The Economist conference 'Future Cities: managing Africa's urban transformation' was held in Lagos last month. Certainly a rosy picture was painted for the benefit of foreign investors, but what on earth kind of future is being offered to the ordinary urban African?
Lots of 'solutions' get presented at events like the Urban and Housing Development conference in Cape Town, but can a model be sustainable if it excludes large parts of the city?
It is common knowledge that sub-Saharan Africa is urbanising faster than anywhere else in the world ... but what if we're wrong?!
Abandoned by owners in the post-Apartheid years, 1,500 buildings in Johannesburg have turned into overcrowded tenements.
While governments remain focused on economic indicators and the image a city projects, writers who wish to remain egalitarian must discount both of these in favour of the basic needs of all people.
Eviction of poor residents has been less than expected in the run-up to the World Cup in South Africa, but the urban poor have nonetheless seen little economic benefit from the event.
While residents in the Soweto suburb of Protea South clash with shack dwellers over electricity…
Andrew Fleming (Twitter: @AndrewSFleming) works as the Senior Researcher at the Cape Town Partnership, a non-profit company dedicated to the…
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The Global Urbanist is an online magazine reviewing urban affairs and urban development issues in cities throughout the developed and developing world.
Its readers are drawn from the urban policy and international development sectors, and include urban planners, officers in local, national or international government agencies, civil society leaders, and researchers.
