In this thesis, in which urban and regional planning in South Africa was treated as a complex language game with a past of over one and a half century, it was argued that radical changes in the context in which this game is played, necessitate in-depth inquiries into its future. In addition to this, it was premised that a thorough understanding of the past is imperative for any probe into the future. Consequently the first part of the thesis was devoted to a cognitive mapping of the game's past, mainly by using the printed discourse of its players. The result of this endeavour was a composite map indicating where, how, by whom and according to which and whose rules the game had been played and how and why each of these had changed over time. In the second part of the thesis, in which three maps were produced, the focus shifted to the game's future. In the first of these three maps the context in which the game is played, the impact of this particular context on the game and vice versa, as well as the trends and tendencies impacting on this context, were mapped. By extrapolating these trends and tendencies it was possible to construct a range of possible and probable futures, which was done in the second map. Together with the composite map of the game's past, these two maps were then used to determine whether the game has a future, and if so, how this future could become a reality. In this inquiry it was concluded that there is a definite future for the game, the realisation of which, it was argued, requires the following from the players, viz (1) dislodging the game from its roots which are grounded in a form of modernism which treats modernity as a routine and giving it a critical modernist persuasion in which modernity is seen as an adventure, (2) regaining the fervour for the game which drove the pioneers of the game at its birth and (3) ensuring that there is a need and use for the niches/fields in which the game is played, that new niches/fields are created and that existing niches/fields created by others, are filled/entered by players of the planning game. While the study was primarily intended to make a contribution to the debate on the future of the language game of South African urban and regional planning, the maps of the game's past also contribute to the sparse literature on the history of the game, especially its founding years, which have to date, been virtually uncharted. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 1977. / gm2014 / Town and Regional Planning / unrestricted

Many factors have prompted the adoption of partial-market exit strategies in retail as a means of reducing cost and minimizing risk. These mass closures have become more frequent in recent years. Marketers and economists have offered explanations for these closures linked to the rise of e-commerce, the real estate cycle and general changes in consumer taste. The research here marks an attempt to apply geospatial and econometric methods to better understand what factors explain the spatial variation of these closures across the United States. Specifically, the analysis examines the store networks of Sears, J.C. Penney and Macy's- large, established department stores that, collectively, announced over 100 closures at the beginning of 2017. By treating each store as a unit of observation, and a closure as a limited dependent variable, this analysis will attempt to quantify the relationship between place-specific factors and retail closures using Probit modeling. This application of modeling marks a deviation from traditional analyses in retail geography which, up until the early 2000s, have focused almost entirely on store development and growth. The results reveal patterns of spatial clustering of closures in and around the Rust Belt and demonstrate the strong negative effect of competitive agglomeration on the probability of closure.

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