Thesis (D. Min.)--Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, 2005. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 118-122).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, 1987. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 423-432).

Since China's shift to market socialism, many marginalized by this process work as informal street vendors where they reappropriate public space in order to survive―a practice at odds with urban authorities' modernizing agenda. In relation to these competing logics concerning public space's use value versus its exchange value, this dissertation examines the practices, experiences, and agency of informal street vendors working in Sanjingwuwei, an ordinary, yet rapidly gentrifying, neighborhood of Nanchang, capital and largest city of southeastern China's Jiangxi Province. After describing the growth of an informal economy in modern China and providing a history of street vending, I describe the everyday practices of vendors and their reappropriation of public space in Nanchang and the Sanjingwuwei neighborhood. I then provide the socio-demographic details of Sanjingwuwei’s vendors and use their voices to demonstrate how city image protection, a burgeoning informal sector, and the globalization of urban space bring challenges to their already precarious work in the streets. The dissertation concludes by linking the practices and agency of Nanchang’s vendors into a theoretical discussion concerning the agency of informal street workers. Despite daily attempts by the local state to remove them, this study shows how Nanchang's street vendors, continue to actively engaging in alternative forms of urban space-making through reappropriating of public space. Therefore, this dissertation shows how vendors challenge the city as a system by downscaling, slowing down, decommodifying, and ultimately, deglobalizing urban space to neighborhood-level through their reappropriation of public space.

D.Litt. et Phil. (Sociology) / This study explores local state constructions of citizenship for the residents of informal settlements in urban South Africa during the first decade of local democracy, with a focus on the last electoral term of this period. While many studies in the social sciences have reported on citizenship experiences and self-help strategies of various categories of residents of post-apartheid South Africa, few have directed their gaze at the state, or studied up by investigating powerful respondents or sites and processes of power. Given that the state has its most direct dealings with the grassroots at local government level, and that compared to ordinary people it holds a disproportionate amount of power over citizenship, the character and strategies of the local state in South Africa are critical for a comprehensive understanding of post-apartheid urban citizenship. The study focuses on the policy area of housing as a key response to informal settlement. A constrained developmental local state has emerged in the post-apartheid period in South Africa, exhibiting both Weberian and non-Weberian qualities in its political-administrative interface. While very little evidence of a skills shortage or limited capacity has surfaced in the policy area of housing in the metropolitan municipalities of Johannesburg and Tshwane, respondents in both sites reported that the available funds from the central state were vastly insufficient for addressing the identified housing need. This severely limited local state capacity to respond to the priorities identified by community consultation and systematic needs assessment and resulted in a perceived imperative to limit responsibility and supplement funds. Consequently, the two local authorities have managed their level of responsibility by changing definitions of informal settlement. In an attempt to lower dependence on the local state, they have also moved some responsibility for responding to informal settlement and housing need away from the local state. Although the lack of funds was deplored in both cities, their specific strategies have differed in important ways. In the City of Johannesburg, the local state recognised that housing shortages and informal settlement could not be adequately addressed if categories of nonqualifiers such as foreigners were excluded from city programmes. Elected councillors therefore argued for a relaxation of the criteria in the national Housing Code. To access more funds, the local state has relied heavily on the private sector, but this is likely to push the poor out of the urban centre and to isolate them from economic opportunities, which reinforces the apartheid spatial distribution. In order to reach a larger proportion of the population in need of assistance, the City of Tshwane preferred to focus its efforts on the provision of serviced sites rather than on housing. This strategy was implemented in addition to severe repression in the form of eviction and destruction of informal settlements as well as a policy of zero tolerance of new informal settlement, for which two related rationalisations were offered by respondents: the high portion of non-qualifiers who live in informal settlements and, in particular, the presence of foreigners, for whom they would not accept responsibility. While the City of Johannesburg’s outsourcing of low-income housing serves to extend the disproportionate influence of the private sector over elements of urban citizenship, the City of Tshwane’s exclusion of non-qualifiers and its forced removal of informal settlements represent a unilateral approach to constructing citizenship. In both cases, the result is a degree of continuity with the early colonial administrations and the apartheid government. Both methods have also inflated the achievements of the cities. The overall result has been the construction of a narrow, shallow and punitive urban citizenship for residents of informal settlements in South Africa since the advent of local democracy in 2000.

