Unearthing the determinants required for off-grid subsistence : a case study

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study is based on the personal four-year journey of the researcher in an attempt todevelop an off-grid, sustainable self-sufficient livelihood and habitation on a 1 000-squaremetre piece of rural land in the heritage mission village of Suurbraak, Western Cape, SouthAfrica. This single case study attempts to embody a comprehensive antithesis to the currentrural settlement approach implemented in South Africa. The approach is philosophical,applying Hegel's 'determinate negation conception of reality, as dialectic between aconception of 'thesis as global, scientific and regulated resulting in large-scale agriculture,poisoning of nature and inappropriate low-cost housing and its 'antithesis as grounded,philosophical, healthy subsistence habitation on the actual land.This study, shaped by a literature review, proposes a concept coined 'niche settlement',comprising four focus areas as regards sustainable self-sufficiency: an owner-built dwellingfrom local materials, farm produce for consumption and self-medication, rain and energyharvesting, and taking responsibility for waste. In order to validate the case studycontextually, an action research methodological approach was adopted. This began with afield study to interview marginal small-scale farmers, enriched by a land-use survey in theSuurbraak agri-village, in order to clarify the determinants for successful subsistence. Thesewere land availability, proximity of land to homestead, appropriate scale, access to water,enabling legislation, and access to inputs and labour. The critical nature of these determinants is then shown as regards the niche settlement case study. The interplay ofSwellendam Municipality regulations reveals contradictions that entail that the abovedeterminants are not facilitated. This threatens a vulnerable two-century old agrarianheritage. The ensuing dialectic between the researcher and municipal officials who - whenconfronted by the contradictions - undertook to revise certain zoning decisions thatthreatened the viability of niche settlement approaches. The determinants may prove fertileground for further research as criteria to shape rural settlement policy with respect to land use, particularly given the need to factor in the looming global recession, the food crisis andpeak oil.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University