Living the Urban Periphery: Infrastructure, Everyday Life and Economic Change in African City-Regions

The edges of cities are increasingly understood as places of dynamism and change, but there is little research on African urban peripheries, the nature of building, growth, investment and decline that is shaping them and how these are lived. This co-authored monograph draws on findings from an extensive comparative study on Ethiopia and South Africa, in conversation with a related study on Ghana. It examines African urban peripheries through a dual focus on the experiences of living in these changing contexts, alongside the logics driving their transformation. Through its conceptualisation and application of five ‘logics of periphery’, it offers unique, contextually-informed insights into the generic processes shaping urban peripheries, and the variable ways in which these are playing out in contemporary Africa for those living the peripheries.

This electronic version has been made freely available under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND) licence, thanks to the support of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

Paula Meth is Reader in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the University of Sheffield, and Visiting Associate Professor in the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of the Witwatersrand.
Sarah Charlton is Professor in the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of the Witwatersrand.
Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Development at the Global Development Institute (GDI) and CEO of the African Cities Research Consortium (ACRC) at the University of Manchester.
Alison Todes is Professor in the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of Witwatersrand.

Additional contributions from:
Sibongile Buthelezi, School of Built Environment & Development Studies, University of KwaZulu Natal.
Metadel Sileshi Belihu, PhD Candidate at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Weimar, Germany.
Yohana Eyob, Architect and Urban Planner, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Dr Jennifer Houghton, Senior Lecturer, Department of Town and Regional Planning, Durban University of Technology
Dr Divine Mawuli Asafo, Lecturer in Human Geography, University of Hull.
Dr Tatenda Mukwedeya, Lecturer in Sociology, Department of Sociology, University of the Witwatersrand
Dr Zhengli Huang, Researcher, School of Geography and Planning, University of Sheffield
Dr Meseret Kassahun Desta, Independent Researcher, Nairobi, Kenya