South Africa is experiencing increasing urbanisation and an increase in the number of the poor in urban areas and thus the number of food insecure households in these environments. Formal economic opportunities however often fail to keep pace with increase in urban population and this result in increases in informal but not officially recognised activities. Formal urban planning service provision therefore does not enhance the potential of such opportunities. Urban agriculture (UA) is viewed as one such an opportunity not sufficiently activated in urban development strategies. Urban population depends largely on cash income to access food and with unemployment increasing more urban households are unable to access food to meet their needs. Alternative ways of accessing food has become necessary. In Soshanguve close to Pretoria, South Africa, some poor families engaged farming within the township to earn a living. This study has investigated the impact of such farming on household’s food security and income generation. The study investigated an agricultural project launched in 1996 by the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) in collaboration with Gauteng Provincial Department of Agriculture (GPDA). Forty-eight participants from nine participating groups in Soshanguve were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. Farming in urban environment has been found to benefit poor households through direct saving on food purchases, income generation through sale of produced and provision of a varied range of nutritious foods. The hypothesis adopted by this study was that “urban agriculture is often not considered an “urban land use” activity by urban planning authorities and the potential of this economic rationale strategy to support urban food security is not sufficiently exploited. This result in lack of adequate land use planning for urban agriculture and weak support to urban farmers. Urban agriculture is therefore constrained by lack of integrated development approach. The theoretical framework for this study includes the following: (i) UA is derived from the rational resource allocation of (poor) urban dwellers who are not in a position to earn sufficient income from non farming to provide a sustainable urban family livelihood; (ii) UA can be explained by cost saving and reduction in transaction costs from a consumer viewpoint (point of consumption to point of food acquisition); (iii) UA is often a temporary survival strategy to allow a fall back position if sufficient urban income is not generated; (iv) UA is practised mainly to address household food security with surpluses sold in the market. Major finding of this study includes the findings on approach and operation applied by the farmers. The project has the potential to be successful because the benefits are tangible and direct. Farmers in Soshanguve experienced a host of interlinked problems but the project only addressed the information and input problems. The project lacks monitoring and evaluation framework. The development of small farmers should not only focus on short-term assistance through technical training and input supply. The following recommendations were proposed for the development of a sustainable and viable UA sector. The main recommendation is the need to create an enabling environment through the development of appropriate policies. Such policies should <ul><li> Recognize agriculture as a land use activity in urban environments and provide sufficient support services to the urban small-scale agricultural sector.</li> <li> Encourage investment on infrastructure and technology development required for UA development</li> <li> Co-ordinate agricultural activities within urban and between urban and rural areas</li> <li> Involve beneficiaries in the planning and implementation of projects</li> <li> Establish permanent structures and institutions that will promote urban agriculture activities and develop measures to counter negative impacts of UA</li> / Dissertation (M Inst Agrar (Agricultural Economics))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development / M Inst Agrar / unrestricted

Please read the abstract in the 00front part of this document / Thesis (M Inst Agrar (Land-Use Planning))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development / unrestricted

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Poverty has continued to be an enormous challenge for Africa. Immoral political decisions and tactics have led to the continued suffering of the landless poor in the city of Harare. With no consideration for the dignity of people, the government of Zimbabwe through Operation Murambatsvina (Operation Reject Filth) demolished shelters belonging to the poor in the city a decade and half ago. To this day, most of the victims of this destruction still lack adequate accommodation. The majority urban poor have been excluded from the community and inhabit shanty towns around Harare. Deprived of justice, the poor are alienated from their right to land, nourishment and dignified life. This complete disregard for life and African community values ought to be challenged. Ubuntu moral theory presents necessary guiding principles for human progress that achieves genuine harmony and equality among all people. In light of the experiences of deadly but preventable poverty in Harare, the will-to-live for all requires confirmation. Every human being is endowed with irrevocable intrinsic worth. The elimination of poverty requires practical philosophical resolutions that are driven by sincere respect for human life. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M.A. (Philosophy)

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