Justin Visagie
Biographic Data
| ID | 3087100 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Justin Visagie |
| GIVEN NAMES | Justin |
| FAMILY NAME | Visagie |
| SIGNATURE | VISAGIE J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Human Sciences Research Council |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2526-231X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 26 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2020 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Striking disparities in employment across South Africa: Evidence from a new spatial database
Public awareness of the unequal distribution of economic opportunities across the territory of South Africa has been hampered by limited information and analysis. This paper makes use of a new source of spatial economic statistics to illuminate key features of the country’s economic geography. We reveal the striking concentration of employment in cities and discuss both the quantity and character of these jobs. The metros have a more favourable a…
Does moving between cities pay off? Economic outcomes for South Africa’s intercity migrants
Cities attract talent and innovation, driving growth through agglomeration economies. In African cities, the focus has been on rural to urban migration, overlooking intercity labour migration. This study examines the impact of intercity labour migration on household income, employment, and wages in South Africa, a country with significant income disparities and high urbanisation rates. Using longitudinal data from the National Income Dynamics Stu…
Attracting and Retaining Talent: The Policies of South African Metros
In a knowledge-driven global economy, the ability of cities to attract and retain high-level skills is crucial for urban competitiveness. In response, many advanced cities have adopted proactive policies to attract globally mobile talent and support innovation ecosystems. This paper examines whether and how South Africa’s eight metropolitan municipalities incorporate talent attraction and retention into their Integrated Development Plans and rela…
Social Housing and Upward Mobility in South Africa: An Assessment of Household Outcomes
Social housing offers a way of promoting upward mobility and urban integration by improving people’s access to economic and social opportunities. These are prominent goals of South Africa’s social housing programme. In practice, household advancement tends to be taken for granted rather than deliberately pursued or monitored. We review survey data for 1632 households across ten social housing projects and find modest evidence of social mobility a…
Rethinking urbanization and economic development: A synopsis
The trajectories of urbanisation in Southern Africa: A comparative analysis
Beyond offshoring: Tradable services and regional markets in the Global South
Trade in services has grown more rapidly than trade in manufactured goods in recent decades. Countries from the Global South are chiefly responsible for this shift. The research note draws attention to service investment that originates in Southern economies and is directed at markets of the same (sub)continent. Such dynamics have been neglected by academic debates focussed on global value chains and offshored, largely generic services. The autho…
Recognising the role of tradable service exports in the South African economy - An untapped resource
The contribution of services embedded in manufactured products in world trade has greatly increased since the 1980s. So too has services as a direct export. South Africa is an interesting case of an emerging economy that has struggled to diversify its export basket beyond basic commodities, despite having a robust domestic service sector. The article assesses the contribution of service exports to international trade in South Africa. Balance of p…
The divergent pathways of the pandemic within South African cities
The coronavirus pandemic has had devastating effects on urban lives and livelihoods throughout the world. A major concern in the global North has been the hollowing out of central cities caused by remote working. The consequences for cities in the global South extend further and deeper because their economies are weaker, social and spatial inequalities larger, and healthcare systems more fragile. The paper explores the uneven trajectory of COVID-…
Developing neighbourhood typologies and understanding urban inequality: A data-driven approach
Neighbourhoods affect people’s livelihoods, and therefore drive and mediate intra-urban inequalities and transformations. While the neighbourhood has long been recognized as an important unit of analysis, there is surprisingly little systematic research on different neighbourhood types, especially in the fast-growing cities of the Global South. In this paper we employ k -means clustering, a common machine-learning algorithm, to develop a neighbou…
The contribution of services to international trade in Southern Africa
Services are the fastest growing portion of world trade and now account for nearly a quarter of global exports. This presents opportunities for emerging economies to adapt and enter new markets. Many countries in southern Africa have struggled to diversify from a heavy reliance on primary commodities towards manufacturing industries. Tradable services could contribute to economic growth and development by bolstering industrial capabilities, facil…
Restoring the core? Central city decline and transformation in the South
Inequality and Urban Density: Socio-economic Drivers of Uneven Densification in Cape Town
Global policies promote urban compaction to achieve sustainable development. This article highlights the limits of analysing densification at the city scale and advocates for a more granular approach. The case study of Cape Town shows how overall consolidation has been mainly driven by poor households crowding into already dense neighbourhoods on the urban periphery. This has aggravated historic segregation and intensified urban management challe…
