The concepts "capital building" and 'Institutionalisation" are analysed and applied to
community arts centres as instruments for socio-economic development (SED) in South
Africa. Theories of neo-classicism, Marxism, development economics and socio-economic
development show that building physical, financial, human, social and cultural capital in a
complementary configuration is crucial to sustainable socio-economic development. The
concept "capital building for SED" is formulated in this regard. New institutional economics
and critical extensions of this theory show that institutions play a key role in capital building
for SED, as they entail embeddedness, normativity, e-ntreprcneurship, partnership, structure
and complementarity. The arts sector contributes considerably to capital building for SED, in
particular arts centres in marginalized communities in the UK, USA and South Africa.
Community arts centres built political, cultural and human capital in black townships during
the South African democratic struggle (1950-92). In accordance with proposals from the arts
sector, the post-1994 South African government developed 42 arts centres. However, the
contribution of most old and new centres to socio-economic development appears to be
insignificant and few are sustainable. The causes of failure are difficult to explain due to lack
of information and theory. Through the application of a theoretical framework to the South
African arts sector and three case studies the hypothesis is tested that community arts centres
can contribute considerably to capital building for SED if they are appropriately
institutionalised, while an appropriate focus on capital building for SED results in stronger
institutions. An analysis of arts sector shows that strong institutions achieve high returns on
investments in capital building, but that few benefit the poor. The application of an analytical
matrix consisting of indicators of the above-mentioned five types of capital and six
institutional components, shows significant positive correlations between the levels of
inslitutionalisation and capital building for SED in the Community Arts Project, the
Katlehong Art Centre and ArtsforAIl. The findings result in recommendations on policy and
practice of community arts centre development in South Africa. / Development studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Development Studies)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:umkn-dsp01.int.unisa.ac.za:10500/633 |
| Date | 30 November 2003 |
| Creators | Hagg, Gerard |
| Contributors | De Beer, F.C. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (x, 387 leaves) |
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