New Published Articles 2019
Murtah Shannon (2019). “African Urban Development in a Post-Aid Era: The ‘Dutch Approach’ to Urban Restructuring in Beira City, Mozambique,” Built Environment 44, 4 (January 2019): 397-419, special issue on urban land grabs in Africa, https://www.alexandrinepress.co.uk/built-environment/urban-land-grabs-africa
Abstract
A new era of African urban development is emerging at a time when global aid regimes are undergoing fundamental shifts, becoming increasingly competitive and centred on donor ‘value for money’. For aid-dependent countries in Africa, these shifts are likely to have an influence on the priorities and interests associated with urban development. So far, however, their implications remain unexplored within this context. Taking this research agenda as a starting point, this article presents in-depth empirical research on a novel country/city modality established between the Netherlands and Beira City, Mozambique, known as the Beira Partnership. By means of a new masterplan and numerous follow-up projects this partnership represents an unprecedented effort at restructuring Beira City, while securing Dutch interests in the process. By unpacking the various interests and initiatives associated with this partnership, the article demonstrates how it represents an eff ort to institutionalize new claims to Beira’s urban land which is fundamentally at odds with certain pre-existing land claims of the urban poor. With many similarities to exploitative developments observed elsewhere in Africa, the article demonstrates how the Beira Partnership cannot be explained as an encroachment of global capital but instead as a decidedly trans-local initiative aimed at securing Dutch influence abroad. The findings point to a distinctly geopolitical agenda which has largely alluded contemporary debate which is likely to become more pronounced as urban development continues to gain momentum.
Kei Otsuki (2019). “Who is ‘the Public’: Infrastructure of Displacement and Urban Resettlement in Mozambique,” Built Environment 44, 4 (January 2019): 493-508, special issue on urban land grabs in Africa, https://www.alexandrinepress.co.uk/built-environment/urban-land-grabs-africa
Abstract
This paper explores possibilities of inclusive urban development by examining the relationships between physical infrastructure, displacement and resettlement. It pays particular attention to the notions of ‘development’ and ‘the public’. Infrastructure as public works often justifies the displacement of people for the sake of the wider population’s ‘development’. It can also serve to benefit the displaced people if it includes them in the ‘public’ that participates in the ‘development’, especially in the form of ensuring a sound resettlement experience. The question is: how can this inclusion be envisioned and practised? To answer this question, this paper examines recent experiences of development-induced displacement and resettlement in Mozambique by using two examples: the Maputo?KaTembe bridge and its resettlement programme, as debated at the recent National Conference on Resettlement and in published sources, and the resettlement programme of the Limpopo National Park, based on primary field research. The paper analyses these resettlement experiences through three major accounts of infrastructure centred on state-building and formalization, co-production and heterogeneity, and open source and sharing urbanism. The paper argues that recognizing the heterogeneity and sharing aspects of infrastructure development in the post-resettlement context is key to reconstituting the public and promoting inclusive urban development in the major infrastructure development that accompanies displacement and resettlement.
Fält, Lena (2019). New Cities and the Emergence of ‘Privatized Urbanism’ in Ghana. Built Environment, Volume 44, Number 4, January 2019, pp. 438-460(23)
Abstract
New cities are increasingly presented as a solution to contemporary challenges of rapidly urbanizing African cities. A growing body of research has, however, questioned the appropriateness of these megaprojects on the basis of their governance structures, underlying planning principles and target groups. Yet little is known about the local constellations of government that enable and/or hinder these megaprojects to materialize. Drawing on the notion of governmentality, this paper seeks to deepen our knowledge about how particular new cities in Africa are governed and the rationalities behind them. Through an in-depth case study of Appolonia City ? a new private satellite city under construction outside Accra, Ghana ? the paper demonstrates how this example of privatized urbanism has reached its recent stage of implementation through a speci fic constellation of government that includes state actors at all levels, traditional authorities and private developers. The engagement of these actors is based upon multiple rationalities, including an advanced liberal rationality that emphasizes the superiority of private-led urban development; spatial rationalities that seek to form ‘world-class’ environments and subjects through a strong emphasis on urban formality and ordered aesthetics; prospects of economic pro fit-making; and assumptions on how the ‘mixed city’ model can provide sustainable and inclusive urban milieus. These rationalities partly conflict and Appolonia risks becoming yet another elitist urban megaproject despite its stated aim of creating a sustainable and inclusive urban environment. There is thus an urgent need to (re-)politicize the urban question in Africa in order to enable future city developments that benefit the many and not the few.
Cristina Udelsmann Rodrigues (2019). Climate Change and DIY Urbanism in Luanda and Maputo: New Urban Strategies?, International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development (2019) (Published online: 04 Mar 2019)
Abstract
Climate-related phenomena historically have had an impact on the lives of urban dwellers of Luanda and Maputo. Recently, however, urban expansion and congestion of different sorts, aggravated by climate change impacts, call for renewed responses on the part of residents. Rising sea levels and harder impacts of flooding are the most disturbing issues in the two coastal capitals, demanding both institutional responses and strategies of urban residents, particularly the most vulnerable. Based on qualitative data collected in Luanda and Maputo, this article describes how urban residents aim to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change and by doing so, shape the cities they live in and their environment.
Alice Nikuze, Richard Sliuzas, Johannes Flacke, Martin van Maarseveen (2019). Livelihood impacts of displacement and resettlement on informal households – A case study from Kigali, Rwanda, Habitat International, Volume 86, Pages 38-47
Abstract
Cities in Sub-Saharan Africa are undergoing massive socio-spatial transformations. Many old inner-city neighbourhoods are being demolished to give way to modern commercial and residential developments, and generally, to a more modern living environment. These ambitions often lead to manifold displacement and resettlement projects that affect the livelihoods of millions of people, including many from informal settlements. Given the novelty of urban space transformations in Sub-Saharan African countries, empirical research on the impacts on affected urban households is rare. Based on research conducted in Kigali, Rwanda, this paper discusses livelihood impacts, of urban redevelopment and disaster risk mitigation induced resettlement projects, on affected informal settlement households. This contribution draws on interviews and focus group discussions undertaken with both households to be displaced and resettled households, as well as interviews with key informants during fieldwork. The findings highlight that, irrespective of potential opportunities of resettlement projects to deliver improved housing to poor informal households, most displaced informal households in Kigali endure several adverse impacts on their physical, financial, social, and human livelihood assets. While previous studies narrowed displacement impacts to post-relocation impacts, this research shows that affected informal households also endure significant adverse livelihood impacts in the pre-relocation stage. Uncertainties during the pre-relocation phase are significant causes of impoverishment risks among the households likely to be displaced. Accurate and detailed information of the resettlement projects need to be communicated in the early stage of the process to avoid the unnecessary impoverishment risks of affected households. Clear transparent guidelines on entitlements and compensation for each displacement type need to be disclosed and discussed with affected communities. We conclude that an understanding of livelihood impacts in both the pre- and post-relocation stages offers a holistic conceptualisation, which is required to mitigate impoverishment risks and to protect and improve the livelihoods of affected households throughout the entire relocation process.
Keywords: Urban development; Disaster risk; Induced displacement; Resettlement; Livelihood impacts; Informal settlements; Master plan; Kigali
Download full text (pdf): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0197397518309330/pdfft?md5=340281f5caa8b4a3bb9c06a511607a1a&pid=1-s2.0-S0197397518309330-main.pdf&isDTMRedir=true&download=true
Urban Land Grabs in Africa?
Built Environment, Volume 44 – Number 4, 2019
https://www.alexandrinepress.co.uk/built-environment/urban-land-grabs-africa
Stefania Almazán-Casali, Jose F. Alfaro, Steve Sikra (2019). Exploring household willingness to participate in solid waste collection services in Liberia, Habitat International, 2019, ISSN 0197-3975
Abstract
Liberia faces increasing challenges with solid waste management as more than 70% of households abandon their waste in unauthorized sites. Urbanization and population growth will increase Liberia’s need to develop an effective waste management system. This study performed 240 household surveys in Paynesville, Liberia, to explore residents’ waste disposal practices and their satisfaction with waste collection services. Survey results point to improvement opportunities and some dissatisfaction with existing household services. Burning or burying of waste were common disposal practices and few households separate or recycle waste. The study included a choice experiment (CE) to assess households’ valuation of specific attributes of waste collection services. Estimates of a mixed logistical model suggest that households highly value having waste collected at home and negatively value separating waste. These findings highlight the potential for improving Liberia’s solid waste management by structuring reliable services around household collection.
Martin Oteng-Ababio, Richard Grant (2019). Ideological traces in Ghana’s urban plans: How do traces get worked out in the Agbogbloshie, Accra?, Habitat International, Volume 83, 2019, Pages 1-10, ISSN 0197-3975
Abstract:
Neoliberalism, rights to the city, and sustainable development are systems of ideas competing for the attention of policymakers and citizens worldwide. Analyzing Ghana’s key urban reports, we produce a heat map of the intensity and fragility of ideas concerning the urban poor. We employ the Agbogbloshie informal settlement as a case study to explore conflicts among diverse planning goals: urban entrepreneurialism, environmental protection, formalization of parts of the informal economy, the reframing of citizenship, and settlement upgrading. Decongestion exercises, shack demolitions, and threats of relocation are strategies employed to restore order, but the settlement’s regeneration is beset by transience and piecemeal actions. We introduce hypocrisy as a theoretical analytical perspective to call into question pro-poor urban planning interventions as a way of responding to continuous ambivalent planning measures and framing. Hypocrisy prompts an alternative focus on inconsistencies and contradictions in the planning system.