Regional value chains as new pathways to development
There is growing scepticism about global value chains because of their association with an unequal global trading system. Regionally coordinated and integrated production in Asia appears to have served as a better mechanism for promoting economic prosperity than direct integration into global markets. This is founded upon regional cooperation on investment, trade and value chains. This research note distinguishes different forms of these chains, …
Rural–urban inequalities amplified by Covid-19: Evidence from South Africa
Like most governments around the world, the South African government adopted a uniform, place-blind response to the coronavirus pandemic, including a hard lockdown. New evidence from a large household survey reveals that the socioeconomic effects have widened pre-existing inequalities between cities and rural areas. More could be done to complement national relief programmes with targeted efforts to boost jobs and livelihoods in the most vulnerab…
Can social housing help to integrate divided cities
Social housing has the potential to contribute to economic inclusion and urban integration if it is well-located. However, this is complicated by economic forces that shape land and property markets and constrain the ability of social housing organisations to afford suitable sites for development on the open market. The paper shows how South Africa’s transformative vision for social housing has been diluted by the gradual spatial drift of project…
Getting urban density to work in informal settlements in Africa
The drawbacks of crowded informal settlements stand in stark contrast to the theoretical promise that urban density is the key to building more productive, sustainable and resilient cities. African cities cannot be expected to prosper while the majority of residents live in sprawling informal settlements with no prospect of improvement beyond the provision of basic services. There is a strong case for governments to embrace a broader reconstructi…
Getting urban density to work in informal settlements in Africa
The drawbacks of crowded informal settlements stand in stark contrast to the theoretical promise that urban density is the key to building more productive, sustainable and resilient cities. African cities cannot be expected to prosper while the majority of residents live in sprawling informal settlements with no prospect of improvement beyond the provision of basic services. There is a strong case for governments to embrace a broader reconstructi…
Developing neighbourhood typologies and understanding urban inequality: A data-driven approach
Neighbourhoods affect people’s livelihoods, and therefore drive and mediate intra-urban inequalities and transformations. While the neighbourhood has long been recognized as an important unit of analysis, there is surprisingly little systematic research on different neighbourhood types, especially in the fast-growing cities of the Global South. In this paper we employ k -means clustering, a common machine-learning algorithm, to develop a neighbou…
Rural–urban inequalities amplified by Covid-19: Evidence from South Africa
Like most governments around the world, the South African government adopted a uniform, place-blind response to the coronavirus pandemic, including a hard lockdown. New evidence from a large household survey reveals that the socioeconomic effects have widened pre-existing inequalities between cities and rural areas. More could be done to complement national relief programmes with targeted efforts to boost jobs and livelihoods in the most vulnerab…
The trajectories of urbanisation in Southern Africa: A comparative analysis
Rethinking urbanization and economic development: A synopsis
Regional value chains as new pathways to development
There is growing scepticism about global value chains because of their association with an unequal global trading system. Regionally coordinated and integrated production in Asia appears to have served as a better mechanism for promoting economic prosperity than direct integration into global markets. This is founded upon regional cooperation on investment, trade and value chains. This research note distinguishes different forms of these chains, …
Getting urban density to work in informal settlements in Africa
The drawbacks of crowded informal settlements stand in stark contrast to the theoretical promise that urban density is the key to building more productive, sustainable and resilient cities. African cities cannot be expected to prosper while the majority of residents live in sprawling informal settlements with no prospect of improvement beyond the provision of basic services. There is a strong case for governments to embrace a broader reconstructi…
The contribution of services to international trade in Southern Africa
Services are the fastest growing portion of world trade and now account for nearly a quarter of global exports. This presents opportunities for emerging economies to adapt and enter new markets. Many countries in southern Africa have struggled to diversify from a heavy reliance on primary commodities towards manufacturing industries. Tradable services could contribute to economic growth and development by bolstering industrial capabilities, facil…
Restoring the core? Central city decline and transformation in the South
Inequality and Urban Density: Socio-economic Drivers of Uneven Densification in Cape Town
Global policies promote urban compaction to achieve sustainable development. This article highlights the limits of analysing densification at the city scale and advocates for a more granular approach. The case study of Cape Town shows how overall consolidation has been mainly driven by poor households crowding into already dense neighbourhoods on the urban periphery. This has aggravated historic segregation and intensified urban management challe…
Regional value chains as new pathways to development
