Place and Function of African Cities in the Global Urban Network: Exploring the Matters Arising

Abstract

As the world shrinks into a ‘global village’, cities have come into focus as dominant nodes in the global transactions and flows of capital, commodities, people and services. The resulting economic cum information order is not only transforming the architecture of discrete cities everywhere but is also motivating new patterns of inter-city relations and networks. Global urban network is now synonymous with the trans-state processes that make up the global economy (Taylor, Political Geography 19:5–32, 2000). Hence, cities are increasing perceived as a new ‘resource’ and ‘spring board’ for connecting to and operating at the global level. The article explores these issues with reference to the place and function of African cities in the global urban network. A city-based assessment of this nature offers a fresh and fluid scope to African development question and quest as against the more conventional ‘state-centric’ benchmarking.