Description
Book SynopsisThis groundbreaking volume brings together scholars from across the globe to discuss the infrastructure, energy, housing, safety and sustainability of African cities, as seen through local narratives of residents. Drawing on a variety of fields and extensive first-hand research, the contributions offer a fresh perspective on some of the most pressing issues confronting urban Africa in the twenty-first century.
At a time when the future of the region as a whole will be determined in large part by its cities, the implications of these developments are profound. With case studies from cities in Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, South Africa and Tanzania, this volume explores how the rapid growth of African cities is reconfiguring the relationship between urban social life and its built forms. While the most visible transformations in cities today can be seen as infrastructural, these manifestations are cultural as well as material, reflecting the different ways in which the city is rationalised, economised and governed.
How can we ‘see like a city’ in twenty-first-century Africa, understanding the urban present to shape its future? This is the central question posed throughout this volume, with a practical focus on how academics, local decision makers and international practitioners can collaborate to meet the challenge of rapid growth, environmental pressures and resource gaps.
This book is relevant to United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11, Sustainable cities and communities
Table of Contents1 Introduction: urban presence and uncertain futures in African cities – Michael Keith with Andreza Aruska de Souza Santos
2 At the city edge: situating peripheries research in South Africa and Ethiopia – Paula Meth, Alison Todes, Sarah Charlton, Tatenda Mukwedeya, Jennifer Houghton, Tom Goodfellow, Metadel Sileshi Belihu, Zhengli Huang, Divine Mawuli Asafo, Sibongile Buthelezi and Fikile Masikane
3 Uncertain pasts and risk-sensitive futures in sub-Saharan urban transformation – Mark Pelling, Alejandro Barcena, Hayley Leck, Ibidun Adelekan, David Dodman, Hamadou Issaka, Cassidy Johnson, Mtafu Manda, Blessing Mberu, Ezebunwa Nwokocha, Emmanuel Osuteye and Soumana Boubacar
4 Beyond self-help: learning from communities in informal settlements in Durban, South Africa – Maria Christina Georgiadou and Claudia Loggia
5 Turning livelihood to rubbish? The politics of value and valuation in South Africa’s urban waste sector – Henrik Ernstson, Mary Lawhon, Anesu Makina, Nate Millington, Kathleen Stokes and Erik Swyngedouw
6 ‘Candles are not bright enough’: inclusive urban energy transformations in spaces of urban inequality? – Federico Caprotti, Jon Phillips, Saska Petrova, Stefan Bouzarovski, Stephen Essex, Jiska de Groot, Lucy Baker, Yachika Reddy and Peta Wolpe
7 Risky urban futures: the bridge, the fund and insurance in Dar es Salaam – Irmelin Joelsson
8 Conclusion: from an ‘infrastructural turn’ to the platform logics of logistics – Michael Keith with Andreza Aruska de Souza Santos
Index
