Urban Question in Africa

PÁDRAIG R. CARMODY, Professor in Geography, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland; Senior Research Associate, University of Johannesburg, South Africa. JAMES T. MURPHY, Professor and Director, Graduate School of Geography, Clark University, USA. RICHARD GRANT, Professor of Geography and Director of Urban Studies, University of Miami, Florida, USA. FRANCIS Y. OWUSU, Professor and Chair, Department of Community and Regional Planning, Iowa State University, USA.

• Series Editor's Preface xiAcknowledgements xiiList of Abbreviations xivIntroduction: Urban Transitions in Africa 1Urban Transition Trajectories in Africa: Generative or Parasitic? 7Assessing the Urbanization-Globalization-Industrialization Nexus 10Structure of the Book 131. (African) Cities as Sociotechnical Systems: A Conceptual Approach 18Introduction 18The Urban (Question) in Africa: A Review of the Literature 21Economic Geographies of Urban Development 22Radical, Planetary, Comparative and Postcolonial Urbanisms 24Urban Studies and Theory in/for Africa 26Conceptualizing the Urban Question in Africa 28(African) Cities as Sociotechnical Systems 29Applying the Approach 332. Urbanization with Industrialization? Manufacturing in African Cities 35Introduction 35Historicizing Africa's Manufacturing Path Dependencies 38Africa's Present-day Manufacturing Horizon 40The China Factor in African Manufacturing 43The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) 45Transforming Manufacturing? Governance Challenges and Opportunities 49Rethinking the Governance of Production Regimes: National Urban Policies 50Pathways for Industrialization in African Cities 52Conclusion 543. The Impact of China and Other New Economic Powers on African Cities 57Introduction 57NEUP-African Relations Today: Key Channels of Impact 59Imports 59Infrastructure and Other Productive Investments 60Housing and Built Environments 62Migration, Travel and Knowledge Flows 65Integrating the Channels and Their Impacts 67Sino-African Relations in Africa Today: Specific Forms and Regime Impacts 68Production Regimes 70Consumption Regimes 71Infrastructure Regimes 72Conclusion 744. Fantasy Urbanization in Africa: The Political Economy of Heterotopias 76Introduction 76The Rise of Fantasy Urbanism in Africa 77Neoliberal Planning and Heterotopic Urbanism in Africa 80Emerging Heterotopias in Africa 82Eko Atlantic (Lagos), Nigeria 82Konza Technopolis (Nairobi), Kenya 84HOPE City (Accra), Ghana 87Africa's Neoliberal Heterotopias: Generative or Exclusionary Enclaves? 885. A Generative Urban Informal Sector? 92Introduction 92The Contours of Africa's Urban Informal Economies 96Explicating the UIS Experience: Agbogbloshie Settlement, Accra 98Situating Africa's UIS in a Sociotechnical Systems Framework 104Transforming the UIS? ICTs, the 4IR and Makerspaces 106Realizing a More Generative UIS: Collaborative Pathways for Transition 109Conclusion 1106. The Rise of the "Gig Economy" and the Impacts of Virtual Capital on African Cities (with Alicia Fortuin) 114Defining the Gig Economy 115The Gig Economy in Africa 116Ride Sharing and the Evolution of Cape Town's Sociotechnical Regimes 118Practices in Cape Town's Ride-sharing Regime 120Governing Ride-sharing: Power Asymmetries, Informal Contracts and Rating Schemes 122Precarious Platforms: Safety Issues in Cape Town's Ride-sharing Economy 124Ride-sharing and the Evolution of Sociotechnical Regimes in African Cities 125Conclusion 1277. Making Cities Livable for All: Infrastructure and Service Provisioning Challenges 131Introduction 131The Scale and Scope of the Collective Goods Challenge in African Cities 132Governance of Infrastructure Regimes: Speculation, Resource Constraints and Political Priorities 138Splintered Urbanization and the Challenge of Service Distribution 140Structural and Political Economic Drivers of Infrastructure Deficits in African Cities 143SkyTrain -- Accra's Utopian Mega Infrastructure Project 144The Bagamoyo Port Project, Tanzania 145Kenya's Standard-Gauge Railway (SGR) 146Achieving Infrastructure Transformations: Recentering Use-Value 1478. The Wrath of Capital or Nature? Threats to Cities from Climate to COVID-19 150Introduction 150The Geography of Risk and Riskscapes 151Riskscapes, Cities and Sociotechnical Systems 153Climate Change and Sociotechnical Regimes 155Heat 155Sea Level Rise and Coastal Erosion 156Flooding 157Drought 159Public Health Threats: Pandemics (Ebola and COVID-19) 160Ebola 161COVID-19 162Managing Risk and Resilience in African Cities 1639. The Green Economy and African Cities 166Introduction 166The Green Economy and the Global South 168Africa's Green Economy Experience to Date 170Green Industrialization through SEZs? South Africa's Atlantis GreenTech Zone 173Green Economy Transitions and the Urban Informal Sector (UIS) 178Conclusion 18210. Prospects for Generative Urbanism in Africa 184Introduction 184Assessing the Urban Question in Africa Today: A Multidimensional View 185Realizing Generative Cities: Constraints, Capabilities, Governance and Resilience Strategies 187Production Regimes 188Consumption Regimes 190Infrastructure Regimes 193Reframing the Urban Question as a Sociotechnical, Systemic One 194References 199Index 251