Keywords: Neoliberalism; Rights to the city; Sustainable development; Informal settlement; Agbogbloshie; Accra
Download full text (pdf): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0197397518305903/pdfft?md5=604eb9f927d02a33cedff5456106df28&pid=1-s2.0-S0197397518305903-main.pdf
Doris Wieser and Ana Filipa Prata (eds.). (2019). Cities of the Lusophone World. Literature, Culture and Urban Transformations. Oxford and New York: Peter Lang
(ISBN: 978-1-78874-253-5) DOI: https://doi.org/10.3726/b13189
Cities of the Lusophone World addresses diverse literary and cultural representations of urban settings produced in the period from the 1960s to the present day and originating from the Island of Mozambique, Lisbon, Luanda, Macau, Maputo, Porto Alegre and São Paulo. The volume contributes to the interdisciplinary research field of urban cultural studies, which lies at the crossroads between the social sciences and the humanities. The essays gathered here consider the city not only as a geographical configuration, but also as a historical discourse where space and time merge and where different individual and collective practices and actions take place. They explore how memories and identities are framed, how people at the margins create discourses of resistance, and how processes of migration and urban transformation disrupt established social and cultural borders.
Amine Kasmi (2019) The plan as a colonization project: the medina of Tlemcen under French rule, 1842–1920, Planning Perspectives, 34:1, 25-42, DOI: 10.1080/02665433.2017.1361335
Abstract
In the nineteenth century, Algerian cities were the first medinas in the Arab world to be colonized by a European power. Tlemcen, a medieval medina involved in this historical event, was marked by a relentless struggle on the part of the French administration to transform it into a city conforming to modern standards. The antagonism between two urban systems – the ‘Islamic city’ and the modern city – takes a problematic form when confronted with urban interventions that had colonizing aims. This paper will argue that the plan of the colonial city introduced a new order, subjecting the medieval medina within a set/subset relationship. Through urban subordination, the French military–civil administration used the plan layout as an instrument to control and dominate the medina of Tlemcen. In order to verify this hypothesis, a thorough study of documents dating from the early years of the French occupation was undertaken; thus, this paper is constructed as an urban study, based on a historico-morphological approach.
Patrick Brandful Cobbinah & Michael Addaney (2019). The Geography of Climate Change Adaptation in Urban Africa. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan
This book take a comprehensive look at several cases of climate change adaptation responses across various sectors and geographical areas in urban Africa and places them within a solid theoretical context. Each chapter is a state-of-the-art overview of a significant topic on climate change adaptation in urban Africa and is written by a leading expert in the field. In addition to the focus on the geography of urban adaptation to climate in Africa, this collection offers a broader perspective by blending the use of case studies and theory based research. It examines transformations in climate change adaptation in urban Africa and its future orientation from the perspectives of urban planners, political economists, environmentalists, ecologists, economists and geographers, thereby addressing the challenges facing African cities adaptation responses from all angles. Providing up-to-date and authoritative contributions covering the key aspects of climate change adaptation in urban Africa, this book will be of great interest to policymakers, practitioners, scholars and students of geography, urban development and management, environmental science and policy, disaster management, as well as those in the field of urban planning.
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-04873-0
Jacob Rasmussen & Alex Wafer (2019) Documentary evidence: Navigating identity and credibility in Africa’s urban estuaries, African Studies, 78:1, 74-90, DOI: 10.1080/00020184.2018.1540528
Abstract
In this article we argue for closer intellectual attention to the intersection between the unstable materiality of urban spaces on the one hand, and anxieties about the materiality of official documents on the other. Based on initial evidence from two cities in Africa, namely Nairobi and Johannesburg, we have observed that official documents as material objects matters most in precisely those parts of the city where formal state and civil society institutions appears most absent, i.e. those marginal or estuarial urban spaces, characterised by precarity, informality and mobility, where the majority of African urban residents reside. This is because anxieties about credibility, legitimacy and belonging are most acute in precisely these grey spaces. Yet we argue that the preoccupation with the materiality of these documents does not only reflect broader anxieties about inclusion into or exclusion from the wider urban economy. Instead we suggest that the materiality of documents is more deeply implicated into the unstable material conditions which characterise these estuarial spaces. As these estuarial spaces manifest fluid and sometimes illegible forms of policing and social order, so the variable material qualities of documents simultaneously proffers or eschews the credibility of the bearer in particular situations. This ambiguous relationship to absolute status subverts the bio-political pretensions of contemporary institutions of government, but serves as a crucial tactical vocabulary in navigating the precarious and unstable materiality of the contemporary African city. While the evidence presented here is drawn from ethnographic research in two such ‘urban estuaries’, we suggest that these observations might resonate more broadly, and might open up new avenues for thinking about the relationship between the material and the bio-political in Africa.
download full text (pdf): https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00020184.2018.1540528?needAccess=true
A. M. Martin & P. M. Bezemer (2019) The concept and planning of public native housing estates in Nairobi/Kenya, 1918–1948, Planning Perspectives, DOI: 10.1080/02665433.2019.1602785 (Published online: 09 Apr 2019)
Abstract
Interwar public housing estates for native citizens in Sub-Sahara African cities, represent hybrids of global and local urban concepts, housing typologies and dwelling habits. The authors explain such hybrids via exploratory research note as a result of transmutation processes, marked by various (non)human actors. To categorize and compare them, Actor Network Theory (ANT) is applied and tested within an architecture historical framework. Nairobi/Kenya functions as pars pro toto with its Kariakor and Kaloleni estates as exemplary cases. Their different network-outcomes underpin the supposition that actor-oriented research can help to unravel a most essential, though neglected part of international town planning history.
Download full text (pdf): https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/02665433.2019.1602785?needAccess=true
Mary Njeri Kinyanjui (2019). African Markets and the Utu-buntu Business Model. A perspective on economic informality in Nairobi. South Africa: African Minds Publishers, 200 pp. (ISBN 9781928331780)
Abstract
The persistence of indigenous African markets in the context of a hostile or neglectful business and policy environment makes them worthy of analysis. An investigation of Afrocentric business ethics is long overdue. Attempting to understand the actions and efforts of informal traders and artisans from their own points of view, and analysing how they organise and get by, allows for viable approaches to be identified to integrate them into global urban models and cultures.
Using the utu-ubuntu model to understand the activities of traders and artisans in Nairobi’s markets, this book explores how, despite being consistently excluded and disadvantaged, they shape urban spaces in and around the city, and contribute to its development as a whole. With immense resilience, and without discarding their own socio-cultural or economic values, informal traders and artisans have created a territorial complex that can be described as the African metropolis.
African Markets and the Utu-buntu Business Model sheds light on the ethics and values that underpin the work of traders and artisans in Nairobi, as well as their resilience and positive impact on urbanisation. This book makes an important contribution to the discourse on urban economics and planning in African cities.
Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO) Research Report #10: Social Cohesion in Gauteng.
Authors: Richard Ballard, Christian Hamann, Kate Joseph, Thembani Mkhize
Download report: https://gcro.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=fca059ee1610bb87f1c71c9b4&id=0eebbe573e&e=73970861c6
Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO) Occasional Paper #13: Where do we draw the line? Graffiti in Maboneg, Johannesburg.
Authors: Alexandra Parker, Samkelisiwe Khanyile and Kate Joseph
https://gcro.us16.list-manage.com/track/click?u=fca059ee1610bb87f1c71c9b4&id=b5ccbf138e&e=73970861c6
Alice Nikuze, Richard Sliuzas, Johannes Flacke & Martin van Maarseveen (2019). Livelihood impacts of displacement and resettlement on informal households – A case study from Kigali, Rwanda, Habitat International, Volume 86, 2019, Pages 38-47
Abstract:
Cities in Sub-Saharan Africa are undergoing massive socio-spatial transformations. Many old inner-city neighbourhoods are being demolished to give way to modern commercial and residential developments, and generally, to a more modern living environment. These ambitions often lead to manifold displacement and resettlement projects that affect the livelihoods of millions of people, including many from informal settlements. Given the novelty of urban space transformations in Sub-Saharan African countries, empirical research on the impacts on affected urban households is rare. Based on research conducted in Kigali, Rwanda, this paper discusses livelihood impacts, of urban redevelopment and disaster risk mitigation induced resettlement projects, on affected informal settlement households. This contribution draws on interviews and focus group discussions undertaken with both households to be displaced and resettled households, as well as interviews with key informants during fieldwork. The findings highlight that, irrespective of potential opportunities of resettlement projects to deliver improved housing to poor informal households, most displaced informal households in Kigali endure several adverse impacts on their physical, financial, social, and human livelihood assets. While previous studies narrowed displacement impacts to post-relocation impacts, this research shows that affected informal households also endure significant adverse livelihood impacts in the pre-relocation stage. Uncertainties during the pre-relocation phase are significant causes of impoverishment risks among the households likely to be displaced. Accurate and detailed information of the resettlement projects need to be communicated in the early stage of the process to avoid the unnecessary impoverishment risks of affected households. Clear transparent guidelines on entitlements and compensation for each displacement type need to be disclosed and discussed with affected communities. We conclude that an understanding of livelihood impacts in both the pre- and post-relocation stages offers a holistic conceptualisation, which is required to mitigate impoverishment risks and to protect and improve the livelihoods of affected households throughout the entire relocation process.
