Abstract
In recent years, a new era of interventionism has emerged targeting the development of African cities, manifested in ‘fantasy’ urban plans, surging infrastructure investments and global policy agendas. What the implications of this new era will be for specific urban contexts is still poorly understood however. Taking this research agenda as a starting point, this article presents findings of in-depth empirical research on urban development in Beira city, Mozambique, which has recently become the recipient of massive donor investments targeting the built environment. Informed by current debates on urban geopolitics, the article unpacks these mounting global flows while locating them alongside pre-existing struggles over urban space. By doing so three distinct yet inter-related dimensions of urban geopolitics are identified, relating to the workings of the state, so-called ‘informality’ and international donors. Far from representing homogeneous categories, these dimensions each represent contradictory practices and interests which are shaping Beira’s urban trajectory. The article concludes by arguing that the inflow of donor resources has exacerbated pre-existing struggles over urban space while contributing to new contentions in ways which have undermined social equity targets of contemporary global development agendas. In doing so it provides important contributions to current debates on urban development in Africa
Highlights
In recent years the topic of African urban development has been taken out of shadows of development policy and the global-political-economy, manifested in new masterplans, investments in infrastructure and housing and progressive development agenda’s, opening historically neglected regions to a range of new global flows and interests [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]
Despite the diversity and contradictory nature of these modalities taken together they are representative of a new era of interventionism targeting African cities which will likely change the nature of African urbanism
How are global flows negotiated through pre-existing struggles and what are the local conditions which attract such global interests in the first place? What are the new political dynamics brought forth by these engagements and what do they mean for the social equity goals of contemporary development agenda’s? These are the types of urgent questions which currently appear on the nexus of the global and the local
Summary
In recent years the topic of African urban development has been taken out of shadows of development policy and the global-political-economy, manifested in new masterplans, investments in infrastructure and housing and progressive development agenda’s, opening historically neglected regions to a range of new global flows and interests [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. Whereas Beira city is among many other African cities undergoing large scale (re)development, it is set apart from other cases due to the heavy presence of international donors [4] How these new claims to urban land are located within the context of pre-existing governance relations and trajectories of urban change is unclear; it is an urgent consideration with regards to the social equity targets of contemporary global agendas. It is against this background that this article explores the following question; How do donor investments in urban development relate to pre-existing struggles over urban space in Beira city?. In doing so the research aims to contribute to emerging debates on urban development, land governance and social equity in urban Africa
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