Research Catalog
Capital cities in Africa : power and powerlessness
- Title
- Capital cities in Africa : power and powerlessness / edited by Simon Bekker and Göran Therborn.
- Publication
- Cape Town, South Africa : HSRC Press, 2012.
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| Status | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Text | Use in library | JF1900 .C37 2012 | Off-site |
Details
- Additional Authors
- Description
- xxviii, 220 pages : illustrations, maps; 24 cm
- Summary
- "Capital cities today remain central to both nations and states. They host centres of political power, not only national, but in some cases regional and global as well, thus offering major avenues to success, wealth and privilege. For these reasons capitals simultaneously become centres of "counter-power", locations of high-stakes struggles between the government and the opposition. This volume focuses on capital cities in nine sub-Saharan African countries, and traces how the power vested in them has evolved through different colonial backgrounds, radically different kinds of regimes after independence, waves of popular protest, explosive population growth and in most cases stunted economic development. Starting at the point of national political emancipation, each case study explores the complicated processes of nation-state building through its manifestation in the "urban geology" of the city - its architecture, iconography, layout and political use of urban space. Although the evolution of each of these cities is different, they share a critical demographic feature: an extraordinarily rapid process of urbanisation that is more politically than economically driven. Overwhelmed by the inevitable challenges resulting from this urban sprawl, the governments seated in most of these capital cities are in effect both powerful - wielding power over their populace -and powerless, lacking power to implement their plans and to provide for their inhabitants"--Publisher description.
- Alternative Title
- Power and powerlessness : capital cities in Africa
- Subject
- Capitals (Cities) > Africa, Sub-Saharan > Congresses
- Power (Social sciences) > Africa, Sub-Saharan > Congresses
- Urbanization > Africa, Sub-Saharan > Congresses
- Capitals (Cities) > Africa, Sub-Saharan > History > Congresses
- Nationalism > Africa, Sub-Saharan > Congresses
- Capitals (Cities)
- Colonial influence
- Nationalism
- Politics and government
- Power (Social sciences)
- Urbanization
- Subsahara-Afrika
- Hauptstadt
- Verstädterung
- Africa, Sub-Saharan > Politics and government > Congresses
- Africa > Colonial influence > Congresses
- Africa
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Genre/Form
- Conference papers and proceedings.
- History.
- Note
- Arises from a conference held in 2008 in Dakar, Senegal, hosted by the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA)
- Published in association with CODESRIA.
- Bibliography (note)
- Includes bibliographical references.
- Contents
- 1. Introduction / Goran Therborn -- 2. Conakry / Odile Goerg -- 3. Dakar / Amadou Diop -- 4. Lome / Philippe Gervais-Lambony -- 5. Lagos / Laurent Fourchard -- 6. Abuja / Wale Adebanwi -- 7. Brazzaville / Gabriel Tati -- 8. Nairobi / Teresa Mbatia -- 9. Maputo and Luanda / Paul Jenkins -- 10. South African capital cities / Alan Mabin -- 11. Conclusion / Simon Bekker.
- ISBN
- 9780796923509
- 0796923507
- 9782869784956
- 2869784953
- 9780796923516
- 0796923515
- 9780796923523
- 0796923523
- LCCN
- 2012364073
- OCLC
- ocn741342132
- 741342132
- SCSB-1634273
- Owning Institutions
- Princeton University Library