DIY Urbanism in Africa: Politics and Practice
Author/Editor | Marr, Stephen (Malmoe University, Sweden (Author) |
| Mususa, Patience (Nordic Africa Institut (Author) |
ISBN: 9781786999023
Pub Date | 30/11/2023 |
Binding | Paperback |
Pages | 256 |
Dimensions (mm) | 234(h) * 156(w) |
An examination of Africa's urban resident's experimentations with living amidst crisis, to explore and understand responses to diminishing state presence and social marginalisation in distressed cities elsewhere in the world.
Across Africa, protracted economic crises and enduring class stratification have impacted a majority of the continent's city-dwellers, meaning that urban residents are forced to draw on their own resources and skills, often adopting experimental approaches to sustaining access to services and livelihoods.
This 'do-it-yourself' urbanism has generally been appraised through a developmental lens, in which case studies are understood in isolation. In this book, a comparative and cross-regional approach seeks to analyze this phenomenon across the continent, and to gain an understanding of the dynamics of DIY urbanism in a range of cities where urban residents experience economic distress and marginalization.
Does DIY urbanism present a form of resistance, or merely an acquiescence, to the inequalities that make it necessary? And what prospect is there for a radical politics to come out of this grassroots organization, to make cities work better for their poorest, and most marginalised, residents?