The new urbanism and new ruralism frameworks as potential tools for sustainable rural development in South Africa

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Sustainable rural development is currently one of the priority items for the SouthAfrican government. Agricultural advancement, high rates of unemployment,widespread poverty, a lack of access to employment opportunities, transport,education and other services, skewed land ownership patterns that are partly due toApartheid policies, a lack of access to land and numerous social and health‐relatedissues are just some of the problems that rural communities are currently faced with.This study focuses mainly on the spatial planning aspects of rural development and itexplores the possibilities of adaptating strategies from the New Urbanism and NewRuralism movements, together with a number of tools typically associated withsustainable rural development, for use in the South African context.Through the study of available literature on the subject, personal interviews andpractical experience, a range of strategies have been investigated and a selectednumber have been identified that may be applicable to the local context. A numberof case studies are assessed, which include a new model being implemented atCrossways Farm Village in the Eastern Cape which combines elements from theabove‐mentioned approaches. From some of the results achieved to date it seemsthat the implementation of these particular spatial planning models, combined withmodels like the biosphere concept that focuses on biodiversity, together with arange of additional socio‐economic strategies, may contribute to the promotion ofsustainable rural development in South Africa. It is hoped that this study shows thepotential and challenges of these spatial planning models as a tool for sustainablerural development, and that it may lead to further study on the subject.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University