Human and social capital formation in South Africa's arid areas

[摘要] English: There has been a worldwide resurgence of academic interest in semi-arid and desert regions andSouth Africa has proved no exception to this trend. The lion's share of South Africa's aridinterior consists of the 400000 square kilometres of the Karoo. The Karoo is divided up amongfour provincial administrations and is therefore very rarely treated as a coherent regional entity inits own right by the central government, whose National Spatial Development Perspective(NSDP) has accorded it marginal developmental potential. Inter-provincial co-operation has alsoproved to be the exception rather than the rule, and this has impacted upon the Karoo's ability topresent itself as an attraction on a par with Australia's Outback, for example.Until the mid-1990s the Karoo had endured several decades of being written off as a desolate,boring wasteland fit for nothing but sheep-fanning. In the 1990s, however, several major trendsconverged which had the effect of completely transforming the Karoo in the 'social imaginary'.These trends were the opening up of the country to international market forces and influence,consequent upon the demise of apartheid; the international reappraisal of the value of desertregions with a concomitant surge in tourism flows; the onset and rapid adoption of mobiletelephony coupled with e-mail and the internet; an international revisioning of the countrysidewhich saw primary agriculture steadily supplanted by the trappings of rural postproductivism;and a property boom which reinvigorated rural housing markets which had been stagnant fordecades.Against this backdrop, at the turn of the millennium, increasing numbers of scholars sensed theemergence of a new type of individual who seemed to have evolved with a new knowledge basedeconomy made possible by huge advances in information technology. The one constanttheme running through these identifications was the concept of 'creativity' and a high premiumcame to be placed on the contributions of this cohort to the knowledge economy.The social order in South Africa was profoundly shaken by the combined effect of theseparadigmatic changes, arguably no segment more so than that of the white community. Whileseveral hundred thousand whites emigrated, a very much smaller number, no longer able to afford coastal properties, looked with new eyes upon the potentials of small town South Africaeither as prospective incomers or as sites for investment in second homes. The socio-economicchemistry of many small towns in the Karoo experienced a complete overhaul as a result of aninfusion of new blood from the conurbations. This statistically insignificant but economically'savvy' constituency then used their networks and professional expertise to set in motion whatcan only be described as a renaissance of the Karoo.This thesis examines aspects of this phenomenon through a lens informed by Richard Florida'sinfluential views concerning the rise of a 'creative class'. It describes the rejuvenation of certaintowns by the infusion of new social and human capital and it has considered some of theconsequences of this. In-migrants have identified a wide range of 'capitals' that have been lyingdormant, rather like seeds waiting for moisture. This has seen the coming-to-market of a varietyof creative offerings most especially in the tourism 'value chain'. Often assisted by skillfulrecourse to marketing networks and to 'lifestyle media', these incomers have wrought a seachangein the social imaginary pertaining to the Karoo. The overall positive effect of this burst ofindustry on these small towns is proving to be both enduring and profound.

[发布机构] University of the Free State