Politics and the urban frontier

Abstract

Abstract This concluding chapter revisits the questions of capitalist globalization and late urbanization and their relationship to convergence and divergence in the region’s urban trajectories, before reviewing the main findings of the book. Drawing across the book’s analytical framework, the chapter examines the relationship between associational and infrastructural power, and how these intersect with strategies of legitimation, infrastructural practices, and modalities of political informality to shape both urban physical transformation and the nature of urban political dissent. The chapter concludes by reflecting on the achievements, limitations, and lessons of efforts to reshape territory, property, and social contracts in these three cities at the global urban frontier. It argues that East African states have shown how driving distinct paths through late urbanization is possible, and how despite challenges in terms of political inclusion and sustainable social contracts, East Africa is a vital urban laboratory from which the world needs to learn.