When is enough,enough? Advocacy,evidence and criticism in the field of urban agriculture in South Africa

In South Africa, the advocacy of urban agriculture as a means of improving the plight of the urban poor has been a major theme in the literature since the early 1990s. Ironically, the criticism of that advocacy has almost as long a history. To elucidate these two themes, this paper investigates the evidence on which the advocacy is based, outlines the criticism of the advocacy, and analyses the responses to the criticism. It suggests that continued advocacy in the face of disconfirming evidence is misplaced and calls for greater caution. It observes that responses to the criticism have been weak and concludes that continued advocacy and continued criticism, in parallel, hamper debate. Unless there is engagement between the advocates and the critics, not only will the field of urban agriculture suffer, but so will the urban poor.     

Urban agriculture promotes sustainable livelihoods in Cape Town

Urban agriculture has long been endorsed as a means to promote food security and economic wellbeing in African cities. However, the South African context presents mixed results. In order to establish the contributions of urban agriculture to sustainable livelihoods, the sustainable livelihoods framework is applied to a case study on cultivators from Cape Town’s Cape Flats. This study contributes to the empirical literature on urban agriculture by providing a deeper understanding of the benefits cultivators themselves attribute to urban agriculture. The key finding is that cultivators use urban agriculture in highly complex ways to build sustainable livelihoods. NGOs are central to this process. Distrust, crime and a lack of resources are, however, limiting factors. The paper concludes with policy recommendations to support pro-poor urban agriculture in African urban centres.     

The personal and social benefits of urban agriculture experienced by cultivators on the Cape Flats

Urban agriculture is considered a grassroots solution to food security in Africa. Research consistently supports this belief, and in South Africa urban agriculture is promoted by national and local government. One city supporting urban agriculture is Cape Town, the only South African city with an urban agriculture policy. Although many questions remain regarding the sustainability of non-governmental organisation (NGO)-supported urban agriculture projects in Cape Town and their contribution to food security, this study argues that one must look beyond economics and the physical benefits of urban agriculture to the personal and social benefits. By capturing the lived experiences of cultivators on the Cape Flats in Cape Town, the study shows that urban agriculture not only contributes to food security but builds social capital, which improves livelihood strategies and interpersonal relations. This is especially the case where urban agriculture projects are facilitated by NGOs that fund, train and oversee cultivators in these impoverished communities.     

Lodging as a migrant economic strategy in urban Zimbabwe

The 1990s were a decade of rapid urbanisation and growth of squatter settlements in African cities. Given the severe shortage of affordable housing options, a large proportion of urban dwellers choose lodging as the only economically viable, legal shelter option. Lodging is thus an essential element of the economic survival strategy of the urban poor. Based on a longitudinal study of lodgers in a medium-sized Zimbabwean city during the mid-1990s, this article explores the economic characteristics and strategies of lodging households during a time of rapid urban growth and worsening economic conditions. The article outlines the way these changes affect lodging household composition, shelter features, economic coping mechanisms and overall vulnerability. It concludes with a brief examination of the present urban situation in Zimbabwe.     

The economics of crime in the urban ghetto

Summary and Conclusion A central conclusion of this paper which explores the economic aspects of crime in the urban ghetto is that it is premature to conclude that an unambiguous relationship between employment opportunities and crime exists. This is not to be considered a repudiation of prior findings of a statistical association between unemployment rates, labor force participation rates, other economic variables, and crime. It is merely a statement of caution when viewing these findings within an analytical perspective devoid of a characterization of the institutional structure of crime and employment in urban ghettos.     

The organisation of urban agriculture in Cape Town,South Africa: A social capital perspective

This article explores urban agriculture in Cape Town and its organisational forms. Based on a literature review of peer-reviewed articles and grey literature, it examines the state of linkages among urban farmers and various supporting organisations of urban agriculture. Moreover, it examines the coordination of activities among key supporting organisations. By analysing the roles of state and non-state actors and linkages, the article discusses implications for the development of urban agriculture. This article suggests that a lack of effective coordination of initiatives among supporting actors presents a significant pitfall in the development of urban agriculture. Furthermore, the failure of farmers to self-organise is identified as equally detrimental. Therefore, it calls for improved synergies between state and non-state actors involved to ensure that the gains of urban agriculture are enhanced.     

