Academic literature on the topic 'Rural-urban migration – KwaZulu Natal'

If locals in rural frontiers are in the thrall of powerful globals based in a network of world cities, they are not without power themselves. In the global core as well as the periphery, countrysides are the sources and scenes of resistance to decisions and actions taken in capitals and corporate boardrooms. French farmers seeing their privileges endangered by economic reforms demonstrate, and occasionally riot, in the streets of Paris. Often their banners proclaim their causes, but sometimes they show the name of a French region or even the flag of a département, reminding the authorities that they are dealing with an entity that has emotional resonance as well as economic interests. Chinese villagers organize to protest grievances ranging from the summary expropriation of land for factory building by industrialists empowered by the Beijing government, to oppressive rule by bosses whose loyalties are to the Communist Party rather than to the locals they are supposed to serve. They decry a new two-China policy—not involving Beijing and Taipei, but dividing their country into eastern “haves” and western “have-nots.” South Africans in rural KwaZulu-Natal stage rallies in support of their embattled deputy president facing charges in urban courtrooms including rape and corruption, certain that his trials constitute a political assault on the Zulu nation he represents and shouting not only for justice but also for secession. Ours may be an era of globalization and worldly flattening, but we also witness the resurgence of another of humanity’s ancient predispositions: the territorial imperative. The very Internet-enabled dissemination of information driving the breakdown of barriers among globals also spreads ideas about power and autonomy among locals that arouse the kinds of nationalisms and ethnic aspirations economic globalization is supposed to mitigate. On a planet fractured into nearly 200 countries, the European Union (EU) has taken a lead by enmeshing 27 of them in a multinational entity designed to integrate economies and coordinate laws, but the European paradox is that a widespread revival of chauvinism seeks to reverse this unifying, globalizing process. In several areas of Europe, there are provinces, regions, and other entities that press for more self-determination as opposed to international integration.