Research project Research Project Urban Imaginaries

Entrepreneurial urban governance regimes have recast geographies of inclusion/exclusion in the North. In the South this is poorly understood. This project studies the implications for marginal groups of strategies being adopted by governments in African cities to promote economic growth and to reinvent the image of cities. Central questions will address how specific urban imaginaries and boosterism impact on the ability of groups of the urban poor to access economic opportunities; the extent to which those strategies necessitate or unintentionally result in the displacement of groups in already precarious situations; and, crucially, how affected groups respond to these developments. The study will generate new insights into consequences of implementing urban visions aimed to develop African cities economically and generate processes of socio-economic inclusion.