Keywords: Urban development; Disaster risk; Induced displacement; Resettlement; Livelihood impacts; Informal settlements; Master plan; Kigali
Download full text (pdf): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0197397518309330
Stéphanie Dos Santos, Jean-Paul Peumi & Abdramane Soura (2019). Risk factors of becoming a disaster victim. The flood of September 1st, 2009, in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), Habitat International, Volume 86, 2019, Pages 81-90
Abstract
In light of the expected growing natural hazards and the continued growth of urban populations, there is concern that the vulnerability of a significant portion of the urban African population will increase. The objective of the paper is to analyze factors associated with the status of “disaster victim” in Ouagadougou, the capital-city of Burkina Faso. On September 1st, 2009, this city experienced torrential rainfall leading to water runoffs and floods. Over 180,000 people were severely affected, about 41 people died and 33,172 houses completely destroyed. The data availability from the Ouagadougou Health and Demographic Surveillance System, especially characteristics of population dwellings before the flood, grant the opportunity to address the impact of this event among the different social groups. Modeling data with logistic regressions, the results reinforce the idea that the main cause of disaster is not hazards. Indeed, natural disaster amplify urban inequities given the role playing by variables related to extreme poverty (no sanitation, no electricity) as determinant factors. Discussion highlights how some households inhabitants make the reasoned choice of gradually reoccupying their plots, although aware of risks. In Sub-Saharan Africa, early warning system for floods should be seen as essential in urban settings.
Download full text (pdf): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2019.03.005
Felix S.K. Agyemang, Elisabete Silva & Michael Poku-Boansi (2019). Understanding the urban spatial structure of Sub-Saharan African cities using the case of urban development patterns of a Ghanaian city-region, Habitat International, Volume 85, 2019, Pages 21-33
Abstract
Cities in Sub-Saharan Africa are undergoing massive spatial transformation owing to rapid urbanization. For many cities in the Global North, Latin America and Asia, spatial transformation has been traditionally characterised by a shift from monocentric to polycentric urban patterns. In the case of Sub-Saharan Africa, however, it is unclear whether the evolving spatial structure of cities conform to or are explained by existing urban geography models. This paper pursues twofold objectives: one, examines the evolution of the spatial structure of a Sub-Saharan African city-region and its relationship with mainstream urban geography models; and, two, explores the urban planning and policy implications of the spatial transformation. The study draws on spatially explicit data from Kumasi City-Region in Ghana, which is analysed with a set of spatial metrics and an urban growth model. The results indicate that, while the city-region’s urban spatial structure before the turn of the Twenty-first century largely conforms to the traditional monocentric model, it is increasingly becoming deconcentrated and dispersive, which suggests a likely pending phase of coalescence in a stochastic fractal urban growth process. Contrary to what is observed in other parts of the world, the declining monocentricity has not transformed into a polycentric urban structure, rather, urban growth is becoming amorphous. There is high level of development spontaneity that cast an image of a city-region that is charting inefficient and unsustainable spatial development path. Urban scholars would have to transcend the frontiers of existing urban structure models to better depict the spatial evolution of sub-Saharan African cities like Kumasi City-Region, while Policy makers need to re-position the Ghanaian planning system to be more influential in delivering sustainable development patterns.
Keywords: Urbanization; Urban spatial structure; Urban growth; Monocentricity; Urban transformation; Ghana
Book Title: Spatial Planning in Service Delivery – Towards Distributive Justice in South Africa (2019)
Authors: Hangwelani Hope Magidimisha and Lovemore Chipungu
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
The book:
- Employs both quantitative and qualitative analysis in a consideration of the past, present, and future for a holistic perspective;
- Questions South Africa’s development ideology and whether it meets the mandates of its citizenry through participatory and collaborative means;
- Shows how spatial planning can be used as a tool in the South African context to mitigate inequality
eBook ISBN 978-3-030-19850-3DOI 10.1007/978-3-030-19850-3
Hardcover ISBN 978-3-030-19849-7
https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030198497
Stefania Almazán-Casali & Jose F. Alfaro, Steve Sikra (2019). Exploring household willingness to participate in solid waste collection services in Liberia, Habitat International,
Volume 84, 2019, Pages 57-64
Abstract
Liberia faces increasing challenges with solid waste management as more than 70% of households abandon their waste in unauthorized sites. Urbanization and population growth will increase Liberia’s need to develop an effective waste management system. This study performed 240 household surveys in Paynesville, Liberia, to explore residents’ waste disposal practices and their satisfaction with waste collection services. Survey results point to improvement opportunities and some dissatisfaction with existing household services. Burning or burying of waste were common disposal practices and few households separate or recycle waste. The study included a choice experiment (CE) to assess households’ valuation of specific attributes of waste collection services. Estimates of a mixed logistical model suggest that households highly value having waste collected at home and negatively value separating waste. These findings highlight the potential for improving Liberia’s solid waste management by structuring reliable services around household collection.
Sogen Moodley (2019). Defining city-to-city learning in southern Africa: Exploring practitioner sensitivities in the knowledge transfer process, Habitat International,
Volume 85, 2019, Pages 34-40
Abstract
Cities have revived a tendency to look to other cities in a conscious attempt to learn, adapt or adopt innovative practices in the field of urban planning and development. Much has been published on how such cities learn from each other in the global North, as well as some in Latin America and Asia, but little empirical research is available relating to sub-Saharan Africa. As a result, not much is known about the perception of practitioners in this part of the world, of prevailing international learning nomenclature, or of their understanding and interpretation of the dynamics of associated complex learning processes. This article focuses on a case study of the international United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) “mentorship programme” involving the eThekwini Municipality in Durban, South Africa, and the cities of Otjiwarongo in Namibia and Mzuzu in Malawi. Instead of a single, unified and coherent conceptualisation of city-to-city learning, the study unearthed a messy and complex picture of multiple understandings of this concept among learning stakeholders. Crucially, it exposed strong resistance from African practitioners to the UCLG learning terminology of “city mentorship”, yielding a call to policy-makers for greater sensitivity about definitions of key constructs. Whilst making the case for city-to-city learning, it provides new insights that can contribute to more nuanced understandings of the complexity and the politics of knowledge transfer among cities.
Francesco Chiodelli & Anna Mazzolini (2019) Inverse Planning in the Cracks of Formal Land Use Regulation: The Bottom-Up Regularisation of Informal Settlements in Maputo, Mozambique, Planning Theory & Practice, 20:2, 165-181
Abstract
This paper focuses on a case of ‘non-public planning’ in an informal neighbourhood of Maputo, Mozambique. Here, several residents undertook some planning duties (e.g. drawing up a detailed plan) in order to regularise their informal dwellings in lieu of the Municipality, due to its inertia. This was an attempt to deal with the shortcomings of urban planning in Maputo, not by flouting the system, but by remoulding it and creating a sort of alternative formality. The detailed analysis of this case is an opportunity for critical reflection on the risks, potentialities and inherent limits of such a form of non-public planning in Mozambique, which we label ‘inverse planning’.
Download full text (pdf):
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14649357.2019.1604980
International Journal of E-Planning Research (IJEPR)
Volume 8, Issue 3, July – September 2019
Published: Quarterly in Print and Electronically
ISSN: 2160-9918; EISSN: 2160-9926;
Published by IGI Global Publishing, Hershey, USA
www.igi-global.com/ijepr
Editor-in-Chief: Carlos Nunes Silva (University of Lisbon, Portugal)
Editorial Preface
- Modelling Urban Environments, Transdisciplinary Inquiry, Participation Tools, and Information Security in Urban E-Planning
Carlos Nunes Silva
Research Articles
- Modelling Urban Environments to Promote Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity: Case of Stockholm (pages 1-12)
Anna Kaczorowska, Meta Berghauser Pont - A Transdisciplinary Inquiry Into Sustainable Automobility Transitions: The Case of an Urban Enclave in Cape Town (pages 13-37)
Elizabeth Henshilwood, Mark Swilling, Marjorie L. Naidoo - Guiding Informed Choices on Participation Tools in Spatial Planning: An E-Decision Support System (pages 38-61)
Giorgos Somarakis, Anastasia Stratigea - Raising Information Security Awareness in the Field of Urban and Regional Planning (pages 62-86)
Margit Christa Scholl
Book Review
- United Nations E-Government Survey 2018: Gearing E-Government to Support Transformation Towards Sustainable and Resilient Societies
Carlos Nunes Silva
Conference Report
- International Conference ‘Fifty Years of Local Governance’, IGU Commission Geography of Governance, University of Lisbon, Portugal, September 4 – 6 2018
Carlos Nunes Silva
Mackay, H. (2019). Food sources and access strategies in Ugandan secondary cities: an intersectional analysis. Environment and Urbanization (First Published May 15, 2019)
Abstract
This article arises from an interest in African urbanization and in the food, farming and nutritional transitions that some scholars present as integral to urban life. The paper investigates personal urban food environments, food sources and access strategies in two secondary Ugandan cities, Mbale and Mbarara, drawing on in-depth interviews and applying an intersectional lens. Food sources were similar across dimensions of difference but food access strategies varied. My findings indicate that socioeconomic circumstance (class) was the most salient influence shaping differences in daily food access strategies. Socioeconomic status, in turn, interacted with other identity aspects, an individual’s asset base and broader structural inequalities in influencing urban food environments. Rural land and rural connections, or multispatiality, were also important for food-secure urban lives. The work illuminates geometries of advantage and disadvantage within secondary cities, and highlights similarities and differences between food environments in these cities and Uganda’s capital, Kampala.