Repositioning the urban environment question in Zimbabwe: a review of the context,conditions and processes

This analysis is a reappraisal of two perspectives in urban development in Zimbabwe: environmental sustainability and human sustenance. The discussion seeks to reposition the conservation–survival debate by broadening it to the wider urban and national macroeconomic and sociopolitical context. It re‐examines Zimbabwe's environmental problems by examining the challenges posed by urbanisation, industrialisation and informalisation. To these ‘permanent’ strands are added the ‘transient’ phenomena of structural adjustment and indigenisation. The analysis is done within the overall national macroeconomic and sociopolitical environment. The article examines environmental sustainability and human sustenance as the two policy challenges that have to be reconciled in the quest for sustainable urban settlements in Zimbabwe. The analysis stresses that the exercise of striking a balance between the needs of humankind and those of nature has to take cognisance of the complexity of issues and the processes going on elsewhere in the urban and national context.     

低碳经济时代下山西都市农业发展的实证研究

都市农业是融生产、生活、生态等多功能于一体的高层次、高品位的一种崭新的农业形式,近年来在国内外进行了广泛的研究与实践。本文基于低碳经济的研究背景,结合山西省情,对山西省都市农业的发展进行了SWOT分析,并构建了因子分析模型,进行实证分析。研究结果表明:山西省南部的晋城、长治和运城的都市农业发展水平最高;太原、忻州的都市农业发展水平最低。最后,提出山西省都市农业发展的对策建议。     

Reforming the management framework of urban land use

Problems in land-use regulation in an emerging market environment are analyzed with special reference to the city of Tomsk. Changes in the system of land-use management and their impact on urban development are considered. The focus is on municipal real estate and land use, which, formally being in the competence of local governments, are becoming a major factor of economic development.     

郑州都市农业发展的SWOT分析及战略选择

都市农业具有经济功能、社会功能和生态功能。发展都市农业将对促进郑州经济结构的战略性调整、增加农民收入、实现农业生态化、产业化,推动城乡一体化和中原经济区建设具有重要意义。本文对郑州都市农业发展进行了SWOT分析,阐述了郑州都市农业的发展的战略目标、战略重点和发展趋势。     

Urban agriculture in Dar es Salaam: Its contribution to solving the economic crisis and the damage it does to the environment

This article discusses urban agriculture in the city of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and how it helps people to cope with the country's economic crisis. Urban agriculture is also associated with environmental degradation. The article identifies factors that encourage urban agriculture at four different levels and suggests that to check further environmental degradation, concerted efforts should be made at all four levels. Such efforts should be coordinated and integrated into a holistic view of sustainable urban development.     

基本现代化视角下的苏南城乡一体化

随着改革开放的不断深入,市场化、工业化、城市化进程的加快,苏南的"三农"问题开始呈现出新的转型特点,城市与农村距离拉近,但城乡居民在收入及生活水平、社会保障、公共基础设施建设之间还存在较大差距,仍然存在着非均衡性的特征。因此,在科学发展观指导下,总揽城乡经济社会发展全局,立足于城乡一体的发展要求,探索城乡一体发展的新途径,努力开创城乡共同繁荣的新局面,促进苏南整体优势的不断增强,对于苏南基本建成全面小康社会的基础上,加快率先实现基本现代化具有十分重要的意义。     

丘陵的出路：发动循环经济引擎

农业的出口对接工业的入口,工业的出口对接市场的入口,延伸产业链,城乡经济相互交融,这是农业的出路,更是建设丘区经济强县的出路。丘陵在西部占有相当大的比重,丘陵地区的发展是西部地区的重点之一,为探寻丘陵地区的发展之路,笔者采访了四川南部县经济贸易局和商务局局长赵钦光。     

山东省地市城乡居民收入差距的影响因素分析

山东省地市城乡居民收入差距近几年呈现扩大的趋势,不利于社会的安定、经济的发展,造成收入差距过大的原因很多,为此本文主要运用主成分分析法,对山东17地市城乡居民收入差距进行分析,然后在此基础上又进行了聚类分析。找出影响收入差距大的主要因素,以便为构建和谐的山东经济社会提供可供参考的决策依据。     

Problems and prospects for the development of urban tourism in Gaborone and Maun,Botswana

This paper draws on the tourism system framework to examine the problems and prospects of urban tourism in Gaborone and Maun, Botswana. These are young centres that have a growing number of tourist attractions, facilities and services that could promote urban tourism. The findings of this study, based on both secondary and primary data sources, indicate that urban tourism in Botswana is relatively undeveloped because there is no substantial domestic market, tourist attractions in urban centres are poorly developed and marketed, and city development plans and the national tourism policy are not integrated. The study concludes that, for tourism to become a viable economic sector in the country, urban tourism should be integrated into Botswana's tourism policy and city planning.     

