GeoJournal

, Volume 81, Issue 3, pp 489–502 | Cite as

(Re)constructing rural–urban spaces: gendered livelihoods, migration, and natural resources in South Africa

Article
First Online:

Abstract

Critical approaches to development theory and practice provide alternative perspectives that focus on counterhegemonic and discursive dimensions of the development process. Feminist development is one such approach that opens up new spaces and opportunities to promote socially progressive and sustainable economic strategies. This paper uses feminist development geography as a framework to highlight the intersection of diverse spaces and economic strategies at the household and community levels. The analysis focuses on gendered livelihoods that are linked to circular migration and use of natural resources as a way to understand the integration of rural and urban spaces of development. The empirical section of this paper examines demographic patterns and socio-economic trends in Limpopo Province, South Africa as a context for the case study of two community-based women’s producer groups. These examples illustrate how economic strategies and social identities are embedded in and integrate both rural and urban spaces. This analysis contributes to feminist and post-structural development theory and practice by highlighting the potential for progressive forms of economic and social empowerment.

Keywords

Feminist development Rural–urban dynamics Gendered livelihoods South Africa 
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

Notes

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank colleagues who have participated in this research project at various stages.  Agnes Musyoki, Virginia Maimela, Josephine Mudau, Madzinghe Nembudani, Marubini Ramudzuli and Amy Pratt provided invaluable research assistance. Brian King and an anonymous reviewer gave useful comments on earlier versions of the manuscript. Derek Springston applied his cartographic skills to produce the map.  This project was supported by generous funding from the National Science Foundation (#SBR 9906626) and the Fulbright Program.

