Following debates on urban policy-mobilities and -learning in Human Geographies the dissertation takes the example of Kigali's masterplan to show how aspirations of Rwandan and Singaporean policy-makers are transformed into concrete urban planning interactions. It provides a close analysis of the practices behind the mobilization of spatial planning expertise. The dissertation traces how planning approaches and regulations are mediated within the interaction between Singaporean and Rwandan actors and ultimately take shape in Kigali's urban space.

Over the last 20 years, urbanization processes have undergone profound transformations under the growing influence of private actors, particularly in the financial sector. This has exposed the physical environment of various cities to global capital flows, which has generated an overall rise in real estate values on a global scale. This is often disconnected from the financial capacities of local actors – primarily households – which then increases the inequalities and vulnerabilities of societies regarding financial and environmental risks. This book offers the keys to understanding these new dynamics of capital accumulation in the general built-up environment of cities by taking into account the diversity of their configurations, their intensity and their urban effects according to national contexts. Beyond the cases involving the major Western countries, the initial centers of the financial industry and the theorizations on the urban, this book addresses the particular contexts of real estate production in four major regions: Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and West Africa.

Zusammenfassung This book investigates the speech of non-ethnic Fulfulde speakers in Maroua, Northern Cameroon, focussed on the Christian community, where the language is adopted as evangelistic instrument beside French. Three key reasons motivate our investigation. First: Context - Fulfulde is embedded in a multilingual contact situation with Indo-European languages (French, English) and many other local languages belonging to Afro-Asiatic, Nilo-Saharan and Niger-Congo phyla. Second: Fulfulde as lingua franca in the region. This status is unique compared to the situation in other countries such as Senegal, Chad or Sudan where it is mainly an intraethnic medium of communication. Third: In contrast to the common perception of Fulfulde as the language of a Muslim community - here we are targeting the Christian Fulfulde speakers who share the language as well as the Bible (translated into Fulfulde) as common goods for interethnic communication in their religious activities.

"This book is the first in-depth treatment from a linguistic perspective of the Chinese presence in Africa. It is essentially a detailed study on communication in various domains between Chinese immigrants in Cameroon and the local community with whom they interact. In eight chapters this well-organized book is able to give a relatively detailed sociolinguistic description of the host country, Cameroon, provide a good theoretical background of the study, outline the methodology used for the study which involved mainly a questionnaire survey, semi-structured interviews, and field observations before drawing conclusions to the study. This is a brilliant contribution to a growing literature on the global Chinese diaspora." Adams Bodomo, Professor of African Studies (Chair of Linguistics and Literatures) at the University of Vienna, Austria

The book identifies and critically analyses Hausa contemporary films known as Kannywood. The focus is on video films with particular emphasis on sources in oral literature. How traditional theatres are re-enacted and re-framed during filmmaking, and how far are traditional traits captured, changed, or enriched in video film are some issues the book negotiates on. The harmony between orature and technology, as generated by means of the transported film medium is expressed in the book. The new medium is integrated into the ongoing traditional and cultural surroundings, where native narrative traditions have been adopted into the global film medium, which is in alignment with contemporary medial culture.

A strong and widely acknowledged record of economic success-including a three-and-a-half-fold increase in per capita income since 1994--places Rwanda among the world’s fastest--growing economies. Traumatic memories of the 1994 genocide are gradually fading, as associations begin to take a more positive form--of a nation on the rise, powered by human resilience, a sense of common purpose, and a purposeful government. Past successes and a sense of frailty have fueled aspirations for a secure, prosperous, and modern future. Sustaining high rates of economic growth is at the heart of these ambitions. Recent formulations of the nation’s Vision 2050 set a target of achieving upper-middle-income status by 2035 and high-income status by 2050. Future Drivers of Growth in Rwanda: Innovation, Integration, Agglomeration, and Competition, a joint undertaking by experts from Rwanda and the World Bank Group, evaluates the country’s possibilities and options in this endeavor. The report identifies four essential drivers of growth--innovation, integration, agglomeration, and competition--and reforms in six priority areas: human capital development, export dynamism and regional integration, well-managed urbanization, competitive domestic enterprises, agricultural modernization, and capable and accountable public institutions.

This paper explores some of the key factors behind Rwanda key successes, including unique institution-building that emphasized governance and ownership; aid-fueled and government-led strategic investment in people, infrastructure, and high-yield economic activity;re-establishment and expansion of a domestic tax base; policies to reduce aid dependency by attracting private investment and bolstering exports; and a purposeful strategy to harness the economic power of gender inclusion.