Living for the City
Title | Living for the City PDF eBook |
Author | Miles Larmer |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Pages | 671 |
Release | 2021-08-12 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 1108968007 |
Living for the City is a social history of the Central African Copperbelt, considered as a single region encompassing the neighbouring mining regions of Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Haut Katanga and Zambian Copperbelt mine towns have been understood as the vanguard of urban 'modernity' in Africa. Observers found in these towns new African communities that were experiencing what they wrongly understood as a transition from rural 'traditional' society – stable, superstitious and agricultural – to an urban existence characterised by industrial work discipline, the money economy and conspicuous consumption, Christianity, and nuclear families headed by male breadwinners supported by domesticated housewives. Miles Larmer challenges this representation of Copperbelt society, presenting an original analysis which integrates the region's social history with the production of knowledge about it, shaped by both changing political and intellectual contexts and by Copperbelt communities themselves. This title is available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
Living the City in Africa
Title | Living the City in Africa PDF eBook |
Author | Brigit Obrist |
Publisher | LIT Verlag Münster |
Pages | 305 |
Release | 2013 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 3643801521 |
Research on cities worldwide still takes its cue from cities in Europe and the US, which are seen as the standard model. However, cities in the global South are undergoing a much more rapid transformation, including multiple interlinked transitions, with Africa featuring the highest urbanization rates world-wide. Scholars therefore call for a new approach to urban studies which examines cities from a more global comparative perspective. This book discusses the new approach, which pays added attention to the role that societal creativity plays in processes of urbanization, instead of concentrating exclusively on expert-driven planning and intervention. Especially in fast-growing cities with weaker institutional capacity for interventions, the interplay between intervention and invention, between expert and societal agency, becomes more tangible and all the more significant. (Series: Swiss African Studies / Schweizerische Afrikastudien / Etudes africaines suisses - Vol. 10)
The African City
Title | The African City PDF eBook |
Author | Bill Freund |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Pages | 199 |
Release | 2007-03-05 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 1139459554 |
This book is comprehensive both in terms of time coverage, from before the Pharaohs to the present moment and in that it tries to consider cities from the entire continent, not just Sub-Saharan Africa. Apart from factual information and rich description material culled from many sources, it looks at many issues from why urban life emerged in the first place to how present-day African cities cope in difficult times. Instead of seeing towns and cities as somehow extraneous to the real Africa, it views them as an inherent part of developing Africa, indigenous, colonial, and post-colonial and emphasizes the extent to which the future of African society and African culture will likely be played out mostly in cities. The book is written to appeal to students of history but equally to geographers, planners, sociologists and development specialists interested in urban problems.
For the City Yet to Come
Title | For the City Yet to Come PDF eBook |
Author | Abdou Maliqalim Simone |
Publisher | Duke University Press |
Pages | 314 |
Release | 2004-10-07 |
Genre | Political Science |
ISBN | 9780822334453 |
DIVA study of how colonial and postcolonial legacies manifest in African cities and African urban planning./div
African Cities and the Development Conundrum
Title | African Cities and the Development Conundrum PDF eBook |
Author | Carole Ammann |
Publisher | BRILL |
Pages | 348 |
Release | 2018-10-16 |
Genre | Law |
ISBN | 9004387943 |
This 10th thematic volume of International Development Policy presents a collection of articles exploring some of the complex development challenges associated with Africa’s recent but extremely rapid pace of urbanisation that challenges still predominant but misleading images of Africa as a rural continent. Analysing urban settings through the diverse experiences and perspectives of inhabitants and stakeholders in cities across the continent, the authors consider the evolution of international development policy responses amidst the unique historical, social, economic and political contexts of Africa’s urban development. Contributors include: Carole Ammann, Claudia Baez Camargo, Claire Bénit-Gbaffou, Karen Büscher, Aba Obrumah Crentsil, Sascha Delz, Ton Dietz, Till Förster, Lucy Koechlin, Lalli Metsola, Garth Myers, George Owusu, Edgar Pieterse, Sebastian Prothmann, Warren Smit, and Florian Stoll.
Associational Life in African Cities
Title | Associational Life in African Cities PDF eBook |
Author | Arne Tostensen |
Publisher | Nordic Africa Institute |
Pages | 336 |
Release | 2001 |
Genre | Social Science |
ISBN | 9789171064653 |
The book contains 17 chapters with material from 13 African countries, from Egypt to Swaziland and from Senegal to Kenya. Most of the authors are young African academics. The focus of the volume is the multitude of voluntary associations that has emerged in African cities in recent years. In many cases, they are a response to mounting poverty, failing infrastructure and services, and more generally, weak or abdicating urban governments. Some associations are new, in other cases, existing organizations are taking on new tasks. Associations may be neighbourhood-based, others may be city-wide and based on professional groupings or a shared ideology or religion. Still others have an ethnic base. Some of these organizations are engaged in both day-to-day matters of urban management and more long-term urban development. Urban associations challenge the monopoly of local and central government institutions.
Which Way to Livable and Productive Cities?
Title | Which Way to Livable and Productive Cities? PDF eBook |
Author | Kirsten Hommann |
Publisher | World Bank Publications |
Pages | 59 |
Release | 2019-04-18 |
Genre | Political Science |
ISBN | 1464814058 |
For African cities to grow economically as they have grown in size, they must create productive environments to attract investments, increase economic efficiency, and create livable environments that prevent urban costs from rising with increased population densification. What are the central obstacles that prevent African cities and towns from becoming sustainable engines of economic growth and prosperity? Among the most critical factors that limit the growth and livability of urban areas are land markets, investments in public infrastructure and assets, and the institutions to enable both. To unleash the potential of African cities and towns for delivering services and employment in a livable and environmentally friendly environment, a sequenced approach is needed to reform institutions and policies and to target infrastructure investments. This book lays out three foundations that need fixing to guide cities and towns throughout Sub-Saharan Africa on their way to productivity and livability.