Abstract
The primary focus of this thesis is on intermediation processes in the local innovation
and production system (LIPS) underpinning the furniture industry in the Southern Cape
region of South Africa. The process of intermediation in furniture requires a multi-faceted
study with a focus on four inter-related variables. The first variable is firm-learning at the
local level; the second concerns how a LIPS is constituted, particularly through the
linkages established between its constituent parts (for example between furniture firms
and ET organisations); the third variable is the concept of clustering, which is common
in furniture industries globally, and which is understood in this thesis to be a subset of
the wider furniture LIPS; and the fourth variable is a disaggregation of furniture
production into five very different product market segments, each with their own
production requirements and skill needs. Intermediation can impact significantly on each
of these four above variables in the furniture industry (firm-learning, linkages, clustering
and product market segments), hence the need to examine them in detail.
The choice of the Southern Cape as a locale for the study of a LIPS in the furniture
industry in South Africa was made for several reasons. The first was its historical role
as the first furniture agglomeration to emerge in the country in the late 1880s. The
locality today fulfils the idea of a ‘local innovation and production system’ which this
study adopts as its central analytical lens in analysing the micro-dynamics of the
furniture industry in the Southern Cape. This furniture LIPS comprises the co-location
of key nodes in the value chain all in the same place. Forest plantations, sawmills, kilns,
timber suppliers, education and training (ET) organisations and furniture makers all exist
in one place, potentially making the systemic study of the inter-dependencies between
these critical nodes of the industry much easier.
Another factor in the choice of furniture location is the local industry’s classic ‘boomand-
bust’ storyline. Whereas during the Apartheid era, the main roads of George and
Knysna were filled with furniture showrooms with beautiful cape vernacular yellowwood
furniture, in the current period, stagnation has replaced the prosperity of the earlier era.
Many of the showrooms have now closed.
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An additional problem facing the Southern Cape LIPS in its boom-and-bust cycle was
the rapid collapse of linkages between firms and external ET organisations. During the
interviews held with members of local firms, it was discovered that almost none of these
furniture manufacturers were linked to any external training agency.
A multidisciplinary study
The study is both multi-faceted in empirical focus and multi-disciplinary in theoretical
approach. The primary theoretical influence is the National Innovation System (NIS)
school and its subset, the LIPS theoretical framework. Secondary inputs are drawn from
four other theoretical traditions: (1) intermediation theory; (2) cluster and GVC analysis;
(3) the sociology of education and work; and (4) public policy studies and its focus on
horizontal and vertical state coordination. Such a multidisciplinary approach is
necessary in a multifaceted study such a this one that asks questions which cannot be
answered through the use of a single theory.
Researching intermediation has proved difficult to undertake in South Africa. This
experience is true for most collective production policy instruments which require
cooperation and interaction between key economic actors. South African economic
actors, particularly employers but also state civil servants, are best characterised as
‘ruggedly individualistic’ (Gertler & Wolfe, 2002: 238) with little enthusiasm for
cooperation, sharing and interaction. This reality has made the research process
additionally challenging, with little evidence of successful and advanced intermediation
being available in South Africa. At best, there are only pockets of basic intermediation.
This situation has required the creation of a counter-factual discussion in the thesis, one
which seeks to describe what has not happened (what is borne out by the facts) but
what could be if a different pathway was traversed. Much contemporary research faces
this conundrum, and this PhD on intermediation must be understood in this light. This
research work is best described as ‘advocacy’ in the South African context, given
intermediation’s obvious benefits in other country settings and its relative neglect in
South Africa.