Urban Dynamics

Cluster leader:  vacant

This research cluster involves the following programmes and projects:

• Youth and marginality in urban Sierra Leone
  Researcher: Mats Utas
• Beyond Poverty: an insight into the informal solid waste recycling sector in Kaduna, Nigeria
  Researcher: Onyanta Adama-Ajonye
• Seeking the Good City and the Good Citizen: Colonial and Post-Colonial Governmentality and Urban Planning in Africa. Researcher: Andrew Byerley
• The private rental market and tenants in formalization and upgrading of informal settlements in Tanzania 
  Researcher: Jenny Cadstedt

The growth of cities is one of the most significant features of the contemporary transformation of African societies. Cities in Africa are the sites of major political, economic and social innovation, and thus play a critical role in national politics, domestic economic growth and social development. They are also key platforms of interaction with the wider world and mediate between global and national contexts. Cities are variously positioned in global flows of resources, goods and ideas, and are shaped by varied historical trajectories and local cultures. The result is a great diversity of urban societies across the continent. Cities in Africa are not only growing rapidly but also undergoing deep political, economic and social transformations. They are changing in ways that defy usual notions of urbanism. In their dazzling complexity, they challenge most theories of the urban. African cities represent major challenges as well as opportunities. Both need to be understood and addressed if a sustainable urban future is to be achieved on the continent. Research within the Urban Cluster of the Nordic Africa Institute seeks to contribute to an understanding of processes of urban change in Africa.