Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Geography & Environmental Studies

Faculty/School

Faculty of Arts

First Advisor

Not applicable

Advisor Role

Not applicable

Abstract

Development geography has traditionally concerned itself with describing regional economic disparities in a country and seeking normative remedies for the problem of uneven ‘development.’ Rarely was the problem perceived of as an historical process, or as a process which transcends national limits, or as an outcome of ideologically-based strategies. That is, development geographers ignored the structures of which underdevelopment is but a part. A departure from this orthodox type of approach is made here.

As an exercise in renovated development geography, this dissertation is by definition historico-political in nature. The notion of development may be equated, essentially, with progress toward a set of goals inherent in the ideology of a group or class of people. Oversimplified as this definition may be, it does help to explain why the development of the nation#&8212;national development—is often an arduous process whereby conflicting sub-national social groups pursue varying means toward different utopias. History is replete with the consequences of ideologically-based conflicts, and South Africa has not been spared. In that country, the search for happiness and security by a politically and economically dominant group has been unsuccessful, for that search has been at the cost of unhappiness and insecurity among those excluded from the superordinate group. This study is concerned with aspects of the spatial impress of polity and economy in South Africa; or, put another way, it is concerned with the spatial expression of ideologies of the dominant group.

Convocation Year

1977

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Included in

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