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Featured researches published by Manfred Spocter.


South African Geographical Journal | 2013

Rural gated developments as a contributor to post-productivism in the Western Cape

Manfred Spocter

Gated developments are not only found in urban areas, but have also increasingly become a part of the rural locale in South Africa. While rural gated developments offer features of security, community and exclusivity in an idyllic rural setting, their proliferation can be linked to a wider process of post-productivist change in the rural locale. Counterurbanisation, the creation of a consumptionist countryside and the extraction of amenity value from the rural landscape are facets of post-productivism. This study explores the spread of rural gated developments in the Western Cape. The degree of amenity and leisure activities, second-home ownership and features of land use change allied to rural gated developments point to a post-productive rurality that is underway. The spread of rural gated developments could have a profound effect on the way that social, physical and economic relations are produced and reproduced in the rural locale.


South African Geographical Journal | 2018

A toponymic investigation of South African gated communities

Manfred Spocter

ABSTRACT Research into place names has evolved to beyond the encyclopaedic rendition of their etymological and taxonomic foundations. Toponymy was criticized as atheoretical, apolitical and uncritical until the toponymic turn in the latter half of the 1980s and early 1990s. In South Africa, this change can arguably be traced to the mid-1980s with Pirie’s insightful treatment of the torturous process of the naming of Soweto. It was until the early 2000s before geographers again took South African toponymy in their sights. This study, focussing on the toponymy of gated communities in non-metropolitan Western Cape, adds to that growing corpus of knowledge by seeking to understand the message that their naming imprints on the urbanscape. The study employs Bourdieu’s notion of symbolic capital to illustrate how the naming of gated communities adds to their exclusionary qualities by creating an illusionary residential territory. Private developers use the symbolic capital of naming to market developments thereby creating economic capital. Using a database of gated-community names collected in a previous study it is shown that developments rely heavily on environmental names and names that display elements of community, heritage and links to European locales. The naming conventions point to names symbolizing notions of status and prestige. Interviews with respondents involved in the naming and government officials who consider the names submitted to them point to a situation where there is very little statutory guidance and control over the naming of gated communities. Questions arise as to who contributes to naming in the post-apartheid urbanscape.


South African Geographical Journal | 2016

Privatisation of municipal golf courses in small towns in the Western Cape, South Africa

Manfred Spocter

Abstract There has been a surge of interest by geographers in contemporary South African small towns. This paper reports on the sale of municipal land in small towns from 1974 to 2014 in selected municipalities of the Western Cape. Attention is focused on the sale of municipal golf courses as an example of privatized municipal land that has not contributed to undoing apartheid spatial legacies or integrating small-town communities. The rate of municipal land sales increased appreciably after the introduction of the neoliberal Growth Employment and Redistribution macro-economic strategy in South Africa. Neoliberal processes have adapted to local conditions and morphed into what is known as the Third Way: essentially a marriage between the neoliberal agenda and postapartheid egalitarian principles. The divisive nature of privatized, once municipally owned, spaces is supposed to be offset by investment in social development funds for some small towns. It is intended that these funds be managed by municipalities and spent on projects identified in the Integrated Development Plan. Documentation of environmental impact assessments of privatized golf courses provides insights into the logic of the privatization of small-town municipal golf courses and the addition of residential components to them. It is concluded that the secure, gated and fortified housing spaces of the golf estates are aimed at the monied classes and have become enclaves of wealth within the broader small-town milieu. The developmental dilemma is that while municipalities may benefit from such land sales and their subsequent revenues, socio-spatial integrative opportunities are being sacrificed for monetary gain.


Land Use Policy | 2016

Development of a multi-criteria spatial planning support system for growth potential modelling in the Western Cape, South Africa

Adriaan van Niekerk; Danie du Plessis; I. Boonzaaier; Manfred Spocter; Sanette Ferreira; Lieb Loots; Ronnie Donaldson


Urban Forum | 2012

Non-metropolitan Growth Potential of Western Cape Municipalities

Ronnie Donaldson; Adriaan van Niekerk; Danie du Plessis; Manfred Spocter


Journal of Housing and The Built Environment | 2013

The South African area-based urban renewal programme: experiences from Cape Town

Ronnie Donaldson; Danie du Plessis; Manfred Spocter; Ruth Massey


Archive | 2010

A revision of the 2004 growth potential of towns in the Western Cape study

Adriaan van Niekerk; Ronnie Donaldson; Manie Du Plessis; Manfred Spocter


Acta Academica | 2012

Gated developments : international experiences and the South African context

Manfred Spocter


Urban Forum | 2011

Spatio-Temporal Aspects of Gated Residential Security Estates in Non-metropolitan Western Cape

Manfred Spocter


Urban Forum | 2016

Non-metropolitan Gated Retirement Communities in the Western Cape

Manfred Spocter

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Lieb Loots

University of the Western Cape

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Ruth Massey

University of the Free State

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