Towards a European urban policy

In the face of some opposition from those who plead subsidiarity as the central plank of European policies, the emergence of an urban dimension to European policies has been significant in the last five years. Now, reinforced by a research base, with the European Parliament and the Committee of the Regions providing a political route to influence, and with a modest programme of experimentation in urban projects in progress, the “urban” appears genuinely fixed on the political agenda of Europe. From a UK perspective the substance of the programmes is limited; small in scale and following many of the lines established within City Challenge or the Urban Partnerships, the new European urban initiatives are substantively modest and marginal. Much more important is the symbolic importance of a European urban perspective. This gives impetus to the policy debate at both European and national levels with the Commission's Community Initiative directing attention not simply to growing polarisation, marginalisation and exclusion in cities, but also to issues of urban fiscal crisis — the interaction of heavy expenditure needs with inadequate tax or grant base. Increasingly fierce competition between cities for investment and growth, with both Brussels and nation states involved as regulators and/or co-competitors is certain to exacerbate inter urban differentials and to reinforce the salience of questions of social exclusion and urban fiscal crisis.     

休闲农业与观光农业、都市农业的联系与区别

随着生活水平的提高,居民对其居住的城市环境和休闲旅游需要都提出了更高的要求,居住、旅游回归绿色、回归自然也成了一种时尚生活追求。顺应这种需求,国内休闲农业、观光农业、都市农业等"前沿农业"逐渐得到了越来越多的经营者和学者的关注。随着这些农业形式的发展,学术界的探讨也越来越多,进入了百花齐放的状态,但至今为止,国内尚未形成一个统一的认识,尤其对于各种农业形态还没有一个统一的用词和清晰的界定。因此,作者试图综合国内外研究的成果和方向,理顺现在国内研究比较多的三种前沿农业形式:休闲农业、观光农业、都市农业之间的关系。     

长株潭都市休闲农业定位研究

为了推进长株潭一体化、长株潭郊区城市化、和长株潭农村工业化的进程,根据长株潭和延伸地带不同区域的区位条件、资源禀赋、产业基础和发展前景,从长株潭都市休闲农业的产业定位、市场定位、产品定位和空间定位四方面展开研究,以明确长株潭地区都市休闲农业建设和发展的方向。     

Economic policy and population change in Thailand

This paper argues that in Thailand a link can be demonstrated between the recent fertility decline and an economic policy variable, the rice premium. The rice export tax introduced a check to profitability in rice agriculture, leading capital and also entrepreneurial talent out of agriculture into the urban industrial sector; keeping the structure of agriculture small-scale peasant holdings; and permitting labour costs to remain low in the urban industrial sector. Other government policies plus foreign investment and US aid led to rapid industrial growth, which coupled with consolidation of the transportation and communication systems triggered massive rural to urban migration. As Bangkok became a modern industrial metropolis, complete with urban sprawl, traffic congestion, and smog, the micro-economic cost—benefit equation turned against large families for many urban couples. Fertility fell rapidly in the urban areas, and this decline has spread into the countryside. The rice export tax thus has had profound demographic as well as economic effects.     

EXPLORING ATTRITION BIAS: THE CASE OF THE KHAYELITSHA PANEL STUDY (2000-2004)

Attrition bias is a problem for users of panel data. Researchers need to know what socio‐economic factors are associated with attrition, and whether this is of relevance for the kind of analysis they want to conduct. This paper discusses attrition bias in the 2000/2004 Khayelitsha panel study. It shows that women, shack‐dwellers and people living in smaller households are more likely to attrit, but that the impact of these variables on the probability of attrition is relatively small. The implications for labour‐market analysis are then explored using Mincerian earnings functions and a probit regression on whether respondents are wage‐employed or not. The coefficients generated using a restricted sample of non‐attritors do not differ significantly from those generated by the entire sample. This suggests that attrition bias in this particular data set is not a problem for this kind of labour market analysis.