Volume II - The Northern Cape Provincial Spatial Development ...

for the economic activities of a town can be calculated quantitatively and this can be an
indication of the town’s potential growth energy and economic links with its region.
However, very detailed economic data is necessary for this operation.
The most important cause behind the decline of many towns has to do with the reason for
their existence or function within a changing technological framework in a globalised
environment. It is obvious that a town that no longer fulfils an appropriate function will start
to decline. The reason for the existence of many of the agricultural service centres in the
Northern Cape area has been eroded by technological development, especially in the
communication and transport sector (Van der Merwe et al, 2005). The mobility of people has
increased as a result of better roads, extensive ownership of private vehicles, and access to the
internet, which implied the relativisation of distance and greater human interaction
possibilities. Lower order towns, with their limited variety of goods and services, can no
longer compete with higher-order centres. In developing countries the population usually
grows faster than the economy and the capacity of the urban economy cannot create sufficient
job opportunities for the growing town population. The key question, then, has to do with how
to create employment services and quality of life in such settlements.
Quality of life is also related to the ‘sense of place’ experienced in a town. The extent to
which an urban place developed a unique identity or spirit that differentiates it from other
towns is an important gauge of the values and emotional well-being of the local community.
This encourages a sense of belonging and personal identification with the specific town
(Moore & Graefe, 1994; Tuan, 1977). ‘Sense’ depends on spatial form and quality, but also
on the culture, temperament, status, experience, and purpose of the observer. Lynch (1998)
describes sense as the degree to which a place can be clearly perceived and mentally
differentiated and structured in time and space by its residents and the degree to which that
mental structure connects with their values and concepts – the match between environment,
one’s sensory capabilities, and one’s cultural constructs. The most basic form of sense is
‘sense of place’. Identity is the degree to which a person can recognise a place as being
distinct from other places and having a character of its own. Lynch (1998) refers to this
quality as a convenient peg to hang personal memories, feelings and values on.
In summary: Recent studies (Van der Merwe et al, 2005), which ranked towns for
meaningful development assistance, demonstrated that the evaluation mechanism shifted
away from a single criterion towards a more comprehensive multidimensional set of criteria.
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