PERSPECTIVES ON THE SOCIAL IMPACTS OF SECOND HOMES IN RURAL SOUTH AFRICA

• Main Author: Hay, Emerentia Antoinette
• Other Authors: Prof GE Visser
• Format: Others
• Language: en-uk
• Published: University of the Free State 2014
• Subjects: Geography
• Online Access: http://etd.uovs.ac.za//theses/available/etd-08072014-122704/restricted/

Second homes as phenomenon in Human Geography has been researched in some detail in developed countries, but considerably little research has been presented on this phenomenon in the developing world. The existing research focuses mainly on economic issues related to second home development â but this research was specifically undertaken better to understand the social perspectives and resultant impacts of this phenomenon on rural communities. Economic issues also came into play, but the main focus was to unravel the social intricacies that second homes bring to a rural environment. Rosendal in the Eastern Free State of South Africa was used as a case study and included the predominantly white town of Rosendal, the black township of Mautse and the surrounding farming community. The area is known as a retreat for city dwellers from the Gauteng region and the capital of the Free State province, namely Bloemfontein. The literature review revealed that social and economic impacts of second home development on host communities, worldwide and locally, play an important role and contribute to the shift of communities from a productivist to post-productivst countryside. Furthermore, social change serves to undermine the social utility of traditional farming â resulting in a differentiated or post-productivist countryside of which second home development is an example. A mixed methods approach within the interpretivist paradigm was utilised for this thesis, where a combination of both qualitative and quantitative research was implemented. Furthermore, a case study approach was used because the study wanted to provide a platform and agenda for future studies on social impacts of second homes. Case studies within the interpretivist paradigm have received relatively little attention from social scientists, especially geographers â therefore it may be argued that this is new territory for second home research in South Africa. The findings revealed that research in South Africa on people with lower incomes as second home owners is almost completely absent. One of the main contributions of this study therefore, is the unraveling of the socio-economic profiles of lower income earners who have second homes, and do not necessarily come from cities. Secondly, research on high amenity rural places often focuses on the potential impacts of rapid growth in tourism and second home ownership on the âhostâ community. Part of this worldwide research is the seasonal and weekend resident attachment to such a landscape, but for the current study farm dwellersâ migration was also researched â dwellers who travel during month-ends to town locations or âinformal dwellingsâ, which may lead to the erosion of (or in constructive terms rather change in) the existing socio-cultural fabric, as rural values are mixed with the urban (and farm) values of incomers. Thirdly it was found that the six indicators of a post-productivist countryside of Wilson and Rigg (2003) can only be partially applied to the current case study. This indicates that developing countries are probably moving partially to a post-productivist state in the rural areas, but that certain factors not known to developed countries are also at work and contribute to permutations of the mentioned indicators. The thesis closes with a suggestion that post-productivist theory may have to be reviewed for developing country environments.