Living the urban periphery : Infrastructure, everyday life and economic change in African city-regions

An empirically rich analysis of the drivers and lived experiences of urban change in African peripheries with a focus on city-regions in Ethiopia, South Africa and Ghana. The book proposes five peripheral logics which frame the formation and character of urban peripheries and explores these on the ground through residents’ voices and narratives. -- .

The edges of cities are increasingly understood as places of dynamism and change, but there is little research on African urban peripheries, the nature of building, growth, investment and decline that is shaping them and how these are lived. This co-authored monograph draws on findings from an extensive comparative study on Ethiopia and South Africa, in conversation with a related study on Ghana. It examines African urban peripheries through a dual focus on the experiences of living in these changing contexts, alongside the logics driving their transformation. Through its conceptualisation and application of five ‘logics of periphery’, it offers unique, contextually-informed insights into the generic processes shaping urban peripheries, and the variable ways in which these are playing out in contemporary Africa for those living the peripheries. This electronic version has been made freely available under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND) licence, thanks to the support of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). -- .