References

  1. Adelzadeh, A. (2003). South Africa Human Development Report 2003. Cape Town: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
  2. Bebbington, A. (2000). Reencountering development: Livelihood transition and place transformation in the Andes. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 90(3), 495–520.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  3. Beneria, L. (2003). Gender, development and globalization: Economics as if all people mattered. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
  4. Bob, U. (2000). Gender, the role of the chieftaincy and rural women’s access to land under the land reform program in KwaZulu-Natal. Alternation, 7(2), 48–66.Google Scholar
  5. Bob, U. (2001). The intersection of gender, race and class: The socio-economic and spatial implications of differentiation in the former homelands of South Africa. South African Geographical Review, 83(3), 190–197.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  6. Bob, U. (2008). Rural women’s relation to land resources in KwaZulu-Natal: Issues of Access and Control. Alternation, 15(1), 110–134.Google Scholar
  7. Budlender, D., Mgweba, S., Motsepe, K., & Williams, L. (2011). Women, land and customary law. Johannesburg: Community Agency for Social Enquiry.Google Scholar
  8. Chant, S. (2008). The ‘feminisation of poverty’ and the ‘feminisation of anti-poverty’ programmes: Room for revision? Journal of Development Studies, 44(2), 165–197.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  9. Collinson, A. M., Gerritsen, A. A. M., Clark, S. J., Kahn, K., & Tollman, M. S. (2009). Migration and socio-economic change in rural South Africa, 2000–2007. In M. Collinson, K. Aduzu, M. White, & S. Findley (Eds.), The dynamics of migration, health and livleihoods: INDEPTH network perspectives (pp. 81–108). England: Ashgate Publishing Ltd.Google Scholar
  10. Collinson, M., Wolff, B., Tollman, S. M., & Kahn, K. (2006). Trends in internal labour migration from rural Limpopo Province, male risk behavior, and implications for the spread of HIV/AIDS in rural South Africa. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 32(4), 633–648.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  11. Crush, J., & James, W. (Eds.). (1995). Crossing boundaries: Mine migrancy in a democratic South Africa. Cape Town: David Phillip.Google Scholar
  12. Cruz-Torres, M. L., & McElwee, P. (2012). Gender and sustainability: Lessons from Asia and Latin America. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press.Google Scholar
  13. Donaldson, R., & Marais, L. (Eds.). (2002). Transforming rural and urban spaces in South Africa during the 1990s: Reform, restitution, restructuring. Pretoria: Africa Institute of South Africa.Google Scholar
  14. Eastwood, R., Kirsten, J., & Lipton, M. (2006). Premature deagriculturalisation? Land inequality and rural dependency in Limpopo Province, South Africa. Journal of Development Studies, 42(8), 1325–1349.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  15. Francis, E. (2000). Making a living: Changing livelihoods in rural Africa. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
  16. Fraser, A. (2008). Geography and land reform. The Geographical Review, 98(3), 309–321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  17. Goebel, A. (2002). Gender, environment and development in South Africa. Canadian Journal of Development Studies, 23(2), 293–316.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  18. Hall, R., Wisborg, P., Shirinda, S., & Zamchiya, P. (2013). Farm workers and farm dwellers in Limpopo Province, South Africa. Journal of Agrarian Change, 13(1), 47–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  19. Hart, G. (2002). Disabling globalization: Places of power in post-apartheid South Africa. Berkeley, CA: University of Berkeley Press.Google Scholar
  20. Kabeer, N. (1994). Reversed Realities. Gender Hierarchies in Development Thought. London: Verso.Google Scholar
  21. Kessides, C. (2007). The urban transition in Sub-Saharan Africa: Challenges and opportunities. Environment and Planning C, 25(4), 466–485.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  22. King, B. H. (2006). Placing Kangwane in the new South Africa. The Geographical Review, 96(1), 79–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  23. King, B. H. (2007). Developing KaNgwane: Geographies of segregation and integration in the new South Africa. The Geographical Journal, 173(1), 13–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  24. King, B. (2011). Spatialising livelihoods: Resource access and livelihood spaces in South Africa. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 36(2), 297–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  25. Kok, P., & Collinson, M. (2006). Migration and urbanization in South Africa. Pretoria: Statistics South Africa. Report 03-04-02.Google Scholar
  26. Lawson, V. (2007). Making development geography. London: Hodder Arnold.Google Scholar
  27. Lemon, A. (2000). Urbanization and urban forms. In R. Fox & K. Rowntree (Eds.), The geography of South Africa in a changing world (pp. 186–210). Oxford: Oxford Press.Google Scholar
  28. Lipton, M. (1977). Why poor people stay poor: Urban bias in world development. London: Temple Smith.Google Scholar
  29. Lipton, M., Ellis, F., & Lipton, M. (1996). Land, labour and livelihoods in rural South Africa (Vol. 2: KwaZulu-Natal and Northern Province). University of Natal: Indicator Press.Google Scholar
