Oshikango: The Dynamics of Growth and Regulation in a Namibian Boom Town**

Dobler, Gregor

doi:10.1080/03057070802685601

Cited by 52 publications

(14 citation statements)

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“…At the same time, this demographic concentration also presents opportunities for investment and economic activities, again attracting migrants in search of a diversified livelihood. As such, becoming a boomtown is not only a matter of demographic size; it is also a matter of demographic composition, economic accumulation, livelihood diversification, public service provision, settlement patterns and political organisation (Dobler 2009;Werthmann 2009).…”

Section: Boomtown Development As a Source Of Opportunities And Contesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We refer to boomtown urbanisation as a sudden and rapid demographic, spatial and economic growth of rural villages driven by people's search for protection and livelihoods in a context of violence and militarisation. Academic literature on boomtowns in Africa is largely concentrated on studies of border towns and mining towns, where transborder trade or the extraction of minerals are the main instrumental dynamics transforming formerly marginal places into vibrant urban spaces (Dobler 2009).…”

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confidence: 99%

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War, Displacement and Rural–Urban Transformation: Kivu’s Boomtowns, Eastern D.R. Congo

Büscher

Mathys

2018

Eur J Dev Res

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This article addresses rural-urban transformations in the war-torn Kivu provinces. The spectacular growth and development processes of fast-expanding boomtowns in Kivu's rural areas serve as an entry point to investigate the relationship between conflict, displacement, urbanisation and development in Eastern D.R. Congo. Based on qualitative research on urban expansion in different smaller towns in North and South Kivu, this article analyses the characteristics of these 'new' urban spaces. It demonstrates that boomtowns represent centres of opportunities as well as contestation, and that they play an important role in the economic dynamics of development as well as in the political dynamics of stability and conflict.

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Section: Boomtown Development As a Source Of Opportunities And Contesmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

War, Displacement and Rural–Urban Transformation: Kivu’s Boomtowns, Eastern D.R. Congo

Büscher

Mathys

2018

Eur J Dev Res

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“…As long as export papers are in order and no crime in their own legislation is involved, border officials generally have little reason to inquire whether import duties have been paid to the neighbouring state (e.g. Dobler 2009a).…”

Section: Elements Of a Conceptual Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

The green, the grey and the blue: a typology of cross-border trade in Africa

Dobler

2016

J. Mod. Afr. Stud.

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What are the reasons for the extraordinary dynamism of many African border regions? Are there specificities to African borderlands? The article provides answers to these questions by analysing the historical development of African state borders’ social and economic relevance. It presents a typology of cross-border trade in Africa, differentiating trade across the ‘green’ border of bush paths and villages, the ‘grey’ border of roads, railways and border towns, and the ‘blue’ border of transport corridors to oceans and airports. The three groups of actors associated with these types of trade have competing visions of the ideal border regime, to which many dynamics in African cross-border politics can be traced back. The article contributes to African studies by analysing diverging political and economic developments in African countries through the lens of the border, and to border theory by distilling general features of borders and borderlands from African case studies.

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“…As this literature has proliferated across the various disciplines, it has also become more diverse, including detailed studies of trade networks (Walther 2008;Scheele 2012;Titeca 2012;Walther 2014b), migratory flows (Cross 2013;Streiff-Fenart 2013;Adeniran 2014), bureaucracy and "practical norms" (Chalfin 2010;Titeca and De Herdt 2010), border (in)security and neo-secessionist movements (Engelbert 2009;Tomas and Zeller forthcoming). An interest in border towns has been part of this new wave of research, and in many ways it has fed off each of the emergent strands (Dobler 2009a;Zeller 2009). Whether the objects of study are moving through border spaces or are located at the physical boundary, the towns themselves occupy an important position.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Peripheral Urbanism in Africa: Border Towns and Twin Towns in Africa

Soi

Nugent

2017

Journal of Borderlands Studies

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There has been a proliferation of research on Africa’s borderlands over the past decade, which reflects their centrality in regional systems of trade and the rapid growth of border settlements. The development of twin towns/cities at the border, which has attracted the interest of scholars in other regions of the world, has been a distinctive feature of Africa as well. This paper examines some of the particularities of peripheral urbanism in Africa, whilst seeking to avoid a resort to continental exceptionalism. It begins by tracing some broad patterns before homing in on two sets of case-studies along the Uganda/Kenya and Ghana/Togo borders. The paper argues, firstly, for the enduring importance of colonial infrastructural investments and the policy choices that were made after independence. Secondly, it highlights the markedly different variations of scale, ranging from the border capitals of Kinshasa and Brazzaville at one end of the spectrum, through growing towns like Busia-Uganda and Busia- Kenya, to a multiplicity of smaller border settlements at the other end. Thirdly, the paper argues that administrative logics and trade dynamics have been the main drivers in the expansion of twin cities/towns, although the flight of populations from insecurity have also played a significant role in the Great Lakes region and in West-Central Africa. Finally, the paper points to a feature that has been identified in other regions as well, notably the often marked asymmetries between border settlements, which reflects the influence of deeper historical trajectories and contemporary patterns of trade and population movement alike

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Oshikango: The Dynamics of Growth and Regulation in a Namibian Boom Town**

Cited by 52 publications

References 0 publications

War, Displacement and Rural–Urban Transformation: Kivu’s Boomtowns, Eastern D.R. Congo

War, Displacement and Rural–Urban Transformation: Kivu’s Boomtowns, Eastern D.R. Congo

The green, the grey and the blue: a typology of cross-border trade in Africa

Peripheral Urbanism in Africa: Border Towns and Twin Towns in Africa

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