The informalization of urbanity

Abstract

It is more appropriate to commence an investigation of informality as a way of life in African contexts within a broad conceptual and historical framework. In other words, it makes some sense to study processes of informalization at the juncture at which the colonial imperative sought to transform the lives, institutions and practices of subject peoples. Formal engagements with and discourses on African urban spaces ought to move beyond mere formalisms in order to address how non‐formalized spaces and actors remake themselves. This is a crucial dimension in the examination of African urban formations. In addition, it is useful to imagine the typical African city as struggling between the pressures of postcolonization (and in some cases, decolonization) and the tendencies inherent in certain forms of vernacular globalism. Also in this article, the question of globality and its different kinds of relationships to the typical African city are highlighted in various ways.

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