Across Africa, protracted economic crises and enduring class
stratification have impacted a majority of the continent's
city-dwellers, meaning that urban residents are forced to draw on their
own resources and skills, often adopting experimental approaches to
sustaining access to services and livelihoods.
This 'do-it-yourself' urbanism has generally been appraised through a
developmental lens, in which case studies are understood in isolation.
In this book, a comparative and cross-regional approach seeks to analyze
this phenomenon across the continent, and to gain an understanding of
the dynamics of DIY urbanism in a range of cities where urban residents
experience economic distress and marginalization.
Does DIY urbanism present a form of resistance, or merely an
acquiescence, to the inequalities that make it necessary? And what
prospect is there for a radical politics to come out of this grassroots
organization, to make cities work better for their poorest, and most
marginalised, residents?