Download full text (pdf):
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0956247819847346
Dan E. Chamberlain; Dominic A. W. Henry; Chevonne Reynolds; Enrico Caprio & Arjun Amar (2019). The relationship between wealth and biodiversity: A test of the Luxury Effect on bird species richness in the developing world. Global Change Biology, First published: 11 May 2019, https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14682
Abstract
The Luxury Effect hypothesizes a positive relationship between wealth and biodiversity within urban areas. Understanding how urban development, both in terms of socio‐economic status and the built environment, affects biodiversity can contribute to the sustainable development of cities, and may be especially important in the developing world where current growth in urban populations is most rapid. We tested the Luxury Effect by analysing bird species richness in relation to income levels, as well as human population density and urban cover, in landscapes along an urbanization gradient in South Africa. The Luxury Effect was supported in landscapes with lower urbanization levels in that species richness was positively correlated with income level where urban cover was relatively low. However, the effect was reversed in highly urbanized landscapes, where species richness was negatively associated with income level. Tree cover was also positively correlated with species richness, although it could not explain the Luxury Effect. Species richness was negatively related to urban cover, but there was no association with human population density. Our model suggests that maintaining green space in at least an equal proportion to the built environment is likely to provide a development strategy that will enhance urban biodiversity, and with it, the positive benefits that are manifest for urban dwellers. Our findings can form a key contribution to a wider strategy to expand urban settlements in a sustainable way to provide for the growing urban population in South Africa, including addressing imbalances in environmental justice across income levels and racial groups.
Adelekan, I. O. (2019). Urban dynamics, everyday hazards and disaster risks in Ibadan, Nigeria. Environment and Urbanization. (First Published May 13, 2019 ) https://doi.org/10.1177/0956247819844738
Abstract
Many cities in sub-Saharan Africa lack official records of deaths and of serious illnesses and injuries from everyday hazards and disaster events at all scales. This is a major limitation to effective planning for risk reduction. This paper seeks to fill some of these data gaps for the city of Ibadan, drawing on newspaper reports, hospital records, and databases or records of government departments for the period 2000–2015. It presents what can be learned about risks from these sources and discusses how the social, economic and political structures at the national, city and locality levels contribute to the most serious urban risks, as well as how these drive the process of risk accumulation, especially for vulnerable groups. Excluding public health risks for which data are scarce and incomplete, road traffic accidents, crime, violence and flooding constitute the most serious hazards in the city of Ibadan.
Turok, I. (2019). Cities as platforms for progress: Local drivers of Rwanda’s success. Local Economy, 34(3), 221–227. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269094219852600
Abstract
Rwanda’s has made remarkable all-round progress over the last 25 years. This is usually attributed to a determined national government under single-minded leadership. This paper draws attention to two local drivers of Rwanda’s socio-economic development: community participation and a positive approach to urbanisation. Popular involvement in communal projects has helped to build and maintain many useful public facilities. It has also fostered social solidarity and dialogue between citizens and public officials. The positive urban policy has helped to create more efficient and liveable cities, which are driving economic prosperity and human development. Nevertheless, there is scope for greater consistency and alignment between top-down and bottom-up processes in order to improve the suitability and responsiveness of national policies and practices to grassroots realities.
Laurence Marfaing (2019) Dakar ville moderne: la médiation des entrepreneurs sénégalais en Chine, Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des études africaines, 53:1, 89-107, DOI: 10.1080/00083968.2018.1548365
Abstract
The early 2000s marked a decisive turning point in the development of Dakar due, on the one hand, to the impact of important investments by the Senegalese government in the construction of new urban infrastructure and, on the other, to the implementation by the city of a decidedly modern town-planning scheme. In a context in which “China-Africa” and the role of China in this transformation pervaded both the media and research, the aim of this article concerns the role of African entrepreneurs who work in China. The latter “translate” their experiences of China in their daily routine and their way of life, and their imports of manufactured goods facilitate the social transformations that are influencing the emergence of Dakar as a modern city and its appropriation by the Dakarois.
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https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00083968.2018.1548365?needAccess=true
Charlie Q.L. Xue ; Guanghui Ding; Wei Chang; Yan Wan (2019). Architecture of “Stadium diplomacy” – China-aid sport buildings in Africa. Habitat International, (Available online 17 June 2019)
Abstract
In the past 60 years, China has constructed over 1,400 buildings in the developing world, many of them stadiums. This study examines how China uses stadiums as diplomatic means to demonstrate its cultural, economic and socio-political engagement in less-developed nations. To address the Chinese economic, cultural and intellectual intervention, this article uses three representative stadium projects built in Africa as case studies. Firstly providing physical venue for sports activities and then creating institutional network for further economic, cultural and political engagement, the Chinese built stadiums became effective catalyst for enhancing bilateral relations between China and the receipt countries. China’s stadium diplomacy revealed a soft, and ultimately progressive mode of cultural engagement in transnational architectural practice. The authors argue that the implication of this architectural engagement lies in the fact that the Chinese state played a mediating role in producing and delivering architectural forms with various political motivations. Notwithstanding, the involved architects and engineers took the cultural and technical challenges and experimented adaptable design in aid projects.
Bergère, C. (n.d.). From Street Corners to Social Media: The Changing Location of Youth Citizenship in Guinea. African Studies Review, 1-22. (FirstView) doi:10.1017/asr.2019.3
Abstract
This study explores social media platforms, Facebook and Twitter in particular, as emergent sites of youth citizenship in Guinea. These need to be understood within a longer history of youth citizenship, one that includes street corners and other informal mediations of youth politics. This counters dominant discourses both within the Guinean public sphere and in academic research that decry Guinean social media practices as lacking, or Guinean youth as frivolous or inconsequential in their online political engagements. Instead, young Guineans’ emergent digital practices need to be approached as productive political engagements. This contributes to debates about African youths by examining the role of digital technologies in shaping young Africans’ political horizons.
Ogunyankin, G. A. (2019), ‘The City of Our Dream’: Owambe Urbanism and Low‐income Women’s Resistance in Ibadan, Nigeria. Int. J. Urban Reg. Res., 43: 423-441. doi:10.1111/1468-2427.12732
Abstract
Ibadan, Nigeria, has been an outlier in the ranking of world‐class cities. But in the past seven years, amidst the circulating Africa Rising narrative, Ibadan has embarked on what I call an Afropolitan Imagineering project of owambe urbanism. Afropolitan Imagineering refers to the production of new images/narratives of Africa and Africans as world‐class and cosmopolitan. Owambe urbanism is a spatio‐temporal neoliberal project concerning destination, arrival and place‐making, which promises a shared and happy future for all urban dwellers. I argue that this promise of happiness is challenged by low‐income women who are cognizant that a shared and happy future is impossible when little effort is made to address social inequality in the present. They thus refuse to be ‘good’ citizens and invoke an alternative urban futurity through their embodied and imagined resistance.
Njoh, A. J., & Chie, E. P. (2019). Vocabularies of Spatiality in French Colonial Urbanism: Some Covert Rationales of Street Names in Colonial Dakar, West Africa and Saigon, Indochina. Journal of Asian and African Studies. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021909619860248
Abstract
The study analyses toponymic practices in two colonial spaces on two continents. The colonial spaces, Dakar and Saigon, were capitals of the Federation of French West Africa and French Indochina, respectively. Toponymy is used as a tool to articulate socio-cultural and political power in both spaces; also, streets were christened after French military, politico-administrative and religious personalities. Two differences are noted. First, streets in colonial Saigon were named after French military heroes and clergymen, while streets in Dakar were named after French political luminaries. Second, post-colonial Saigon witnessed efforts to re-appropriate the city’s identity, but not so in Dakar.
Armel Kemajou; Rémi Jaligot Martí Bosch & Jérôme Chenal (2019). Assessing motorcycle taxi activity in Cameroon using GPS devices. Journal of Transport Geography, Volume 79, July 2019
Abstract
The emergence of motorcycle taxis as a mode of urban transport in Africa can be seen as a bottom-up response to the larger problem of a demand that is not sufficiently met by public services. Transcending the debates regarding the relevance of this solution, this article explores motorcycle taxis as substitute for urban transport in Yaoundé, Cameroon. The study aims to improve the understanding of how drivers run their activity and to identify its impacts on the city using a mixed-methods approach. We combined the data from a three-week GPS motorcycle taxis route survey with semi-structured interviews, questionnaires and direct observation. This approach, which in itself is innovative for the study of informal transport in Africa, is an important methodological contribution. The analysis of the data collected highlights small radii of action and high inactivity rates, and helps shed light on how this mode has led to an increased demand for short trips in more diffuse urban forms. We point to the need for holistic thinking in order to better integrate motorcycle taxis into urban transportation planning policies in Yaoundé as well as other major cities in the region.
Simon De Nys-Ketels, Laurence Heindryckx, Johan Lagae & Luce Beeckmans (2019) Planning Belgian Congo’s network of medical infrastructure: type-plans as tools to construct a medical model-colony, 1949–1959, Planning Perspectives, DOI: 10.1080/02665433.2019.1633950
Abstract
Throughout the 1950s, the Belgian colonial government constructed a vast network of hospital infrastructure as part of its Ten-Year Plan, a colony-wide socio-economic scheme emblematic for the era of ‘welfare colonialism.’ This network played a key role in Belgian colonialism, by providing healthcare, but also by boosting labour productivity, facilitating state presence and control, and by advertising Congo as a medical model-colony. In this article, we unpack the extensive administrative apparatus that was necessary to buttress this ambitious building programme, and we highlight type-plans as crucial government tools to construct such a vast network of healthcare infrastructure. At first glance, the use of type-plans confirms classic characterizations of the Belgian colonial government as an omnipotent and technocratic state apparatus that implemented large, top-down government plans through authoritative methods, often discarding local realities. However, tracing hospital construction on the ground reveals that type-plans did not function as immutable models, but rather as modular blueprints that allowed local administrations to adapt hospitals to local needs and contingencies. As such, our article illustrates how, facilitated by surprisingly flexible type-plans, everyday colonial policymaking in Belgian Congo was, contrary to the still dominant discourse, deeply reliant on the agency and aptitude of local officials.
