Studies of government and politics in Africa are dominated by a focus on the national and 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 city level and urban security both 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 depth knowledge of one of three or more cities treated in each case. This volume will interest scholars of African and of urban studies as well as urban policy-makers and practitioners
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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
