Politics and the Urban Frontier
Despite the rise of global technocratic ideals of city-making, cities around the world are not merging into indistinguishable duplicates of one another. In fact, as the world urbanizes, urban formations … Continue reading
African urbanisation at the confluence of informality and climate change
(Temporary open access) Africa contributes the least to global greenhouse gas emissions, yet it faces climate change’s harshest consequences. Ramifications of climate change pose daunting multi-scalar urban challenges, specifically because … Continue reading
Informal work in sub-Saharan Africa Dead end or steppingstone?
Despite rapid economic growth in recent decades, informality remains a persistent phenomenon in the labour markets of many low- and middle-income countries. A key issue in this regard concerns the … Continue reading
Daily practices of informality amidst urban poverty
The contribution of this report is the empirical support to an argument that South Africa is struggling to address problems of poverty and inequality because many of the processes that … Continue reading
Dynamic Cities? The Role of Urban Local Governments in Improving Urban Service Delivery
Cities are engines of economic growth that provide spaces for social transformation and political inclusion. Their ability to deliver widely accessible and efficiently functioning public services drives productivity and sustains … Continue reading
Reading Development 