This paper explores the emerging new master-planned city-building trend on the African continent. Situating our research within urban policy mobilities literature, we investigate the ‘Africa rising’ narrative and representation of Africa as a ‘last development frontier’ and ‘last piece of cake’, an imaginary that provides fertile ground for the construction of new cities. Building upon research on the practices of ‘seduction’ that facilitate urban policy circulation, we argue for the relevance of critically examining elite stakeholder rhetoric to understand the relative ease with which the new city development model is being promoted in Africa. We investigate the enablers, advocates and boosters of new cities, represented mainly by states, corporations, non-profits and consultants to render visible the complex networks of relations and private interests that support and enable the creation and circulation of the new cities model in Africa. We also analyse the pervasive ‘right to development’ argument among African elites, which precludes criticism of new city ventures and circulates problematic assumptions about modernity and development. We conclude by discussing how stakeholder rhetoric limits the range of urban visions that are put into circulation and mobilized for Africa’s urban future.

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In the past 2 decades, over 150 new cities built from scratch have been launched in more than 40 countries. As this trend has intensified in recent years, scholarship on new city projects has expanded significantly in exciting new directions. There is now a conceptually robust and empirically vibrant body of scholarship that critically examines new city projects around the world. This article provides an overview of an emerging subfield and introduces important new approaches to understanding the proliferation of these urban mega‐developments, and how the study of new cities can yield insights into both international urban, economic, cultural, and political trends, and specific local dynamics. In this article, we highlight the key contributions and insights from recent scholarship on new city projects and map out areas for future research.

The research for this article was conducted while the first author was based at McGill University, and greatly benefited from the financial and academic support of McGill's Department of Geography. We thank the anonymous peer reviewers and the editor for their constructive comments on previous versions of the paper. We also extend our deepest thanks and appreciation to all participants who contributed their time, knowledge, and insights through interviews that inform this research. Thanks are also owed to Simon and Marianne Turcotte-Plamondon and Joanna Ondrusek-Roy for many productive conversations that helped to shape this paper.

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