Envisioning African Futures: Development corridors as dreamscapes of modernity

Müller‐Mahn, Detlef

doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2019.05.027

Cited by 50 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Second, our analysis highlights the symbolic dimension of megaprojects as showcases and 'dreamscapes' of modernity (Jasanoff and Kim 2015;Müller-Mahn 2020). They serve as strategic tools to foster optimistic outlooks and 'fictional expectations' (Beckert 2016), thus, taking centre stage in the politics of aspiration.…”

Section: What Do the Kenyan Examples Tell Us About Megaprojects And Failed Developments?mentioning

confidence: 92%

“…The power of megaprojects comes not only from their physical impact but also from the power they exert over the minds of the people affected by rural transformation. Thus, they may be considered as aspirational projects aiming at 'dreamscapes of modernity' (Jasanoff and Kim 2015;Müller-Mahn 2020). Such aspirations promote speculation and jostling for position, which can easily lead to conflicts (Elliot 2016).…”

Section: Conceptual Explanations For the Success Or Failure Of Megaprojectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This present phase of spatial development began shortly after the year 2000, accompanied by large-scale land acquisitions and a 'new scramble for Africa' (Carmody 2011), and gained momentum when China announced its Belt and Road Initiative in 2013 (Chen 2016). A growing body of literature provides interpretations of the historical legacies of the 'infrastructure scramble' (Enns and Bersaglio 2019), highlighting the return of state-led development visions (Mosley and Watson 2016), modernist logics (Dye 2019), green economy (Bergius et al 2020) and other forms of land investments (Lind et al 2020), the emergence of a state-building frontier (Stepputat and Hagmann 2019) and the underlying fascination for 'dreamscapes of modernity' (Jasanoff and Kim 2015;Müller-Mahn 2020). Yet the resurrection of megaprojects is hard to understand in so far as large-scale projects have long been criticized for notorious under-performance and cost overrides, a phenomenon described as the 'megaprojects paradox' (Flyvbjerg et al 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Megaprojects—mega failures? The politics of aspiration and the transformation of rural Kenya

2021

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Megaprojects are returning to play a key role in the transformation of rural Africa, despite controversies over their outcome. While some view them as promising tools for a ‘big push’ of modernization, others criticize their multiple adverse effects and risk of failure. Against this backdrop, the paper revisits earlier concepts that have explained megaproject failures by referring to problems of managerial complexity and the logics of state-led development. Taking recent examples from Kenya, the paper argues for a more differentiated approach, considering the symbolic role infrastructure megaprojects play in future-oriented development politics as objects of imagination, vision, and hope. We propose to explain the outcomes of megaprojects by focusing on the ‘politics of aspiration’, which unfold at the intersection between different actors and scales. The paper gives an overview of large infrastructure projects in Kenya and places them in the context of the country´s national development agenda ‘Vision 2030′. It identifies the relevant actors and investigates how controversial aspirations, interests and foreign influences play out on the ground. The paper concludes by describing megaproject development as future making, driven by the mobilizing power of the ‘politics of aspiration’. The analysis of megaprojects should consider not only material outcomes but also their symbolic dimension for desirable futures.

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Section: What Do the Kenyan Examples Tell Us About Megaprojects And Failed Developments?mentioning

confidence: 92%

Section: Conceptual Explanations For the Success Or Failure Of Megaprojectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Megaprojects—mega failures? The politics of aspiration and the transformation of rural Kenya

2021

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“…Comic books have graduated from "pulp fiction" to a serious art form that is increasingly recognised by academics as a way to communicate complex content in an accessible way (Amstrong, 2013). Their potential to communicate research (Brantner and Lobinger, 2014) or development policies (Packalen and Sharma, 2007) is recognised in an increasing body of scientific literature, notably in the field of medical science (Al-Jawad, 2015; Green, 2013). In addition to their function as a communication tool, Al-Jawad (2015) stresses that comics also provide a unique methodology and productive way of thinking about her work.…”

Section: Methodological Outlinementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The major problem was probably the limited timeframe, in which it was not possible to teach participants the necessary knowledge and skill to produce entire comic stories. In contrast, the grassroots comics of Packalen and Sharma (2007) were produced over a period of usually 3 d, which would not have been feasible for us due to a limited budget. 2 In some cases, the entire group would take a short tour to visit the surrounding area in which the story took place.…”

Section: Workhopsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drawing together: making marginal futures visible through collaborative comic creation (CCC)

Aalders

Moraa²,

Oluoch-Olunya³

et al. 2020

Geogr. Helv.

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Abstract. The article introduces collaborative comic creation (CCC) as a methodological tool. The central question it addresses is how marginalised imaginations of futures can be made visible in the context of the planned Lamu Port-South Sudan-Ethiopia-Transport (LAPSSET) in Kenya. The question assumes that infrastructure projects such as the LAPSSET corridor inscribe not only particular ways of moving into a landscape but also one specific temporality that marginalises other future-making practices. The paper participates in the ongoing debate about how imagined futures and future-making practices can be appreciated and analysed methodologically. It thus contributes to the literature on geographies of the future by drawing together conceptual insights from anthropology, infrastructure studies, and critical cartography. Based on these different approaches, the paper proposes to regard future-making practices not only in relation to contentious timelines but also in terms of lines made by moving and drawing on landscapes and surfaces. Using a review of existing social foresight methods as a basis, we describe the practical implementation of CCC. Subsequently, the analysis of one collaboratively produced comic illustrates how the method can help to visualise ambivalent and uncertain imaginations of different futures that oppose the unitary vision of modernity produced by dominant infrastructural visions of a single future. We conclude by reflecting on possible ways of developing the method further.

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Spaces of Global Production

Dannenberg

Follmann

Derudder

et al. 2023

International Encyclopedia of Geography

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Spaces of global production comprise a diverse set of spatial figures that result from and support a global division of labour. The proliferation of spatial figures in scholarly work on global production in economic geography and beyond maps a conceptual landscape. The network , the agglomeration , the frontier, the plantation, the gateway , the corridor , the zone , the enclave , and the archipelago are key concepts mobilized by social sciences and humanities scholars in order to map, problematize, analyze, and help transform the varied spaces of global production.

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Envisioning African Futures: Development corridors as dreamscapes of modernity

Cited by 50 publications

References 7 publications

Megaprojects—mega failures? The politics of aspiration and the transformation of rural Kenya

Megaprojects—mega failures? The politics of aspiration and the transformation of rural Kenya

Drawing together: making marginal futures visible through collaborative comic creation (CCC)

Spaces of Global Production

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