Keywords: Belgian Congo, hospital architecture, colonial architecture, type-plan
Hany Gamil Besada, M. Evren Tok, Leah McMillan Polonenko (eds.) (2019). Innovating South-South Cooperation: Policies, Challenges and Prospects. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 350 pp.
Moseley, W. G. (2019). Book review: Urban Food Systems Governance and Poverty in African Cities. Urban Studies. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098019866586
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098019866586
Charlie Q.L. Xue, Guanghui Ding, Wei Chang, Yan Wan (2019). Architecture of “Stadium diplomacy” – China-aid sport buildings in Africa. Habitat International, Vol. 90
Abstract
In the past 60 years, China has constructed over 1,400 buildings in the developing world, many of them stadiums. This study examines how China uses stadiums as diplomatic means to demonstrate its cultural, economic and socio-political engagement in less-developed nations. To address the Chinese economic, cultural and intellectual intervention, this article uses three representative stadium projects built in Africa as case studies. Firstly providing physical venue for sports activities and then creating institutional network for further economic, cultural and political engagement, the Chinese built stadiums became effective catalyst for enhancing bilateral relations between China and the receipt countries. China’s stadium diplomacy revealed a soft, and ultimately progressive mode of cultural engagement in transnational architectural practice. The authors argue that the implication of this architectural engagement lies in the fact that the Chinese state played a mediating role in producing and delivering architectural forms with various political motivations. Notwithstanding, the involved architects and engineers took the cultural and technical challenges and experimented adaptable design in aid projects.
Charlotte Grabli, « La ville des auditeurs : radio, rumba congolaise et droit à la ville dans la cité indigène de Léopoldville (1949-1960) », Cahiers d’études africaines [En ligne], 233 | 2019, mis en ligne le 14 mars 2021, consulté le 20 septembre 2019. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/etudesafricaines/25229
Abstract
Although initially conceived as a tool to extend colonial propaganda, Radio Belgian Congo for Africans (Radio Congo belge pour Africains) quickly adapted its programming to cater to African audiences’ tastes, turning radio into a musical medium used by Congolese listeners as a “collective gramophone.” By tracing listening behaviours back to the introduction of radio in 1949 in Leopoldville (now Kinshasa), this article shows how Congolese female and male listeners used this medium to invent new forms of urbanity. The analysis of the social dimensions of the interweaving of music, sound and space sheds new light on the little-known history of this African metropolis. It reveals how listeners used early colonial radio to build listening and sociable spaces that contested the colonial monopoly on “the city” and its symbolic and material access.`
Emmanuel Tolulope Busayo, Ahmed Mukalazi Kalumba & Israel Ropo Orimoloye (2019). Spatial planning and climate change adaptation assessment: Perspectives from Mdantsane Township dwellers in South Africa. Habitat International, Vol. 90
Abstract
Spatial planning plays a significant role in enhancing climate change adaptation especially within urban areas by improving their resilience. Despite all this, cities especially in developing countries still experience the effects of climate change. This paper adopted a mixed method approach to examine township spatial planning and climate change adaptation in identifying potentialities for an integrated approach. Mdantsane case study as one of the largest townships in South Africa was assessed as a unique landscape with reminiscent of apartheid legacies to improve the people’s climate change adaptation under urban poverty, lack of basic facilities and other environmental challenges. In keeping with a case study design, we collected data making use of pretested open and close-ended survey forms with an interplay of GIS and remote sensing techniques. This study reveals that Mdantsane is extremely susceptible to the impacts of climate change due to their built-up and natural environment set up as well as the existing interrelations. Thus, comprehensive integration of spatial planning is essential for proofing, health, wellbeing and resilience. Consequently, recommendations to seek strategic intervention and planning were made to sustain adaptation of residents to climate change in the future with specific focus to reduce climate and environmental risks in Mdantsane Township.
Christian Ernsten (2019) Utopia and dystopia in the post-apartheid city: the praxis of the future in Cape Town, Social Dynamics, 45:2, 286-302, DOI: 10.1080/02533952.2019.1619420
Abstract
This essay is concerned with the shaping, the framing and the fashioning of the discourse on urban futures in Cape Town, South Africa. I outline the multiple sources and diverse elements that feed into this discourse: specifically, metropolitan theory and local experience. Focusing on the praxis of the African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town, I argue that there is a convergence between the language of crisis and the vision that comes across in policy and futurist scenario building. I point at apartheid modernities and their recapitulation in utopian dreams for the post-apartheid city.
Ivan Turok, Leanne Seeliger, Justin Visagie (2019). Restoring the core? Central city decline and transformation in the South, Progress in Planning, DOI: 10.1016/j.progress.2019.100434 , n Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 26 July 2019
Abstract
Central cities are vibrant and productive places because of the dense concentration of people, firms and supporting facilities. Yet their dynamism can be undermined by congestion, social tensions and poor urban management. South Africa’s four major city centres experienced tumultuous changes during the transition from apartheid and the exodus of many property owners, investors and occupiers to the suburbs. Buildings decayed, infrastructure collapsed, public health and safety deteriorated, and governance was disrupted by unauthorised activities. Despite the general neglect, signs of recovery have emerged and gathered momentum in recent years. The revival is fragile, partial and patchy in most cases, and dwarfed by scale of new investment in outlying economic nodes. The paper uses a resilience framework to examine how enterprising organisations have spurred regeneration by identifying opportunities for the adaptive reuse of redundant buildings and public spaces for affordable housing and social amenities. It also compares the extent, character and causes of the rebound across the four cities, demonstrating elements of continuity (bounce-back resilience) and transformation (bounce-forward resilience) in each case. Cape Town is characterised more by continuity and Johannesburg more by decline and transformation, with Pretoria and Durban in between. City centre recovery is attributed to a combination of pioneering private and public sector actions, albeit disjointed and uneven in their effectiveness. The paper concludes that central cities are relatively open incubators of economic and social progress, but also cauldrons of competing interests which create many dilemmas for decision-makers to negotiate, and which require coordinated attention and determination to realise their potential.
Marais, Lochner and Nel, Verna (2019). Space and planning in secondary cities: reflections from South Africa.
Sun Press, Bloemfontein ISBN: 978-1-928424-34-5
This book assistance spatial planning in the second-tier cities of the country. Secondary cities are vital as they perform essential regional, and in some cases, global economic roles and help to distribute the population of the country more evenly across its surface. This book presents ten case studies of spatial planning and spatial transformation in secondary cities of South Africa. This book frames these case studies against complexity theory and suggest that the post-apartheid response to a apartheid planning represents a linear deviation from history.
Simukai Chigudu (2019). The politics of cholera, crisis and citizenship in urban Zimbabwe: ‘People were dying like flies’, African Affairs, Volume 118, Issue 472, July 2019, Pages 413–434, https://doi.org/10.1093/afraf/ady068
Abstract
Zimbabwe’s catastrophic cholera outbreak of 2008/09 resulted in an unprecedented 100,000 cases and nearly 5,000 deaths. In the aftermath of the epidemic, questions of suffering and death and of rescue, relief, and rehabilitation have persisted in on-going processes of meaning-making through which people come to terms with the epidemic as a ‘man-made’ disaster. Based on extensive fieldwork, I examine the views of residents in Harare’s high-density townships that were epicentres of the disease. I argue that cholera was experienced by township residents as many crises at the same time. It was not only a public health crisis but also a political–economic crisis, a social crisis as well as a crisis of expectations, history and social identity. As such, I argue that the cholera outbreak was intensely generative of political subjectivities that reveal important shifts in the fraught relations between state and society in Zimbabwe’s urban politics. Finally, I argue that the government’s perceived causal role in, and failure to respond to, the cholera outbreak occasioned intense public outrage among township residents, which speaks to a much deeper aspiration for substantive citizenship based on political rights, social recognition, and access to high-quality public services delivered by a robust, responsible state.
Kazembe, L. N., Nickanor, N., & Crush, J. (2019). Informalized containment: food markets and the governance of the informal food sector in Windhoek, Namibia. Environment and Urbanization. First Published September 15, 2019 https://doi.org/10.1177/0956247819867091
Abstract
Policy responses to the growth of the informal food sector in African cities vary from benign neglect to active destruction. The eradication of street food vending is the dominant mode of governance. Alternative approaches that recognize the inevitability of informality and the role of the sector in making food accessible to the urban poor have begun to emerge. One is an enclose-and-contain model that creates spaces for trading and seeks to confine trading to these spaces through active policing. This strategy has been pursued in Windhoek, Namibia but has been compromised by consumer demand, which is not satisfied by the city’s approved markets, and by the actions of street traders who cluster at key locations and force tacit official recognition. This paper examines the origins and development of the resulting hybrid model of informalized containment, as well as the profile of consumers who patronize both types of markets.
Mackay, H. (2019). Food sources and access strategies in Ugandan secondary cities: an intersectional analysis. Environment and Urbanization. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956247819847346
Abstract
This article arises from an interest in African urbanization and in the food, farming and nutritional transitions that some scholars present as integral to urban life. The paper investigates personal urban food environments, food sources and access strategies in two secondary Ugandan cities, Mbale and Mbarara, drawing on in-depth interviews and applying an intersectional lens. Food sources were similar across dimensions of difference but food access strategies varied. My findings indicate that socioeconomic circumstance (class) was the most salient influence shaping differences in daily food access strategies. Socioeconomic status, in turn, interacted with other identity aspects, an individual’s asset base and broader structural inequalities in influencing urban food environments. Rural land and rural connections, or multispatiality, were also important for food-secure urban lives. The work illuminates geometries of advantage and disadvantage within secondary cities, and highlights similarities and differences between food environments in these cities and Uganda’s capital, Kampala.
