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Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Urban Dynamics

'Legal Empowerment of the Poor' versus 'Right to the City' : Implications for access to housing in urban Africa

Upphovsperson: Vogiazides, Louisa
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Urban Dynamics | Uppsala, Sweden
År: 2012
Ämnesord: Towns, Urban areas, Urbanization, Urban housing, poverty, Low income groups, Property rights, Empowerment Legislation, Research methods, comparative analysis, Africa, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP
The challenge of urban deprivation and exclusion in the urban South has given rise to varied and shifting policies and ideas. Two sets of ideas have gained great currency in recent years in international policy and academic circles. The Legal Empowerment of the Poor approach, rooted in neoliberal thinking, focuses on the legal rights of the urban poor as the means to secure access to basic services and needs. The Right to the City perspective, on the other hand, stresses issues of citizenship and the appropriation and uses of urban space. This Policy Dialogue analyses the different ideological and normative foundations of the two perspectives and discusses how they lead to different policy formulations. It then takes a closer look at how the two perspectives find expression in contemporary discussions on and approaches to access to housing in urban Africa. To this end, it compares what each approach identifies as the source of the problem and recommends as the policy solution.

50th anniversary conference 'Fifty years with Africa in focus' : Panel discussion following the presentation of the anniversary publication “Researching Africa”

Upphovspersoner: Sall, Ebrima | Teppo, Annika | Cheru, Fantu
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Urban Dynamics | Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | CODESRIA | Uppsala, Sweden
År: 2012
Ämnesord: anniversary conference, panel discussion, Teppo, Cheru, Sall, research, Africa
Filmed during the 50th anniversary conference 'Fifty years with Africa in focus', 12 October 2012 in Uppsala, Sweden. 44 min. 40 sek.

The Social Infrastructures of City Life in Contemporary Africa

Upphovsperson: Simone, AbdouMaliq
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Urban Dynamics | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2010
Ämnesord: Towns, Urbanization, Urban environment, Physical infrastructure, Governance, Urban development, Social change, Africa, Sociology, Sociologi
The growth of cities is one of the most significant aspects of the contemporary transformation of African societies. Cities in Africa are the sites of major political, economic and social innovation, and thus play a critical role in national politics, domestic economic growth and social development. They are also key platforms for interaction with the wider world and mediate between global and national contexts. Cities are variously positioned in global flows of resources, goods and ideas, and are shaped by varied historical trajectories and local cultures. The result is a great diversity of urban societies across the continent. Cities in Africa are not only growing rapidly but are also undergoing deep political, economic and social transformation. They are changing in ways that defy usual notions of urbanism. In their dazzling complexity, they challenge most theories of the urban. African cities represent major challenges as well as opportunities. Both need to be understood and addressed if a sustainable urban future is to be achieved on the continent. The Urban Cluster of the Nordic Africa Institute, through its research, seeks to contribute to an understanding of processes of urban change in Africa. This discussion paper by Professor AbdouMaliq Simone, commissioned by the Urban Cluster, is a valuable contribution to shaping the research agenda on urban Africa.

Seven Themes in African Urban Dynamics

Upphovsperson: Myers, Garth Andrew
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Urban Dynamics | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2010
Ämnesord: Towns, Urbanization, Urban sociology, Literature surveys, Social theory, Urban research, Sociology, Sociologi
The growth of cities is one of the most significant aspects of the contemporary transformation of African societies. Cities in Africa are the sites of major political, economic and social innovation, and thus play a critical role in national politics, domestic economic growth and social development. They are also key platforms for interaction with the wider world and mediate between global and national contexts. Cities are variously positioned in global flows of resources, goods and ideas, and are shaped by varied historical trajectories and local cultures. The result is a great diversity of urban societies across the continent. Cities in Africa are not only growing rapidly but are also undergoing deep political, economic and social trans-formation. They are changing in ways that defy usual notions of urbanism. In their dazzling complexity, they challenge most theories of the urban. African cities represent major challenges as well as opportunities. Both need to be understood and addressed if a sustainable urban future is to be achieved on the continent. The Urban Cluster of the Nordic Africa Institute, through its research, seeks to contribute to an understanding of processes of urban change in Africa. This discussion paper by Professor Garth Myers, commissioned by the Urban Cluster, is a valuable contribution to shaping the research agenda on urban Africa.

