Re-Urbanism in Africa

Re-Urbanism in Africa

Building Large-Scale, Master-Planned, Holistically Designed Cities from Scratch

Re-urbanism in Africa and elsewhere involves the construction of master- planned, holistically designed, and privately managed enclaves that appear like “alien spaceships” that drop in from somewhere else. In this discussion, Martin Murray places the processes of urban planning in contemporary Africa in historical context and explores their social, political, and economic consequences. The commentator for this discussion is Anne-Maria Makhulu (Duke, Cultural Anthropology & AAAS). The format of the seminar is that the speaker will pre-circulate a paper, then spend 10-15 minutes at the beginning highlighting its main points (and adding some larger context, discussing trends in the recent literature), before the respondent will take a few minutes to raise discussion points.  Then we’ll open it to the room for discussion.

Light lunch served. This event is part of the series “The Future of the African City,” co-sponsored by the Forum for Scholars and Publics and the Duke Africa Initiative and organized by Professors John Bartlett, Charlie Piot, and Karin Shapiro. The African City Working Group is supported by the FHI Mellon Humanities Futures initiative.