African Cities: Defining a Paradox

Journal title TERRITORIO
Author/s Miriam Bodino, Arturo Pavani
Publishing Year 2017 Issue 2017/81
Language English Pages 5 P. 18-22 File size 797 KB
DOI 10.3280/TR2017-081003
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

African cities have been catalyzing great attention in the past decades, the narratives referring to them oscillating similarly to those of their continent: from alarmism to over-optimism. Literature has turned to the subject and a great number of publications about African cities have contributed to push forward the debate about their features and dynamics. At the same time, the very definition of the subject has been blurry. This paper aims to investigate the concept of African cities through the analysis of some of the most recent and relevant works that have been written on the subject, and the words of its authors. Our goal is to illustrate the common trends and the differences in their discourse when it comes to African Cities, and ultimately understand whether it can still be useful to utilize this concept or whether it is time to move on to more refined categorizations

Keywords: African cities; urbanization; urban theory

  1. Bekker S., Fourchard L., 2013, eds., Governing Cities in Africa: Politics and Policies. Human Sciences Research Council. DOI: 10.1177/0269094212468308
  2. Blas J., England A., 2014, «From ‘Africa Rising’ to ‘Africa Watching’». Financial Times, May 30. Text available at the website: https://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2014/05/30/from-africa-rising-to-africa-watching
  3. Bonaglia F., Wegner L., 2014, Africa. Un continente in movimento. Bologna: il Mulino.
  4. Bruyns G., Graafland A., 2012, African Perspectives, [South] Africa: City, Society, Space, Literature and Architecture. 010 Publishers.
  5. Chenal J., 2014, The West African City: Urban Space and Models of Urban Planning. New York: Routledge.
  6. Chenal J., Pedrazzini Y., Kaufmann V., 2009, «Esquisse d’une théorie ‘alter-moderne’ de la ville africaine». Revue électronique des sciences humaines et sociales. Text available at the website: www.espacestemps.net/articles/esquisse-theorie-alter-moderne-de-la-ville-africaine.
  7. Davies M., 2016, August 23, «From ‘Africa Rising’ to ‘Multispeed Africa’». Text available at the website: www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/africa-rising-multispeed-africa/55497.
  8. Davis M., 2007, Planet of Slums. London; New York: Verso.
  9. Freund B., 2007, The African City: A History. Cambridge England; New York: Cambridge U.P.
  10. Graham M., Hale S., Stephens M., 2011, Geographies of the World’s Knowledge. London: Convoco! Edition.
  11. Latouche S., Luquet G., 2008, Entre mondialisation et décroissance: L’autre Afrique. Lyon: A plus un titre.
  12. Malaquais D., 2006, Cosmopolis de la ville, de l’Afrique et du monde. Paris: Karthala Editions.
  13. Murray M. J., Myers G. A., 2006, eds., Cities in Contemporary Africa. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI: 10.1057/9780230603349
  14. Myers G., 2011, African Cities: Alternative Visions of Urban Theory and Practice. London-New York: Zed Books.
  15. Parnell S., Pieterse E., 2014, eds., Africa’s Urban Revolution. London-New York: Zed Books. DOI: 10.1111/1468-2427.12200_2
  16. Pieterse E., Simone A., 2013, eds., Rogue Urbanism: Emergent African Cities. Johannesburg, South Africa: Jacana Media.
  17. Potts D., 2012, Whatever Happened to Africa’s Rapid Urbanisation? Africa Research Institute.
  18. Robert A.C., 2006, L’Africa in soccorso dell’Occidente. Bologna: emi.
  19. Simone A., 2004, For the City Yet to Come: Changing African Life in Four Cities. Durham: Duke U.P. Books. DOI: 10.1215/9780822386247
  20. United Nations Human Settlements Programme, 2008, The State of African Cities 2008. A Framework for Adressing Urban Challenges in Africa. Nairobi: un-Habitat.
  21. United Nations Human Settlements Programme, 2010, The State of African Cities 2010. Governance, Inequality and Urban Land Markets. Nairobi: un-Habitat.
  22. United Nations Human Settlements Programme, 2014, The State of African Cities 2010. Re-imagining Sustainable Urban Transitions. Nairobi: un-Habitat.

  • Reframing the Role of Public Open Space Miriam Bodino, pp.19 (ISBN:978-3-030-94322-6)

Miriam Bodino, Arturo Pavani, African Cities: Defining a Paradox in "TERRITORIO" 81/2017, pp 18-22, DOI: 10.3280/TR2017-081003