The globality of the local? A decolonial perspective on local economic development in South Africa

Abstract

This article employs the decolonial thinking paradigm to dispel the long-held myth that Local Economic Development strategies are universal panacea that can result in the development of all local economies globally. It is opined in this article that the growing literature celebrating the salience of Local Economic Development strategies often downplay how these strategies at times result in the reproduction of economic inequalities. This is primarily so in cities of the Global South which remain weighed down by the burden of colonial and apartheid history. For these repressive systems of governance relegated the colonised to the zones of non-being where opportunities for economic development and self-realisation were deliberately foreclosed. As will be made apparent below, the burden of colonial and apartheid history did not miraculously disappear with the advent of political independence. Instead, the spectre of coloniality – defined as the continuation of economic, socio-spatial and epistemological domination of the hitherto colonised, still looms large. The primary argument advanced here, therefore, is that Local Economic Development strategies implemented in highly socio-spatially fragmented and economically uneven societies can further exacerbate these inequalities. The case of post-apartheid South Africa is used to highlight how Local Economic Development strategies implemented in highly divided societies often reproduce economic and socio-spatial inequalities.