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This paper will explore social change in contemporary Samoan society with respect to the traditional expectations of the church and kinship conflicting with the modern needs of an urbanising population. In the Samoan way of life – the fa'aSamoa – religion, matai (chiefly system) and reciprocal ‘gift‐giving’ kinship arrangements among the aiga (extended family) are fundamental and closely related elements. However, pressures from continued integration into the global economy, the importance of remittance income and related migration of well‐educated and highly skilled Samoans overseas are presenting several challenges to the strongly held traditions of kinship and church obligations. Among these challenges, low‐income households are increasingly placing the material well‐being of the immediate household first, thus ‘opting out’ of the culturally defined primary obligation to the church and risk alienation from beneficial familial ties. As a result, settlement patterns are shifting towards leaseholds in urbanising Apia, with consequences, we will speculate, that may have deeper cultural implications. Our research revealed that the church has been slow to accept that, increasingly, Samoans are seeking relief from hardships that spirituality alone cannot address. However, given its influence, strengths and resources, the church is well positioned to take a lead role in facilitating opportunities for ‘bottom‐up’, alternative development in Samoa, as well as providing lessons for church‐led participatory approaches in the Pacific Island Region.

In sub-Saharan Africa, urban and peri-urban food production has been identified as an important resource for meeting the challenges of rapidly growing cities, and the positive aspects of such production have been well documented in the literature. This paper examines some of the health and environmental concerns associated with urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA). Empirical evidence from the city of Kano in northern Nigeria suggests that there is currently much reason for concern as industrial and domestic toxins are reaching dangerously high levels. As soils and water channels become increasingly polluted, the sustainability of urban and peri-urban food production is questioned. Since the health implications of long-term exposure to toxins are unclear, it is suggested that coordinated longitudinal research involving urban planners, agricultural scientists and health specialists is urgently needed. In addition, it remains crucial that government and institutional actors effectively monitor and enforce both environmental and zoning by-laws, if the health and environmental constraints of UPA are to be overcome, and the future sustainability of production is to be assured.

The promotion of tourism has been identified as a key strategy that can lead to economic upliftment, community development and poverty relief in the developing world. In the last few years, tourism has also emerged as a significant development option in post–apartheid South Africa. In the context of some current debates on tourism in poor countries, the paper examines how economic, social and environmental resources are being utilized to promote tourism as a local economic development strategy in South Africa, and more specifically it focuses on current local government endeavours in this regard and two communities that have suffered the loss of their economic resource base. Tourism–based development initiatives, one in KwaZulu–Natal and one in the Western Cape, are evaluated in the context of generating economic growth, alleviating poverty and addressing the apartheid legacy of discrimination and inequality. The significance of the dynamics of development processes involved in these initiatives has much wider relevance for local economic development, both within South Africa and elsewhere.

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