Governing Cities in Africa

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Studies of government and politics in Africa are dominated by a focus on the national. They are typically set apart by anglophone, francophone and lusophone historical influences, with South Africa as an exception. This volume departs from a different set of questions and employs a novel approach in discussing them: cities in sub-Saharan Africa provide the pivot around which issues of policy and practice, planning and service delivery turn, at different scales and both from the top down as well as from the bottom up. Party politics, for example, is discussed at the city level and urban security within a state and a non-state context. The novelty of the approach is found in thematic rather than single-city chapters written by multiple authors, each of whom displays in-depth knowledge of one of three or more cities treated in each case. This volume will interest scholars of African and urban studies as well as urban policy-makers and practitioners.

Introduction Simon Bekker and Laurent Fourchard

Part I

Section introduction: Party Politics and the Politics of Identity
Chapter 1 Exploring the role of party politics in the governance of African cities
Claire Benit-Gbaffou, Alain Dubresson, Laurent Fourchard, Karine Ginisty, Sylvy Jaglin, Ayodeji Olukoju, Sam Owuor and Jeanne Vivet

Chapter 2 Urban planning, housing, and the making of ‘responsible citizens’
Sverine Awenengo, Hlne Charton, and Odile Goerg

Chapter 3 Changing minority identities in urban Africa
Jeanne Vivet, Denise Brgand, Rasheed Olaniyi and Amandine Spire

Part II

Section introduction: Urban Public Policies: Problematising Informality
Chapter 4 Breaking down the binary: meanings of informal settlement in southern African Cities
Liela Groenewald, Marie Huchzermeyer, Kristen Kornienko, Marius Tredoux, Margot Rubin and Isabel Raposo

Chapter 5 The politics of solid waste management in Accra, Addis Ababa, Maputo and Ouagadougou: different cities, similar issues
Jeremy Grest Axel Baudouin, Camilla Bjerkli, and Hlne Qunot-Suarez

Chapter 6 Informality, public space and urban governance: an approach through street trading
Jean-Fabien Steck, Sophie. Didier, Mariane. Morange, and Margot Rubin

Chapter 7 Contested social orders: negotiating urban security in Nigeria and South Africa
Julie Berg, Rufus Akinyele, Laurent Fourchard, Kees van der Waal and Michellene Williams

Appendix City profiles

Simon Bekker is Emeritus Professor in Sociology at the University of Stellenbosch. He acted as Professor of Development Studies at Rhodes University, Professor of Sociology at UNISA and Director of the Centre for Social and Development Studies at the (then) University of Natal (Durban). He has held visiting fellow appointments at Oxford University, the Centre d’tude d’Afrique Noire in France, the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (SCAS), Uppsala in Sweden and has lectured at summer schools organized by CODESRIA in Dakar, Senegal. He obtained a PhD in Sociology from the University of Cape Town in 1974.