatial concentration of economic activity; faster economic growth; human skills

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    RE-IMAGINING POST-APARTHEID YEOVILLE BELLEVUE; the journey and reflections of a resident activist/activist resident
    (South African Research Chair in Development Planning and Modelling, School of Architecture and Planning, University of the Witwatersrand., 2013-12) SMITHERS, MAURICE
    I fi rst began to work in Yeoville Bellevue in 1997/8. Fifteen years later, I’m refl ecting in this research report on what I and my fellow Yeoville Bellevueites have managed to achieve, individually and collectively, in that time. It is my own personal account and I accept that others may have a different story to tell. I hope it’s interesting and that we can all learn something from it. I hope even more fervently that it will, in some way, take the fi ght for a better Yeoville Bellevue (and a better inner city) forward. Looking back in my archives, I found a table which I drafted in November of 1997 1, setting out matters that I thought needed attention. Amongst these were that: • Yeoville Bellevue was in urgent need of a socio-economic development policy • The Community Forum had collapsed and had not been replaced by a credible civic structure • Parks in the area were unmanaged and in need of proper attention • There were a number of illegalities and by-law infringements taking place
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    Does density drive development?
    (South African Research Chair in Development Planning and and Planning, University of the Witwatersrand., 2012-08) Msulwa, Rehema
    here is growing interest among governments and researchers around the world in the contribution of cities to economic development. Several influential international organisations have argued that the spatial concentration of economic activity is necessary for faster economic growth. This paper examines whether the density of population and economic activity influences the rate of local economic growth in South Africa. Municipalities are the basic units of analysis and the time frame is 1996-2010. Contrary to expectations, no statistically significant relationship is found between density and growth across the full range of 237 local municipalities. However, searching hard for a relationship among particular kinds of municipality, some evidence does emerge. The influence of human skills on local growth is also examined and is found to be more robust than density. Several reasons are given for why the relationship between density and growth is generally weak or non-existent.