Privatising services as if people matter : Solid waste management in Abuja, Nigeria

Upphovsperson: Onyanta, Adama
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Urban Dynamics | Uppsala, Sweden
År: 2012
Ämnesord: SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP
There is an overwhelming focus on the state and the private sector in the language and practice of privatisation, even though it calls for a tripartite arrangement that includes the people. A major consequence is the failure to comprehend and assess fully the important role of the people. While the people have a major part in supporting privatisation through payment of user charges, they are not often seen as key partners by city governments in Africa. Public participation has important implications for finance and cost recovery. Thus a people-centred approach to privatisation in which the users of services are consulted and involved in decision-making processes is crucial to the emergence of sustainable solid waste management systems in African cities. This study provides useful insights into the complexity of public participation in the context of privatisation of solid waste services and offers policy guidelines relevant to the major stakeholders.

Tenants' and owners' participation in rotating savings groups and help groups: A study of housing tenure forms and social inclusion in Mwanza city, Tanzania

Upphovsperson: Cadstedt, Jenny
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Urban Dynamics |
År: 2012
Ämnesord: SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP
International policy emphasises the importance of slum dwellers' rights of access to cities and their social inclusion. Legalisation of land holdings in informal settlements is one way of enacting this policy. However, this measure favours house owners over the large proportion of tenants renting rooms in private houses in informal settlements in many cities in the global South. Rental housing is neglected by many governments. What role does the form of house tenure play in other processes of social inclusion in informal settlements? This article examines one of many forms of social inclusion: participation of tenants and owners in rotating savings groups and help groups in two areas in Mwanza city, Tanzania. The results indicate that both tenants and owners participate in groups, which are based not only on the geographical area of residence but on work, ethnicity and religion. The study also indicates that not all groups accept tenants as members, because of their high mobility.

Ambivalent inheritance: Jinja Town in search of a postcolonial refrain

Upphovsperson: Byerley, Andrew
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Urban Dynamics | Routledge
År: 2011
Ämnesord: Uganda, Colonial and Postcolonial planning, housing estate, rhythmnanalysis, Human geography, Kulturgeografi
Jinja Town in Uganda, selected as one of five centres of growth in the post-WWII era of colonial developmentism, is perennially represented in the Ugandan media as the quintessential industrial town gone off-track. This is particularly evident for the case of the African housing estates built in Jinja in the 1950s where the dominant everyday rhythm is no longer dictated by the factory siren or the monthly wage but is instead a landscape scored by multiple rhythms. By conceptualising these estates as inherited machines – still loaded with a profusion of signs and objects from the era of the modern industrial ‘refrain’ – this paper seeks both to illustrate the colonial planning rationality and to examine contemporary processes of vernacular urbanism and contestations surrounding ‘re-occupations’ of the post-colonial city. It is argued that we need to seriously question any a priori invocation of a generic form of vernacular urbanism that is (or is not) to be prioritized over or ‘mixed’ with a Western planning cycle. Instead, the case study shows how historically mediated place specificities complicate the notion that the logics of place making can be unproblematically abstracted from.

Transnational Activism Networks and Gendered Gatekeeping : Negotiating Gender in an African Association of Informal Workers

Upphovsperson: Lindell, Ilda
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Urban Dynamics |
År: 2011
Ämnesord: Informal sector, Social movements, International organizations, Grass roots groups, Networks, Associations, Women’s organizations, Women’s participation, leadership, gender relations, feminism, case studies, Mozambique, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP
The last decade has witnessed the rise of a great number of transnational social movements and activist networks. While many of these movements have been initiated in the North, some are driven by people from the Global South with the aim of addressing various forms of destitution and asserting a variety of basic economic and cultural rights. Such transnational organizing is increasingly evident in Sub-Saharan Africa. Some of these initiatives relate particularly to the growing numbers ofpeople depending on forms of informal work for survival. This edition of Current African Issues looks into the transnationalization of a local association of informal workers as it becomes involved in an international network of grassroots organizations. While this transnational engagement opens up new political possibilities, it also poses new challenges. Participation in international activities is highly unequal and mediated rather than direct, as influential actors engage in practices of gate-keeping that tend to work to the disadvantage of women. Tensions also emerged as a result of the divergent gender ideologies espoused by different participants. The paper draws on various theoretical perspectives on spatial politics in the global age to interrogate the unequal and contested spatialities of this transnational activism. Feminist scholarship sheds further light on the gendering processes at work in the transnationalization of a grassroots association.

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