The Turn to ‘New Regionalism’: South African Reflections

Abstract

This article analyses critical policy implications for city-regional and national spatial frameworks in South Africa concerning the turn to new regionalism. International debates are reviewed concerning new regionalism, global city regions, the European Spatial Development Perspective and polycentric mega regions. In South Africa, there is a growing policy interest in the writings and implications of new regionalism as a base for rethinking urban and regional development policies. It is argued that the current depth of South African research and debate on issues raised by new regionalism is limited and that strategic planning for the building of Gauteng as a globally competitive city region is the most significant imprint of new regionalism on the South African policy landscape.

Local economic development in Africa: Global context and research directions

“…In isolating LED as a priority for urban Africa, Swinburn and Yatta (2006a) recognise that national level macroeconomic policies are no longer sufficient for attaining sustainable broad based economic growth. Furthermore, traditional sectoral supply-side development strategies are not achieving the hoped for results as globalisation diminishes the powers of the nation state in Africa and correspondingly underlines both the role of localities and wider cityregions as drivers of national growth (Swinburn & Yatta, 2006a;Rogerson, 2009a).…”

The contested trajectory of applied local economic development in South Africa

“…From a theoretical stance, there is clear resonance with Harvey's (1989) concept of 'urban entrepreneurialism' and of the role localities play as both sites and agents of economic development. The emergence of 'new regionalism' as a theoretical construct, and more recently 'new localities' thinking, represents a parallel reconsideration of the role of place within the development process (Rogerson, 2009;Yeung, 2009). Compared to earlier articulations of 'localities' theory, new approaches recognise the multifaceted and multidimensional nature of the development process and the role localities play within this context, not least the need to articulate local processes within an increasingly complex globalized context (Evans et al, 2013;Jones and Woods, 2013).…”

Towards a developmental state? Provincial economic policy in South Africa

“…This comes closer to the second approach to spatial policy, which has sometimes been described as 'new regionalism' or 'new localism' (Keating, 1998;Rogerson, 2009). The emphasis is on internally driven development, based on strong indigenous enterprises, reliable institutions and local endowments.…”