  30. McCusker, B., & Carr, E. R. (2006). The co-production of livelihoods and land use change: Case studies from South Africa and Ghana. Geoforum, 37(5), 790–804.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  31. McCusker, B., & Oberhauser, A. M. (2006). An assessment of women’s access to natural resources through communal projects in South Africa. GeoJournal, 66(4), 325–339.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  32. Meer, S. (Ed.). (1997). Women, land and authority: perspectives from South Africa. Braamfontein: National Land Committee.Google Scholar
  33. Ministry of Rural Development and Land Reform (2009). The comprehensive rural development programme framework. Retrieved 20 February 2015. http://www.ruraldevelopment.gov.za/phocadownload/Strategic-Plan/Strategic_Plan_2009_2012.pdf
  34. Misana, S. (2012). Transformation and decline of Miombo Woodlands in Eastern Tanzania. In A. Musyoki & M. Khayesi (Eds.), Environment and development: Selected themes from eastern and southern Africa (pp. 76–98). Botswana: Bay Publishing.Google Scholar
  35. Mudao, J., Schmidt, R., Smith, J., & Dillingham, R. (2013). “Mukondeni ceramic water filter business.” In Conference paper, Global University Network for Innovation (GUNI). Barcelona, Spain. Retrieved 20 February 2015. http://www.guninetwork.org/guni.conference/2013-guni-conference/mukondeni-ceramic-water-filter-business
  36. Musyoki, A., & Khayesi, M. (Eds.). (2012). Environment and development: Selected themes from eastern and southern Africa. Botswana: Bay Publishing.Google Scholar
  37. Musyoki, A., & Tshatsinde, T. M. (2012). Land Reform Policy and Rural Development in South Africa. In A. Musyoki & M. Khayesi (Eds.), Environment and development: Selected themes from eastern and southern Africa (pp. 180–204). Botswana: Bay Publishing.Google Scholar
  38. Ntsembeza, L., & Hall, R. (Eds.). (2007). The land question in South Africa: The challenge of transformation and redistribution. Cape Town: HSRC Press.Google Scholar
  39. Oberhauser, A. M. (2001). Fieldnotes.  Mashamba, South Africa. July 2001.Google Scholar
  40. Oberhauser, A. M. (2002). Fieldnotes. Tshandama, South Africa. July 2002.Google Scholar
  41. Oberhauser, A. M. (2014). Crossing boundaries: transnational feminist methodologies in the global North and South. In A. M. Oberhauser & I. Johnston-Anumonwo (Eds.), Global perspectives on gender and space: Engaging feminism and development (pp. 87–102). New York: Routledge Press.Google Scholar
  42. Oberhauser, A. M., & Pratt, A. (2004). Women’s collective economic strategies and political transformation in rural South Africa. Gender, Place and Culture, 11(2), 209–228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  43. Parpart, J., Rai, R., & Staudt, K. (2002). Rethinking empowerment: Gender and development in a global/local world. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
  44. Posel, D. (2003). Have migration patterns in post-apartheid South Africa changed? In Paper presented at the Conference on African Migration in Comparative Perspective, Johannesburg, 4–7 June 2003.Google Scholar
  45. Rakodi, C. (2002). A livelihoods approach – conceptual issues and definitions. In C. Rakodi & T. Lloyd-Jones (Eds.), Urban livelihoods: A people-centered approach to reducing poverty (pp. 3–23). London: Earthscan Publications.Google Scholar
  46. Razavi, S. (Ed.). (2002). Shifting burdens: Gender and agrarian change under neoliberalism. Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press.Google Scholar
  47. Resurreccion, B. P., & Elmhirst, R. (Eds.). (2008). Gender and natural resource management: Livelihoods, mobility and interventions. London: Earthscan.Google Scholar
  48. Saunders, K. (Ed.). (2004). Feminist post-development thought: Rethinking modernity, post-colonialism and representation. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
  49. Scoones, I. (2009). Livelihoods perspectives and rural development. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 36(1), 171–196.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  50. Shackleton, S., Campbell, B., Lotz-Sisitka, H., & Shackelton, C. (2008). Links between local trade in natural products, livelihoods and poverty alleviation in a semi-arid region of South Africa. World Development, 36(3), 505–526.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  51. Statistics South Africa. (2012a). Census 2011 provinces as a glance. Pretoria: Statistics South Africa.Google Scholar
  52. Statistics South Africa. (2012b). Census 2011 municipal report—Limpopo. Pretoria: Statistics South Africa.Google Scholar
  53. The South African Geographical Journal (2001). Bantustans 83(3).Google Scholar
  54. The World Bank (2013). Developing countries need to harness urbanization to achieve the MDGs: IMF-World Bank report’, The World Bank Group. Retrieved 20 February 2015. http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2013/04/17/developing-countries-need-to-harness-urbanization-to-achieve-mdgs-imf-world-bank-report
  55. Todes, A., Kok, P., Wentzel, M., Van Zyl, J., & Cross, C. (2010). Contemporary South African urbanization dynamics. Urban Forum, 21(3), 331–348.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  56. Tsheola, J. (2012). Rural women’s survivalist livelihoods and state interventions in Ga-Ramogale Village, Limpopo Province. African Development Review, 24(3), 221–232.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  57. Walker, C. (2009). Elusive equality: Women, property rights and land reform in South Africa. South African Journal on Human Rights, 25(3), 467–490.Google Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.West Virginia UniversityMorgantownUSA

Personalised recommendations