The Urban Question in Africa: Uneven Geographies of Transition

The Urban Question in Africa: Uneven Geographies of Transition explores the uneven and contested nature of Africa's urban transition, focusing on the impacts of global geopolitical shifts, economic changes, the climate crisis, and China on African cities and the continent's development. It presents a novel framework based on fieldwork in multiple countries and regions and discusses the prospects for generative urbanism to produce and sustain long-term development.

Format: Hardback
Length: 288 pages
Publication date: 26 October 2023
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Inc

Africa is the world's most rapidly urbanizing region, undergoing an "urban revolution" without industrialization and often characterized by polarization, poverty, and fragmentation. While many cities have experienced construction booms and real estate speculation, others are marked by expanding informal economies and imploding infrastructures. The Urban Question in Africa: Uneven Geographies of Transition examines the imbalanced and contested nature of the ongoing urban transition in Africa. Edited and authored by leading experts on the subject, this unique volume develops an original theory conceptualizing cities as sociotechnical systems constituted by production, consumption, and infrastructure regimes. Throughout the book, in-depth chapters address the impacts of current meta-trends—global geopolitical shifts, economic changes, the climate crisis, and others—on Africa's cities and the broader development of the continent.

Presents a novel framework based on extensive fieldwork in multiple countries and regions of the continent. Examines geopolitical and socioeconomic topics such as manufacturing in African cities, the green economy in Africa, and the impact of China on urban Africa. Discusses the prospects for generative urbanism to produce and sustain long-term development in Africa. Features high-quality maps, illustrations, and photographs.

The Urban Question in Africa: Uneven Geographies of Transition is essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students in geography, urban planning, and African studies, academic researchers, geographers, urban planners.

Weight: 534g
Dimension: 158 x 239 x 22 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781119833611