African cities are receiving increased attention from corporate interests, investors, and property developers, and urban scholars and planners are beginning to reflect what kinds of cities are in the making and which urban projects should be emphasized to produce sustainable environments. There is groundswell of interest in promoting new satellite cities, new central business districts, and retrofitting existing urban development through the application of green technologies. At the same time, urban scholars and civic organizations are vocal in promoting an alternative agenda based on the inclusion of slum urbanism in any future city equation that seeks to embrace sustainability. The core ideas of these opposing camps are the antithesis of each other. A more productive way forward is to pursue a dual track that allows for showcase and iconic new urban projects while focusing special attention on slum urbanism and creative thinking that links the two approaches and situates urban projects within a sustainable development paradigm.
AngelS.ParentJ.CivcoD. L.BleiA. M. (2010). Atlas of urban expansion. Cambridge, MA: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.
4.
Asomani-BoatengR. (2011). Borrowing from the past to sustain the present and the future: Indigenous African urban forms, architecture, and sustainable urban development in contemporary Africa. Journal of Urbanism, 4, 239-262.
5.
Blacksmith Institute. (2013). The worlds worst 2013: The top ten toxic threats. Cleanup, progress and ongoing challenges. New York, NY: Author.
6.
DavisM. (2006). Planet of slums. London, England: Verso.
7.
De BoeckF. (2011). Inhabiting ocular ground: Kinshasa’s future in the light of Congo’s spectral urban politics. Cultural Anthropology, 26, 263-286.
8.
de BlijH. (2011). Why geography matters more than ever. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
9.
GrahamS.MarvinS. (2001). Splintering urbanism: Networked infrastructures, technological mobilities and the urban condition. New York, NY: Routledge.
10.
GrantR. (2009). Globalizing city. The urban and economic transformation of Accra, Ghana. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.
11.
GrantR. (2014). Africa: Geographies of change. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
12.
GrantR.NijmanJ. (2002). Globalization and the corporate geography of cities in the less-developed world. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 92, 320-340.
13.
GrantR.Oteng-AbabioM. (2012). Mapping the invisible and real African economy in e-waste circuitry. Urban Geography, 33(1), 1-22.
14.
GulyaniS.BassettE. (2007). Retrieving the baby from the bathwater: Slum upgrading in Sub-Saharan Africa. Environment and Planning C, 25(4), 486-515.
15.
HuchzermeyerM. (2011). Cities with slums: From informal settlement eradication to a right to the city in Africa. Cape Town, South Africa: University of Cape Town Press/Juta Academic.
JossS.CowleyR.TomozeiuD. (2013). Towards the “ubiquitous eco-city”: An analysis of the internationalization of eco-city policy and practice. Urban Research & Practice, 6(1), 54-74.
18.
LepawskyJ.MatherC. (2011). From beginnings and endings to boundaries and edges: Rethinking circulation and exchange through electronic waste. Area, 43, 242-249.
19.
MelaraJ.GrantR.Oteng-AbabioM.AyeleB. (2013). Downgrading—An overlooked reality in African cities: Reflections from an indigenous neighborhood in Accra, Ghana. Applied Geography, 36(1), 23-30.
20.
MurrayM. (2011, May). “City doubles”: Re-urbanism in Africa. Paper presented at the Art of Citizenship in African Cities Conference, Columbia University, New York, NY.
21.
MyersG. (2011). African cities. Alternative visions of urban theory and practice. New York, NY: Zed Books.
22.
NjohA. (2003). Planning in contemporary Africa: The state, town planning and society in Cameroon. Burlington, VT: Ashgate.
23.
Obeng-OdoomF. (2010). “Abnormal” urbanizing in Africa: A dissenting view. African Geographical Review, 29(2), 13-40.
24.
OlopadeD. (2014). The bright continent: Breaking rules and making change in modern Africa. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
25.
Oteng-AbabioM.AmankwaaE.ChamaM. (2014). The local contours of scavenging for e-waste and higher-valued constituent parts in Accra, Ghana. Habitat International, 43(July), 163-171.
26.
OwusuG.Oteng-AbabioM. (2015). Moving unruly contemporary urbanism toward sustainable urban development in Ghana by 2030. American Behavioral Scientist, 59(3), 311-327. doi:10.1177/0002764214550302
27.
PallerJ. (2014). African slums: constructing democracy in unexpected places (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Political Science.
28.
PatelS.BaptistC. (2012). Documenting by the undoucmented. Environment and Urbanization, 24(1), 3-12.
29.
ParnellS.PieterseE. (2014). Africa’s urban revolution. New York, NY: Zed Books.
30.
PieterseE. (2008). City futures: Confronting the crisis of urban development. New York, NY: Zed Books.
SilvaC. (2012). Urban planning in sub-Saharan Africa: A new role in the urban transition. Cities, 29, 155-157.
36.
SwillingM. (2013). Contesting inclusive urbanism in a divided city: The limits to the neoliberalisation of Cape Town’s energy system. Urban Studies, 51(12), 1-18.
37.
SwillingM.AnneckeE. (2012). Just transitions: Explorations of sustainability in an unfair world. New York, NY: United Nations University Press.
38.
TodesA.KaramA.KlugN.MalazaN. (2010). Beyond master planning? New approaches to spatial planning in Ekurhuleni, South Africa. Habitat International, 34, 414-420.
TurkischE. (2011). Sovereign wealth funds investors in Africa: Opportunities and barriers (OECD Development Center, Working Paper No. 303). Paris, France: OECD.
41.
TurokI. (2013). Securing the resurgence of African cities. Local Economy, 28(2), 142-157.
42.
United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP). (2012). 21 issues for the 21st century. Results of the UNEP foresight prcoess on emerging environmental issues. Nairobi, Kenya: Author.
43.
UN Department of Economic & Social Affairs. (2012). World urbanization prospects: The 2011 revision. New York, NY: Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat. Retrieved from http://esa.un.org/unup/pdf/WUP2011_Highlights.pdf
44.
UN-Habitat. (2008). The state of African cities 2008: A framework for addressing urban challenges in Africa. Nairobi, Kenya: Author.
45.
WangF.HuismanJ.MeskersC.SchluepM.StevelsA.HagelükenC. (2012). The best-of-2-worlds philosophy: Developing local dismantling and global Infrastructure network for sustainable e-waste treatment in emerging economies. Waste Management and Research, 32, 2134-2146.
