Ruimtelike en strukturele stedelike ekonomiese transformasies van George sedert 1995 : die geval van tuisgebaseerde gesighede (TGB'E)

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Issues relating to self-employment and the development of the so-called New Economy gained notonly new founded momentum, but also more all round interest over the last two decades, especiallyfrom academic researchers. During this time, new emphasis was placed on the importance andsignificance of location. Consequently, urban areas were finally regarded as instrumental withinproviding the central backdrop for the competing nature of the global economy. Due to this fact, theemphasis again shifted from competition to the stimulation of investment. Local EconomicDevelopment (LED) was the South African method of doing so. Entrepreneurship became a majordriving force of the South African market. Within the same past two decades substantial growth tookplace within Home-based Work, especially within Home-based Enterprise (HBE) activities. This canbe attributed to the flexible organization of production that a home-based work (HBW) lifestyle canprovide. Within the South-African context there does exists some empirical observations relating toHBW and TBE activities, but these studies have mostly focused on informal neighborhoods and otherless affluent areas. This study however places the emphasis on the existence of HBW, selfemploymentand HBE's within all the income-group neighbourhoods in George. The existence of thetraditional Spazashops and Shebeens is included, because these examples are extremely relevantwithin the South African context, but other specialized careers such as medical practitioners, childcareprofessionals, consultants, and producers of various products are also examined.The study wants to contribute to the discussion of urban sustainable development through theinclusion of HBW and HBE's as potential strategies to reach sustainability within communities.Because of this, the primary aims and objectives of this study include the nature and extent of HBEactivities throughout various neighbourhoods located on the periphery of the urban centre in George.A deeper understanding regarding the reasons behind the locational decision process (thus whyparticipating home- businesses chose George as the location for their Small, Medium or MicroEnterprises (SMME's) and the consequential location movement of these businesses was alsoexamined. The spatial and structural relationships that exist between the growth and/or movement offormal businesses in the study area was further observed by the creation of a database stretchingfrom 1995 to 2005 that lists and map these locational changes.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University