Working with Context (Source: Gustafson, 2008) Working with local and regional economic development requires a level of ‘situatedness ’

Absolute Space Space = a hierarchy of scales the town the province the country the continent the world …. and all the spaces between and beyond

Relational Space Space as a connection between points/people/events governed by a relation E.g. political, economic, social, cultural, kinship connections Complex and dynamic Places are “a distinct mixture of wider and more local social relations… the juxtaposition of these relations may produce effects that would not have happened otherwise" (Massey, 1993:68)

The space of flows and the space of places (Castells, 1997) Context of interaction between the macro-forces of the global and the impact of local level characteristics of place The "space of flows" – social practices to occur between and across physical spaces through the use of telecommunications and information systems – society is uncoupled from physical space. The "space of places" – where people's interactions and society's institutions are directly linked to physical spaces and are influenced by the characteristics of these spaces

Within society the “most dominant processes, concentrating power, wealth and information, are organised in the space of flows" but in opposition to this "most human experience, and meaning, are still locally based” (Castells, 1997, 124). Because of different conditions at the local level, similar global forces (such as the greater economic power and technological expertise of the developed world) which reach a place can have different results.

FLOWS

PLACES: KwaZulu-Natal Population = Second largest in the country 63% of that number is between 15 – 64 years Of the population aged 5-24, 3 million were attending educational institution. GDP = R2.95 billion Unemployment rate = 22,5 % Of that the youth (15-34) consists of 72% of the unemployed HIV/AIDS = 10% of South Africans and much higher in KZN

KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Growth and Development Strategy Seven goals