Place resists: grounding African urban order in an age of global change

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Emerging studies of African urbanity are reappraising city‐making practices and theories in ‘the global South’. Grounding alternative claims to ‘cityness’, the dynamics of informality hold a key to local cultures of transformation. In our age of global change this insight is crucial to grasping future urban demands. What debate about such cities calls for is an interpretive model able to orient circumstantial judgments in often discordant situations. Emphasising the anchoring role of place, the research argues for a research analytic more faithful to everyday events than ‘Northern’ paradigms of urban order. Concepts of order underpin profound questions of orientation: how do African city dwellers make sense of their expectations? What role does the city play in decision‐making? Being true to how life is experienced on the ground implies comprehending its challenges, but interpretation must go beyond simply identifying with the disadvantaged. The plurality of claims to the city creates conflicts that typically obscure deeper issues. Understanding rooted in the mundane order would disclose a concrete metabolism able to mediate rivalry between urban discourses. Instead of a consensus version of what makes a city civic, the proposed analytic follows ideas in planning theory and social processes to address everyday diversity head on.