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Magdalena Chułek (2019). Mob justice and everyday life: The case of Nairobi’s Kibera and Korogocho slums, African Studies, 78:3, 385-402, DOI: 10.1080/00020184.2018.1519332
Abstract
Based on ethnographic research in two slum areas of Nairobi, Kibera and Korogocho, this article explains the meaning and function of ad hoc acts of lynching called mob justice. The article treats mob justice as a specific type of institution that reflects local rules of life and argues that the analysis of such acts must take into account that they are produced within a broader social framework in which they are practised. Mob justice undergoes reproduction to maintain the communities of Kibera and Korogocho. The form of lynching stems not from the fact that it is limiting crime but that it produces an imaginary realisation of a certain dimension of experience of the mob’s members, which is collective agency.
Wood, A. (2019), Circulating planning ideas from the metropole to the colonies: understanding South Africa’s segregated cities through policy mobilities. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 40: 257-271. doi:10.1111/sjtg.12273
Abstract
In the early part of the twentieth century, South African cities were segregated in accordance with British city planning concepts that embodied the belief that social order can be manipulated through the urban form. This paper surveys the history of South African planning practices to understand the spread of segregation policies and practices. Whereas scholars tend to agree that the apartheid city (post−1948) is a more highly organized and structured version of the colonial city (pre−1910), the literature lacks consensus on the development of the segregated city (1910−1948) within South Africa. How did concepts of segregation circulate and why was it implemented with such consistency? Accordingly, this paper employs concepts of policy mobilities to trace historical configurations in South Africa to international influences. The focus on the circuits of knowledge explains how concepts and designs transplanted from elsewhere helped create the form of South African cities today. Understanding the movement of planning ideas through policy mobilities furthers geographical understandings of historical circulation processes, the role of the local actors, and policy mobilities failure. This history of learning also challenges the assumption that South African cities are unique and in so doing opens the doors for knowledge sharing between postcolonial cities.
Emmah Mandishona & Jasper Knight (2019) Users’ perceptions and understanding of two urban wetlands in Harare, Zimbabwe, South African Geographical Journal, 101:3, 326-348, DOI: 10.1080/03736245.2019.1626759
Abstract
Wetland management and conservation is a priority in southern Africa, and urban wetlands are particularly vulnerable to pollution, development and environmental degradation. This study focuses on the perceptions of urban residents towards two wetlands in Harare, Zimbabwe, as a means of better evaluating their sustainability and management challenges. Questionnaires, interviews and focus groups of wetland users and residents were used, focusing on their attitudes towards and understanding of wetlands, and how the wetlands are used and valued from different perspectives. Results showed that urban wetland use is driven by broader economic, social and political conditions, and has compromised wetland integrity. The majority of respondents are aware of the socioeconomic benefits of wetlands, and also the negative environmental effects associated with wetland use. However, despite this awareness, there is little institutional or governmental support for more effective wetland use by residents, and existing wetland legislation is not being effectively implemented, hindering their sustainable use.
Darryl Colenbrander (2019) Dissonant discourses: revealing South Africa’s policy-to-praxis challenges in the governance of coastal risk and vulnerability, Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 62:10, 1782-1801, DOI: 10.1080/09640568.2018.1515067
Abstract
Despite South Africa’s transition to democracy and policy vocabularies of co-governance, inclusivity and fairness in decision making that underpin both the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa and national coastal policy – the White Paper on Sustainable Coastal Development – these principles remain elusive in the day-to-day governance of coastal risk and vulnerability. A basic quantitative investigation into the representation of civil society on government-led ‘collaborative’ forums and the application of an Argumentative Discourse Analysis (ADA) reveals that a state-centric mode of governance dominates. This mode of governance is being stimulated and reinforced by isolationistic provisions contained within South Africa’s principal coastal legislation and policy instrument: the Integrated Coastal Management Act (No. 36 of 2014 as amended). This mode of governance is, in return, amplifying coastal risk and vulnerability in South Africa more broadly.
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João Resende-Santos (2019) Cape Verde and the risks of tourism specialisation: the tourism option for Africa’s small states, Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 37:1, 148-168, DOI: 10.1080/02589001.2019.1619916
Abstract
Tourism is a viable, but risky, option for many small island countries to integrate and compete in the world economy. This article examines tourism in the small island economy of Cape Verde. It assesses the risks to its long term development posed by the industry. The country has one of the fastest growing tourism industries in the world. However, this rapid growth is a dual-edge sword. Tourism-led growth results in real economic gains. However, the type and organisation of Cape Verde’s tourism industry magnifies the country’s already high structural vulnerability. Given its current structure and pace of growth, tourism increases macroeconomic risks and vulnerability. It is reproducing the same monoculture dependency that traditionally hampered development in African economies. The policy lessons are clear. Cape Verde must foster economic diversification while simultaneously engaging in strategies to mitigate the risks that accompany its biggest and fastest growing sector and export.
Jarryd Alexander, David A. Ehlers Smith, Yvette C. Ehlers Smith, Colleen T. Downs (2019). A multi-taxa functional diversity assessment of the effects of eco-estate development in the mixed land-use mosaic of the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast, South Africa, Landscape and Urban Planning, Volume 192, December 2019, 103650
Abstract
Global biodiversity is currently under threat from human population expansion and the required land transformation for shelter and resources. Land transformation, in the form of agriculture or urbanisation is believed to reduce habitats and their resources, increase fragmentation of natural habitats, and increase the likelihood of successful invasion by exotic species. These all affect existing biodiversity, its structure, and the ecosystem services which it provides. In recent years, development from natural and agricultural (mainly sugarcane) land into eco-estates (housing developments with the intention of conserving the environment) has become increasingly popular along the north coast of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), South Africa. However, research on their impacts on the local environment is limited. We predicted that these eco-estates are, by their design, improving the functional diversity of amphibians, birds, and mammals, and ultimately ecosystem functioning. A multi-taxa assessment of the three components of functional diversity (functional richness, functional evenness, and functional divergence) suggested that eco-estate development was improving certain components for each of the taxa assessed. However, the management and development of these eco-estates was the key determinant. Eco-estates with increased interconnected indigenous forest and thicket/dense bush, with reduced housing and road density, exhibited improved functional diversity in comparison with those more densely inhabited containing isolated natural land-cover patches. We believe that these eco-estates could provide an effective mitigation method of population expansion whilst maintaining ecosystem health, but only under the recommended development and management plans.
Keywords: Functional richness; Functional evenness; Functional divergence; Urbanisation; Agriculture; Land transformation; Development; Multi-taxa
Jacqueline Knörr & Anita Schroven (2019) Global and local models of governance in interaction: configurations of power in Upper Guinea Coast societies, Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 37:1, 57-71, DOI: 10.1080/02589001.2019.1633012
Abstract
This paper studies emerging power configurations in Upper Guinea Coast societies which result from contemporary interactions of global and local models of governance. With empirical data on shifting meanings of chieftaincy and control of land, changing tax regimes and the rising importance of youth in domestic politics, modifications of legitimate authority across time are contrasted with the effects of international interventions and global discourses on socio-political change. Some of these interventions accelerate, others accentuate or counteract processes of change within local power configurations. Only by carefully considering the innate malleability of local concepts of authority, history, and tradition can contemporary processes of change be identified as either mere reconfigurations or genuinely new configurations of power.
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Brian P. Mulenga, Solomon T. Tembo & Robert B. Richardson (2019) Electricity access and charcoal consumption among urban households in Zambia, Development Southern Africa, 36:5, 585-599, DOI: 10.1080/0376835X.2018.1517036
Abstract
This study uses a nationally representative dataset of urban households in Zambia to examine household cooking fuel choice patterns and to quantify the effect of access to electricity on household charcoal consumption. We find charcoal to be the most prevalent cooking fuel, for both households with and without electricity access. Proportionately more charcoal users reside in low income residential areas. Using a two-stage econometric estimation procedure that accounts for endogeneity of access to electricity, we find that on average, households with access to electricity consume 54% less charcoal than their counterparts without access. Further, our results indicate that charcoal consumption tends to increase with income, but this increase attenuates as income increases further. Other socio-demographic variables such as age, education and household size are also important in influencing charcoal consumption. We discuss implications for interventions aimed at promoting cleaner energy sources and efficient charcoal use for cooking among urban residents.
Oussama A. Hadadi & Shin Lee (2019) The climate change mitigation potential of Algiers URT through mode shift from the car to rail – assessing CO2 emissions reductions on the basis of savings in fuel consumption, International Planning Studies, 24:2, 195-206
Abstract
This paper attempts to assess the potential of a transport policy to mitigate climate change by assessing the impacts of urban rail transit (URT) investments on travel mode choice and carbon dioxide emission reductions in Algiers, the capital city of Algeria. The objectives are: (1) to assess the extent of travel mode change from private automobiles to rail for commuting trips as an effect of the URT operation; (2) to identify complementary measures which might be adopted to enhance the effect of the URT; and (3) to quantify the CO2 emission reductions on the basis of the fuel saved per person as a result of the travel mode change that occurred, following the IPCC guideline methodologies. A questionnaire survey of the URT users was conducted to observe the behavioural changes. Positive effects of rail projects in terms of attracting car users to the new travel modes have been evidenced, resulting in a significant extent of carbon emission reductions, which signifies a contribution to sustainable urban mobility and climate change mitigation. The findings also show reinforcing effects of both fuel price increases and parking restrictions on mitigating transport-related carbon emissions.