There is growing scepticism about global value chains because of their association with an unequal global trading system. Regionally coordinated and integrated production in Asia appears to have served as a better mechanism for promoting economic prosperity than direct integration into global markets. This is founded upon regional cooperation on investment, trade and value chains. This research note distinguishes different forms of these chains, …
Rural–urban inequalities amplified by Covid-19: Evidence from South Africa
Like most governments around the world, the South African government adopted a uniform, place-blind response to the coronavirus pandemic, including a hard lockdown. New evidence from a large household survey reveals that the socioeconomic effects have widened pre-existing inequalities between cities and rural areas. More could be done to complement national relief programmes with targeted efforts to boost jobs and livelihoods in the most vulnerab…
Can social housing help to integrate divided cities
Social housing has the potential to contribute to economic inclusion and urban integration if it is well-located. However, this is complicated by economic forces that shape land and property markets and constrain the ability of social housing organisations to afford suitable sites for development on the open market. The paper shows how South Africa’s transformative vision for social housing has been diluted by the gradual spatial drift of project…
The divergent pathways of the pandemic within South African cities
The coronavirus pandemic has had devastating effects on urban lives and livelihoods throughout the world. A major concern in the global North has been the hollowing out of central cities caused by remote working. The consequences for cities in the global South extend further and deeper because their economies are weaker, social and spatial inequalities larger, and healthcare systems more fragile. The paper explores the uneven trajectory of COVID-…
Developing neighbourhood typologies and understanding urban inequality: A data-driven approach
Neighbourhoods affect people’s livelihoods, and therefore drive and mediate intra-urban inequalities and transformations. While the neighbourhood has long been recognized as an important unit of analysis, there is surprisingly little systematic research on different neighbourhood types, especially in the fast-growing cities of the Global South. In this paper we employ k -means clustering, a common machine-learning algorithm, to develop a neighbou…
Rethinking urbanization and economic development: A synopsis
The trajectories of urbanisation in Southern Africa: A comparative analysis
Beyond offshoring: Tradable services and regional markets in the Global South
Trade in services has grown more rapidly than trade in manufactured goods in recent decades. Countries from the Global South are chiefly responsible for this shift. The research note draws attention to service investment that originates in Southern economies and is directed at markets of the same (sub)continent. Such dynamics have been neglected by academic debates focussed on global value chains and offshored, largely generic services. The autho…
Recognising the role of tradable service exports in the South African economy - An untapped resource
The contribution of services embedded in manufactured products in world trade has greatly increased since the 1980s. So too has services as a direct export. South Africa is an interesting case of an emerging economy that has struggled to diversify its export basket beyond basic commodities, despite having a robust domestic service sector. The article assesses the contribution of service exports to international trade in South Africa. Balance of p…
Social Housing and Upward Mobility in South Africa: An Assessment of Household Outcomes
Social housing offers a way of promoting upward mobility and urban integration by improving people’s access to economic and social opportunities. These are prominent goals of South Africa’s social housing programme. In practice, household advancement tends to be taken for granted rather than deliberately pursued or monitored. We review survey data for 1632 households across ten social housing projects and find modest evidence of social mobility a…
Striking disparities in employment across South Africa: Evidence from a new spatial database
Public awareness of the unequal distribution of economic opportunities across the territory of South Africa has been hampered by limited information and analysis. This paper makes use of a new source of spatial economic statistics to illuminate key features of the country’s economic geography. We reveal the striking concentration of employment in cities and discuss both the quantity and character of these jobs. The metros have a more favourable a…
Does moving between cities pay off? Economic outcomes for South Africa’s intercity migrants
Cities attract talent and innovation, driving growth through agglomeration economies. In African cities, the focus has been on rural to urban migration, overlooking intercity labour migration. This study examines the impact of intercity labour migration on household income, employment, and wages in South Africa, a country with significant income disparities and high urbanisation rates. Using longitudinal data from the National Income Dynamics Stu…
Attracting and Retaining Talent: The Policies of South African Metros
In a knowledge-driven global economy, the ability of cities to attract and retain high-level skills is crucial for urban competitiveness. In response, many advanced cities have adopted proactive policies to attract globally mobile talent and support innovation ecosystems. This paper examines whether and how South Africa’s eight metropolitan municipalities incorporate talent attraction and retention into their Integrated Development Plans and rela…
Economics (13 works) · Economic growth (10 works) · Geography (9 works) · Urban and Rural Development Challenges (8 works) · Economic geography (7 works) · Business (6 works) · Development economics (5 works) · Inequality (5 works) · Political science (5 works) · Sociology (5 works)