Kinshasa's Fluxes & Rhythms

What the nebulous idea of living together in a place such as Kinshasa means

Filip De Boeck & AbdouMaliq Simone

Chinese Urbanism in Africa

On-going media reports that tower-block Chinese urbanism is taking root in Africa distort what is a far more complex and variegated truth on the ground

Phillip Harrison & Yan Yang

Surbana’s African City Gold Rush

Planners and architects seem to have a habit of colluding with developers and politicians to make every city look like every other city. writes Robert Neuwirth

Robert Neuwirth

Anatomy of a failure

Sean O'Toole on how a South African Metropolitan Municipality's failed prepaid smart metering system offers a case study of what happens when technology and finance are applied to a pressing need without clear political, and financial oversight

Sean O'Toole

Housing High Stakes in Addis

Over the past 35 years, Ethiopia's urban population has doubled. Faced with a chronic housing shortage in the country’s capital, Addis Ababa, officials have had to innovate

Mary Anne Fitzgerald

What is Next?

Cultivating an appetite for the future demands recouping a politics of aspiration

Maarten Hajer

On Inclusive Cities

Argentinian architect and urban planner Alfredo Garay speaks to Marcelo Corti and Demian Rotbart on the role of these torsional forces and the on-going challenges of urbanisation in contemporary Latin America

Marcelo Corti and Demian Rotbart

A Man of the Future

Remaking Johannesburg, says executive mayor Parks Tau, requires not only a future focus and commitment to a long-term vision, but patience and courage too

Lesley Lokko

Waiting to Grow Up

Many African youths find themselves trapped in prolonged suspension between childhood and adulthood, argues Professor Alcinda Honwana

Alcinda Honwana

From Refugee Storage Facilities to Living Spaces

A paradigm shift is required in the way refugee settlements are managed in order to rapidly normalise these enclaves and welcome them into the mainstream of society

Kilian Kleinschmidt

Life in the Magic Kingdom

Private developers are remodelling Johannesburg at its urban edge

Tanya Pampalone

From the Editors

Africa is a continent poised between aspiration and actuality. This future-minded edition of Cityscapes is framed around the rubric of “futurity”

The Editors

Informal Worlds Reader

Peter Mörtenböck and Helge Mooshammer spent five years researching informal marketplaces globally

Edgar Pieterse

An energetic opportunity

Africa sits on the cusp of a renewable energy revolution, but needs massive investment in modernising the grid

Megan Lindow

Rising from the dumps

Waste has emerged as major political concern in Dar es Salaam

Joshua Palfreman

The Athletes

Len Taunyane and Jan Mashiani participated in the 1904 Olympic marathon in St. Louis. Their story is far bigger than that, tainted by an unanswerable silence

Sean O'Toole

From the Editors

This issue focuses on cities in South Asia, not as a generic category but rather as a symbolic and political constellation loaded with complex histories and contemporary dynamics

From the Editors