Eduful, A.K. and M. Hooper ( 2019). Urban migration and housing during resource booms: The case of Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana. Habitat International [Online First]
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S019739751930178X
Abstract
This paper investigates the relationship between urban migration and housing in the context of an emergent oil boom in Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana. The paper responds to the relative lack of research on resource boom-driven urbanization, particularly in Africa, and on the way in which urban migration shapes, and is shaped by, housing conditions. The paper analyzes the relationship between housing conditions and urban migrants’ choice of residential locations. Drawing on both qualitative and quantitative analysis of data from 322 surveys in two neighborhoods of Sekondi-Takoradi, the paper draws three primary conclusions. First, migrants’ choices regarding where they live are premised on neighborhood housing conditions. Second, most migrants are urban-urban migrants which means that the predominant theories of urban growth are poorly equipped to address the urban transformation occurring in Sekondi-Takoradi. Finally, migrants’ housing choices have considerable urban form implications, promoting in different contexts both urban densification and urban sprawl. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of these findings in the Ghanaian and wider African contexts.
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Brady, C. and M. Hooper (2019). Redefining Engagement with Socio-spatially Marginalised Populations: Learning from Ghana’s Ministry of Inner City and Zongo Development. Urbanisation [Online First] https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2455747119868532
Abstract
Global interest in enhancing accountability and community participation has led many governments to engage socio-spatially marginalised populations left behind by urban development. This article examines an emergent example of these efforts: Ghana’s Ministry of Inner City and Zongo Development (MICZD). The MICZD’s objective is to improve the social and infrastructural development of zongos, or ‘stranger’s quarters’, which have historically housed Hausa migrants and are associated with slum-like conditions. The study draws on 38 interviews with government stakeholders, community organisations and local leaders as well as on four focus groups with zongo residents. The results reveal four key findings. First, the MICZD’s engagement with zongos is perceived as politically motivated, with this viewed negatively by some and positively by others. Second, the MICZD’s timeline is perceived differently depending on who is being asked. Third, respondents differ in their prioritisation of physical versus social improvements, with the MICZD focussing on physical interventions and zongo residents focussing on social and economic development. Finally, different groups have varied visions of success for the MICZD. The article concludes by identifying two paths towards more empowering state–society engagement—more continuous engagement and counterbalancing powers—and proposes how lessons from the MICZD can inform engagement with marginalised populations more broadly.
Download full text (pdf): https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2455747119868532
R. Keeton & S. Nijhuis (2019) Spatial challenges in contemporary African New Towns and potentials for alternative planning strategies, International Planning Studies, 24:3-4, 218-234, DOI: 10.1080/13563475.2019.1660625
Abstract
New Towns in development across Africa are overwhelmingly designed according to twentieth-century planning models ranging from functionalist Chinese grids to American gated communities. Contemporary African New Towns based on these models are often unable to adapt to stimuli and, as a result, exacerbate both spatial and ecological challenges. The objective of this paper is to argue that African New Towns require a substantial shift from current practice and that planners must imagine new, hybrid planning strategies. This paper takes an exploratory approach and identifies the spatial challenges specific to contemporary African New Towns. Building on the argument that planning benefits from linkages between critical social theory and environmental science, this paper asserts that an adaptive urban planning approach that effectively engages citizens can be a more sustainable alternative to current practice. The paper concludes with implications for future research on the translation of challenges into potentials for African New Towns.
Download full text (pdf): https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/13563475.2019.1660625?needAccess=true
Richard Grant, Martin Oteng-Ababio & Jessy Sivilien (2019) Greater Accra’s new urban extension at Ningo-Prampram: urban promise or urban peril?, International Planning Studies, 24:3-4, 325-340
Abstract
New private property investments in Africa’s cities are on the rise, often manifested as comprehensively planned urban extensions. Greater Accra has several competing city projects under development, potentially launching new city-making trajectories and competitive struggles among rival projects. This article assesses the rationale and early evolution of Ghana’s largest, most ambitious project the Ningo-Prampram Urban Extension, aiming to accommodate 1.5 million people. Supported by UN-Habitat, international consultants, government, and local Chiefs, the constellation of actors supports a public-private partnership to engage in urban entrepreneurialism, underpinned by sustainable development features and promising increased global connectivity. However, this project raises socio-spatial contradictions with regard to how affordable housing, an airport city and other developments can augment Accra’s development. Global economy articulation as well as intra-city connectivity is promised but at its peril it amplifies sprawl so that the Accra City Region evolves into a string of beads along the Trans-West African Highway.
Max Rousseau & Tarik Harroud (2019) Satellite cities turned to ghost towns? On the contradictions of Morocco’s spatial policy, International Planning Studies, 24:3-4, 341-352, DOI: 10.1080/13563475.2019.1665500
Abstract
A megaproject of new cities was launched in Morocco in 2004. According to public discourses, it was aimed at easing congestion in big cities and address the considerable deficit in social housing. A decade later, the recorded achievements appear much lower compared to the declared ambitions, to the point of provoking strong political and social oppositions. An analysis of the megaprojects’ implementation sheds light on the contradictions in the megaproject’s objectives, seen through the example of the new city of Tamesna.
Beacon Mbiba (2019) Planning scholarship and the fetish about planning in Southern Africa: the case of Zimbabwe’s operation Murambatsvina, International Planning Studies, 24:2, 97-109, DOI: 10.1080/13563475.2018.1515619
Abstract
Contributing to the resurgent debate on urban informality in the global south, Kamete (2013) charged that urban planners in Southern Africa have a fetish about informality that is fuelled by an obsession with modernity. In these and other writings, Zimbabwe’s 2005 Operation Murambatsvina (OM) is used as a prototype planning malfeasance. Using the concept of fetish and fetishism, this paper argues that a fixation on and fetish about planning and planners has led some planning scholars to churn out misplaced or misleading understandings of OM regarding the role of planning (in) the operation. Inevitably, recommendations for planning reform from such scholarship are largely inefficacious. It is time planning scholars looked seriously beyond planning for both analytical tools and space for political activism.
Eline Splinter & Yves Van Leynseele (2019) The conditional city: emerging properties of Kenya’s satellite cities, International Planning Studies, 24:3-4, 308-324, DOI: 10.1080/13563475.2019.1661831
Abstract
Satellite cities in Kenya are driven by belief in economic growth driven by emerging middle classes and investors. As visionary policy objects they help inform national economic policies and spatial planning strategies such as Kenya’s Vision 2030. State and private investments required for their planned realization however remains elusive. This paper examines the emergent planning process of four satellite cities in Kenya based on interviews with key stakeholders and extensive document analysis. In their suspended states awaiting investment and development, these cities contend with ‘ordinary city’ dynamics. They start to articulate with changes in the political and institutional landscape and state-led decentralization initiatives. Our findings show how these cities represent an unwieldy blend of private and public elements that is shaped largely as a result of ‘statist alignments.’ In conclusion, we nuance the common conceptualization of satellite cities as planning contexts for expansion of neoliberal, speculative development and global city-making.
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International Journal of E-Planning Research (IJEPR)
Volume 9, Issue 1, January – April 2020
Published: Quarterly in Print and Electronically
ISSN: 2160-9918; EISSN: 2160-9926;
Published by IGI Global Publishing, Hershey, USA
www.igi-global.com/ijepr
Editor-in-Chief: Carlos Nunes Silva (University of Lisbon, Portugal)
EDITORIAL PREFACE
Smart Urban Governance, Citizens’ E-Participation and Local Spatial Planning
Carlos Nunes Silva
RESEARCH ARTICLES
A Sociotechnical Framework for Smart Urban Governance: Urban Technological Innovation and Urban Governance in the Realm of Smart Cities (pages 1-19)
Huaxiong Jiang, Stan Geertman, Patrick Witte
Determinants and Consequences of Citizens’ E-Participation: The Case Study of the App MyHomeCity (pages 20-43)
Raul Machado, António Azevedo
Research on Collective Human Mobility in Shanghai Based on Cell Phone Data (pages 44-62)
Xiyuan Ren, De Wang
How to Integrate Universities and Cities Through Local Spatial Developments: Case Study of Wuhan, China (pages 63-86)
Wenjing Luo, Haijun Li, Han Zou
BOOK REVIEW
The Virtual and the Real in Planning and Urban Design
Carlos Nunes Silva
Damas William Mapunda, Sophia Shuang Chen, Cheng Yu (2018). The role of informal small-scale water supply system in resolving drinking water shortages in peri-urban Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, Applied Geography, Volume 92, 2018, Pages 112-122,
Abstract
Developing countries are facing unprecedented urbanization coupled with informal peri-urban growth, characterized by inadequate basic infrastructure provision. A large proportion of peri-urban populations particularly in the Sub-Saharan African region faces limited access to drinking water. Informal water suppliers of varying size and scale have become predominant and fill drinking water supply gap left by public utilities. This paper draws on qualitative and quantitative research approach to examine the state, role and inherent practices of informal water supply system in addressing peri-urban drinking water shortages along with consumers and stakeholders’ attitudes towards the system. Open-ended and semi-structured questionnaires were used to interview private water providers, public officials, households and other stakeholders to document informal water supply practices. The results indicate that informal small-scale providers account for 100% of drinking water in peri-urban settlements, but water infrastructures are in the dire state as its investment is carried out without adequate professional guidance. Furthermore over 64.1% of the communities acknowledged the importance of informal water providers in increasing water access. However, their recognition contravened with public institutions’ position where 60% maintained that public water provision remains a viable option for peri-urban water access. Nevertheless, overall condition depicts that informal small-scale water supply systems remain pertinent and leading drinking water access options for many households in peri-urban settlements. Acknowledging its contribution along with integration into public regulatory mechanism can greatly contribute towards the improvement of water supply services to the majority of informal urban and peri-urban populations.
