What is "Smart Urbanisation" for Africa ?
by Serge-Zelezeck - 04/12/2009
An interesting discussion on the concept of gentrification as it applies to the African urban reality has been unfolding on the LEDNA platform. The discussion throws a shining light on the inadequacies of top-down slum eradication policies, points to the triple phenomenon of Suburb/peri/centri-urbanisation which corresponds strikingly to the geographical mobility of upper/middle/low classes in most African cities, and questions the rush for urban infrastructure for infrastructure’s sake. Read the entire discussion here. However, the discussion points more to the problems and expands little on solutions. Interestingly the concept of "smart urbanisation” is becoming increasingly fashionable! The UN Secretary General in his Message for the 2009 World Habit Day (5 October) tapped into this concept when he stated that: "New ideas from smart cities around the world are pointing the way toward sustainable urbanization."
What will this concept of smart urbanisation mean in the African reality? Is it about factoring-in environmental considerations? Is the generally-pursued objective of replicating European-looking cities in Africa in line with smart urbanisation or does the concept also invite some properly African planning/architectural invention? Is it about going the Chinese way of securing the World records of the tallest, longest, largest buildings, bridges and roads? What is the scope of the human and people centred-urban development dimension the concept invite?
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Smart urbanization for Africa??
Serge,
In our previous discussions around gentrification, i think it was necessary to problematize urban issues as we understand them. In my line of thinking, supra national institutions such as the UN/other donor bodies have sometimes tended to offer solutions in search of problems, rather than vice versa. By all means they want to 'help'. Only that transplaning policies and 'smart thinking' in all probability avoids the 'local' question. And in this, they (mis) treat LED. Reverting to your point, i think smart urbanization sounds promising. But this is so just as Structural Adjustment Programmes did, and so did macro economic balancing, good governance and reforms. These are noble concepts, except that they are transplanted. My argument is not a totalitarian one, or exclusive in its scope, rather a cautious signal to where some problems might arise from. Yesterday i read through a document on informal institutions by Claudia Williamson (2009) titled "Informal institutions rule: Institutional arrangements and economic performance"-she makes some interesting insight on 'local' uniqueness. Her argument is that formal institutions need informal ones, and, countries with strong formal and weak informal institutions perform poorly in their GDP. The author has of course not addressed the causes of strong formal/informal institutions, but nevertheless she makes her point, that if economic performance in part relies on informal institutions, any reasoning system will be reluctant to implement supra nationally coceptualized methods of development.
It is also important to bear in mind that urban centres in developing regions are already disorganized and poorly planned. If you have read Kierkgaards biography, in the 1800's Danish cities were decently constructed...there was no need for 'reversal' through the modernizing process. In developing countries, i think the important question for now might be smart re-urbanization. This thinking would consider systematic decongestation/deconcentration of cities through proportional construction of multiple metropoles/economic centres-the biggest challenge being that. this needs a lot of cah resources. I'll deliberately avoid the 'resource' question in this treatise.
So then, majority if not all of developed countries tend to have multiple metropoles, unlike many African 'capitals' which function as the only engine for development. In Kenya, Every main factory, coporate, NGO, as well as mutli national cooporations converge in Nairobi. Economic Incentives such as tax breaks might be necessary to facilitate mobility of economic actors away from capitals, into growing metropoles. This raises the question of cause and efect- do we first build road and communication infrastructure so that we 'attract' businesses? In some cases things have been the very opposite. Construction of industries have often 'crowded in' infrstructure development- there are real cases in Nairobi.
The foregoing argument is, for me, a reversal process. That is to say, before we 'think forward' such as you appear to suggest on smart urbanization, I think we are better off first dealing with the current 'unsmart' urbanization.
Just some few thoughts...