Microfranchising alternative service delivery configurations - creating economic and energy resilience with the iShack
Year: 2015
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This thesis emerges from the transdisciplinary work of the Enkanini Research Centre Association.Since 2011 this Association has focused on incremental informal settlement upgrading using Enkanini, Stellenbosch as a case study.This thesis explores whether management techniques and operational practises of microfranchising can support the establishment of alternative service delivery configurations in the context of in situ informal settlement upgrading.Following a transdisciplinary and multiple-case study research methodology, the theoretical argument is presented that a synthesis of the strengths and vulnerabilities of contemporary innovations from the urban development field augmented by the principles and management techniques of microfranchising could strongly influence future in situ informal settlement upgrading.In exploring this argument two sub-questions are analysed in two free standing journal articles.The first article explores the potential synthesis of the fields of microfranchising and incremental urbanism, specifically alternative service delivery configurations in the context of in situ informal settlement upgrading.The literature on incrementalism and microfranchising originate from diametrically opposite ideological traditions, namely contemporary urban development and the management sciences.However it is argued that convergent patterns highlighted by points of coherence and convergence between the fields indicate that the proposed amalgamation has strengths potentially useful in addressing mutual weaknesses inherent to both perspectives.The intersection between these two distinct theories has potential to stitch together a new community fabric, deliver basic services, promote economic and social development and integrate the oppressed into the formal economy.
Author: Jack-Vincent Radmore
Language: English
Subfield: Urban Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: National Research Foundation
OpenAlex ID: W1935230731