Keywords: Drinking water; Informal water providers; Small-scale; Peri-urban areas; Dar es Salaam
Moodley, S. (2019). Why Do Planners Think That Planning Has Failed Post-Apartheid? The Case of eThekwini Municipality, Durban, South Africa. Urban Forum, 30: 307. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-018-9357-0
Abstract
Nearly 25 years after democracy, South African cities are still burdened with an apartheid spatial form. Whilst some literature on the persistence of the legacy of apartheid spatial planning exists, not enough work has been done to understand the complex challenges facing the urban planners mandated with the task of spatial redress. Using a case study of the eThekwini Municipality in Durban, South Africa, this article responds to this gap. The research commenced with a census survey of 87 municipal planners within the municipality, supported by five interviews with senior City executives. What stood out from the survey was that three quarters of all planners admitted that municipal planning had not been successful in transforming the built environment in Durban. In trying to understand the critical challenges facing municipal planning, the top three issues emerging from the study in order of priority were the negative influence of politics that affects technical decision-making, a compliance-driven legal framework, and an unsupportive institutional environment. In unpacking findings from the study, the paper contributes to the debates around the role of planning professionals in post-apartheid spatial transformation within the context of a market economy. In particular, it exposes how political power being exerted on behalf of private developers to influence local planning decisions, compromises the interests of the poor in the city. It also brings attention to the impact of an unsupportive institutional environment in inhibiting city spatial transformation. It does not seek to propose ready-made solutions to these challenges but suggests the urgent need for a sustained conversation with strategic role players about reimagining planning, making the call for renewed action.
Scheba, A. & Turok, I.N. (2019). Strengthening Township Economies in South Africa: the Case for Better Regulation and Policy Innovation. Urban Forum (https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-019-09378-0)
Abstract
There is considerable policy interest in supporting township economies at present. This is important considering their history of marginalization and the extent of unemployment and poverty. However, the short-term injection of additional resources could simply leak out unless more conducive conditions are created for enterprises to grow and develop locally. The paper examines the framework of government laws, regulations and administrative procedures that inhibit township economic development. Inappropriate standards and onerous approval systems make it difficult for firms with growth aspirations and potential to formalize their operations and expand. The current situation oscillates between laissez-faire neglect and enforcement of punitive regulations, which creates uncertainty and opportunities for abuse. The paper concludes with some recommendations to create a more enabling environment, emphasizing the need for local experimentation and learning from reforms to different elements of the regulatory framework.
Hye-Sung Kim, Yong Yoon, Mary Mutinda (2019). Secure land tenure for urban slum-dwellers: A conjoint experiment in Kenya, Habitat International, Volume 93, 2019
Abstract
Until recently, improving land tenure security has been an integral part of slum upgrading initiatives aimed at improving living conditions in urban slums. However, there is limited empirical evidence on whether slum dwellers find housing options with improved tenure security preferable and whether they can afford such options. This study identifies the causal effects of improving land tenure security on slum dwellers’ preferences and abilities to afford alternative, upgraded housing options. To this end, it employs a conjoint experiment embedded in a public opinion survey on a sample of 3,715 respondents from five urban slums in Nairobi and its outskirts. Our experiment has three main findings. First, slum dwellers prefer a more secure land tenure type rather than contested land when considering where to live, but this preference depends on the respondents’ informal settlement, occupation, and stated reasons for living in the slum. Second, improvement of land tenure security has almost no influence on slum dwellers’ abilities to afford upgraded housing options. Instead, the cost of rent is the most important factor determining affordability. Finally, slum dwellers’ preferences and affordability frequently do not overlap. For instance, over half (56%) of the respondents who prefer the housing option with a more secure land tenure type—that is, land with clear ownership—over contested land are unable to afford it. Therefore, improving land tenure security alone will have limited success in helping slum dwellers transition to housing options with improved living conditions. Instead of one-size-fits-all land formalization policies aiming at improving land tenure security, policies should be designed specifically for each informal settlement to address its residents’ unique needs and interests.
Keywords: Informal settlement; Slum dwelling; Land tenure security; Conjoint experiment; Africa; Kenya
Blaauw, P., Pretorius, A., Viljoen, K. et al. (2019). Adaptive Expectations and Subjective Well-being of Landfill Waste Pickers in South Africa’s Free State Province. Urban Forum, First Online: 01 November 2019, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-019-09381-5
Abstract
Waste pickers are widely regarded as among the most marginalised groupings in the informal economy. Theoretically, this can have a negative impact on the evaluation of their well-being. The aim of the research was to investigate possible determinants of subjective well-being in South Africa’s informal economy, using a case study of waste pickers on landfill sites in the Free State province of South Africa. The data were sourced from structured interviews with 420 waste pickers on landfill sites in the three major municipalities in the Free State province in 2012. A mixed method research design was used in the research. The standard quantitative data analysis was supplemented with a qualitative analysis to provide deeper insight into the research question. The results are reported in context with the broader perspective of the labour market in South Africa. The results indicate the importance of location and size of the landfill in explaining the subjective well-being of the waste pickers. Further research is needed among other marginalised groups to gain a clearer understanding of the lives and livelihoods of those involved in the informal economy of South Africa. Society will then be better placed to value the contribution of informal waste pickers in the waste economy and policy makers will be better equipped to integrate them in the formal waste management strategies of municipalities.
Peter O. Mbah & Uchenna C. Obiagu (2019). The Quest for Community Development in Nigeria: Interrogating the Utility of Fourth-Tier System of Government in Imo State, International Journal of Public Administration, 42:14, 1188-1199
Abstract
The recent establishment of fourth-tier system as a distinct, but coordinating level of government in Imo State came with the expectation that it would facilitate community development. However, the underdevelopment situation of most communities dashed this expectation. Thus, this recent study adopted theory of postcolonial state as our analytical framework to interrogate the development utility of the fourth-tier system using mixed research methods for evidence gathering and analysis. The analysis revealed that the system grossly underperformed its development functions resulting from lack of stakeholders’ supports, which should be the basis for determination and implementation of fourth-tier system in Imo State.
Keywords: Fourth-tier system, community development, decentralization, collective stakeholder engagement, Imo State, policy imposition
Tinashe Paul Kanosvamhira & Daniel Tevera (2019) Urban agriculture as a source of social capital in the Cape Flats of Cape Town, African Geographical Review, DOI: 10.1080/19376812.2019.1665555
Abstract
This paper contributes to the debate on urban agriculture as a source of social capital amongst local communities in African cities through a case-study of Mitchells Plain, a low-income neighborhood in the Cape Flats region of Cape Town, South Africa. A mixed-methods approach, combining a questionnaire survey and in-depth interviews with urban gardeners, as well as interviews with officials was undertaken. The findings show that urban agriculture increases social interaction among urban gardeners and the community. They also show that non-governmental organizations and government actors are crucial in enhancing social interaction within the community. Therefore, these findings have implications for development practitioners who continue supporting and encouraging the uptake of urban agriculture by residents of Mitchells Plain.
Daniel Kpienbaareh & Isaac Luginaah (2019) Modeling the internal structure, dynamics and trends of urban sprawl in Ghanaian cities using remote sensing, spatial metrics and spatial analysis, African Geographical Review, DOI: 10.1080/19376812.2019.1677482
Abstract
In Ghana, studies on urban sprawl have focused on the use of conventional survey maps and qualitative descriptions that mask policy-relevant information for planning. We apply remote sensing data and spatial statistics to examine the Spatio-temporal dynamics in the internal structure of two cities. We find that the total area of the urban fabric in Wa increased from 11.365ha ± 0.413ha in 1986 to 1, 775.848ha ± 52.094ha in 2017, while Tamale’s increased from 715.425ha ± 5.969ha in 1984 to 6,890.177ha ± 208.105ha in 2017. The results also revealed contiguity in urban clusters. We discuss the implications of our findings within the context of spatial planning in Ghana.
Ahmеd Kh Abd Еl Aal, Bassеm S. Nabawy, Adnan Aqееl, Abdеlfattah Abidi (2020). Gеohazards assessment of the karstifiеd limestone cliffs for safe urban constructions, Sohag, West Nile Valley, Egypt. Journal of African Earth Sciences, Volume 161, 2020,
AbstractKarstifiеd rock formations are, sometimes, responsible for major hazards to urban development and to human life as well. Thе cartographic and descriptive inventory of karst phenomenon is a concrete contribution to thе management and conservation of thosе arеas whеrе solublе carbonatеs and evaporites arе prеsеnt at thе surfacе and/or in thе subsurface. Thе prеsеnt gеohazards and risk assеssmеnt study concеrns with thе highly karstifiеd and risky area of Sohag, wеst of the Nilе Vallеy, Еgypt. It is dominatеd by thе top surfacе of thе highly wеathеrеd and karstifiеd Miocеnе Drunka Formation. This highly karstifiеd bеdrock was еxplorеd and monitorеd for thе prеsеncе of cavеs and sinkholеs using the ground penetrating radar ‘GPR’ and the еlеctrical rеsistivity tomography ‘ЕRT’. Thе study succееdеd to monitor thе lеss hazardous arеas by introducing a hazard assеssmеnt map to hеlp in futurе planning for dеvеlopmеnt. Finally, a panorama for thе best еnginееring treatments is proposed in ordеr to mitigate the hazard related to collapses linked to thе prеsеncе of some palеodolinеs. The present study indicated that only the areas that are located to the west and southwest of the study area, close to the mountainous areas and away from the Nile valley, are suitable for constructions.