The Multiple Sites of Urban Governance: Insights from an African City

Abstract

Contemporary modes of urban governance involve a wide variety of actors. The present paper combines insights from several debates into a framework that considers the multiple sites where practices of governance are exercised and contested, various and entangled layers of relations and a broad range of practices of governance that may involve various modes of power, as well as different scales. The paper illustrates some of these complexities with an empirical study of the governance of marketplaces in Maputo, Mozambique. It shows how urban governance in a context of extensive informalisation and `democratic transition' can be highly fragmented and fluid, contesting some of the assumptions underlying Western debates on urban governance. It also questions notions of the hollowed-out state and an excessive focus on public policy.

On handling urban informality in southern africa

“…The list of similar cases across southern Africa would impress anyone enamoured with the modernist project. They include the removal of vendors from the streets of Maputo, Mozambique prior to an African Union summit in 2003 (Lindell, 2008;Kamete and Lindell, 2010); the "sporadic harassment and eviction" as well as relocation and rehabilitation of street vendors in Maseru, Lesotho in 2001 (Leduka, 2003); the 'de-informalisation' and rehabilitation of squatter settlements in Mbabane, Swaziland (SDI, 2007); and the relocation of residents of Marconi Beam, a squatter settlement, to a 'modern' Joe Slovo Park, Cape Town, in post-apartheid South Africa (Robins, 2002).…”

Untitled

“…When studying governance structures academics should not focus solely on how the state, private and civil actors interact but also the relations within these groups as they exercise governance (Lindell, 2008). According to the national water law public institutions such as the REGIDESO have the right to sub-contract private companies to fulfil specific task in the service provision systems.…”

Women hawkers in Tehran’s metro: everyday politics and the production of public space

“…A range of actors seek to influence the governance of urban space, and the contestations that unfold across a range of spaces are highly contextual (Lindell, 2008). When a security guard identifies a woman as a hawker, an intense negotiation commences in which she seeks to persuade him not to lodge a formal case and allow her to leave with her wares.…”