Reappraisal of the South African Urban Hierarchy

Davies, Ron; Cook, G. P.

doi:10.1080/03736245.1968.10559439

Cited by 13 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…The primary concept considered here -proportionality in enterprise development -was an aspect of the studies of South African towns during the 1960s and 1970s, 1,2 but was later neglected. We have revisited it here because of new ideas about economic and regional development that have developed over the past three decades, which also touch upon current South African economic development challenges and realities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Proportionality in enterprise development of South African towns

Toerien

Seaman

2012

S Afr J Sci

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We investigated proportionalities in the enterprise structures of 125 South African towns through examining four hypotheses, (1) the magnitude of enterprise development in a town is a function of the population size of the town; (2) the size of an enterprise assemblage of a town is a function of the town's age; (3) there are statistically significant relationships, and hence proportionalities, between the total number of enterprises in towns and some, if not all, of the enterprise numbers of different business sectors in towns; and (4) the implications of proportionalities have far-reaching implications for rural development and job creation. All hypotheses were accepted on the basis of statistically significant (p < 0.05) correlations, except for the second hypothesis -the age of a town does not determine the size of its enterprise assemblage. Analysis for the fourth hypothesis suggested that there are two broad entrepreneurial types in South African towns: 'run-of-the-mill' entrepreneurs and 'special' entrepreneurs, which give rise to different enterprise development dynamics. 'Run-of-themill' enterprises are dependent on, and limited by, local demand and if there is only a small demand, the entrepreneurial space is small. By comparison, 'special' enterprises have much larger markets because their products and/or services are exportable. We propose that the fostering of 'special' entrepreneurs is an imperative for local economic development in South African towns.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Proportionality in enterprise development of South African towns

Toerien

Seaman

2012

S Afr J Sci

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“…Enterprise richness is The fact that the enterprise richness of South African towns increases with increased town size is not unexpected and could be inferred from earlier studies of South African towns. 23,24 In the 1960s and 1970s, the fashion (largely driven by a belief in central place theory 23 ) was to construct town classification hierarchies based on the levels of services provided. For instance, Davies and Cook 24 identified eight different orders among 601 settlements in South Africa.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…23,24 In the 1960s and 1970s, the fashion (largely driven by a belief in central place theory 23 ) was to construct town classification hierarchies based on the levels of services provided. For instance, Davies and Cook 24 identified eight different orders among 601 settlements in South Africa. However, Figures 1 to 3 and Figure 5 indicate that the increase in enterprise richness, and hence the level of business services provided in South African towns, is a continuous rather than a stepwise phenomenon (which the hierarchy approach of Davies and Cook seemed to infer).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enterprise richness as an important characteristic of South African towns

Toerien

Seaman

2014

S. Afr. J. Sci.

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Towards the end of the 20th century there were almost 500 small towns of fewer than 50 000 persons in South Africa, accommodating about one tenth of the country's population. Little was known or said in national debates about the future of these places. A decade later this situation had changed and many studies have been or are being undertaken on small towns. For instance, the South African Government recognised that to stem the continued migration from rural to urban areas, a different approach was needed to economic development in rural municipalities and a 'Small Towns Regeneration Project' was initiated. Concerns about a perceived decline of rural towns also stimulated a quest to develop or find methods and/or measures to monitor the well-being of towns. Elsewhere in the world, small and medium enterprise 'observatories' were established to study and report on all aspects of small and medium enterprises, an approach recently followed in South Africa. New ways are needed to improve our understanding of the enterprise dynamics of South African towns. In this contribution, we examine the potential utility of the enterprise richness (i.e. the number of enterprise types) of South African towns and show that enterprise richness has a strong and fully quantifiable relationship with the total number of enterprises in the towns. This contribution adds a new dimension to the capability to make predictions about the enterprise structures of South African towns. This lack of understanding is also broadly true for the coexistence of enterprises in towns. There are basically three reasons for natural ecologists' interest in ecological diversity and its measurement: (1) it is a central theme in ecology, (2) measures of diversity are often used as indicators of the well-being of ecological systems and (3) considerable debate surrounds the measurement of diversity. 12 Magurran 12 stated that biological diversity is like an optical illusion: the more it is looked at, the less clearly defined it appears to be.

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“…At that time the hierarchical order of towns was the primary focus (e.g. Davies & Cook, 1968). There was little or no appreciation of the analogy between the systems in which organisms compete, survive or die and the systems wherein enterprises compete, survive or die, as discussed by Beinhocker (2006).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the other hand town studies in South Africa had already by the 1960s involved some quantitative approaches, e.g. applied by Davies & Cook (1968) and extensively discussed by Van der Merwe & Nel (1975). At that time the hierarchical order of towns was the primary focus (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%