New book on current transformations in African cities
People’s strategies for living and surviving in African cities challenge prevailing theories and models of urban development. Research on urban Africa rarely examines these changes ‘behind the scenes’ of official statements and policies. This book looks closely at the lives of ordinary city dwellers from the perspective of power and inequality.
Using fine-grained analysis of ethnographic cases, the multidisciplinary book Power and Informality in Urban Africa (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022) discusses how power and inequality are shaping the processes of African cities.
This book is part of the publisher’s Africa Now series. By examining the experiences of urban residents in confronting issues of power and agency, the contributors consider how such insights can inform more effective approaches to research, city planning and development both in Africa and beyond. The book chapters deal with Angola, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, Tanzania, and Uganda.
The book is the result of long international collaboration. Six of the book’s chapter authors have participated in projects or conferences organized by the Dept. of History and Ethnology at the University of Jyväskylä.
The book has already been published in the UK and USA, and will be published in March also in Australia and New Zealand. The book editors are Laura Stark (Prof. of Ethnology, University of Jyväskylä) and Annika Björnsdotter Teppo (Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor, Uppsala University).
https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/power-and-informality-in-urban-africa-9781786993441/
The authors:
Adjoa Afriyie (Department of Geography Education, University of Education, Winneba, Ghana)
Elias Yitbarek Alemayehu (Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction and City Development, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia)
Sidylamine Bagayoko (Department of Arts and Humanities, University of Bamako, Mali)
Esther Danso-Wiredu (Department of Geography Education, University of Education, Winneba, Ghana)
Cristiano Lanzano (Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala, Sweden)
Tiina-Riitta Lappi (Department of History and Ethnology, University of Jyväskylä, Finland)
Susanna Myllylä (Jyväskylä University School of Business and Economics, Finland)
Laura Stark (Department of History and Ethnology, University of Jyväskylä, Finland)
Annika Teppo (Department of Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology at Uppsala University, Sweden).
Segen Tesfamarian (Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction and City Development, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia)
Cristina Udelsmann Rodrigues (Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala, Sweden)
Caroline Wamala-Larsson (Swedish Program for ICT in Developing Regions (SPIDER), Stockholm University)
For additional information, please contact:
Laura Stark, +358400247439, laura.stark@jyu.fi
