The Undulating Capacity of the State: Autochthony and Infrastructure Development in African Cities (Elements in the Politics of Development)

Onoma, Ato Kwamena

ISBN 10: 1009698397 / ISBN 13: 9781009698399

Published by Cambridge University Press, 2025

About this Item

Seller Inventory # V9781009698399

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Undulating Capacity of the State: Autochthony and Infrastructure Development in African Cities (Elements in the Politics of Development)
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication Date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1009698397
• ISBN 13: 9781009698399
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

This Element weaves together literatures on autochthony and belonging and on African urbanism to shed new light on the ability of the African state to undertake development interventions in some of the most important urban centers on the continent. It explains variations in levels of trust in the African state that shape neighborhoods' responses to states' development interventions. Focusing on the Senegalese state's construction of the VDN 2 highway on the outskirts of the capital, Dakar, the author argues that in major African cities with colonial origins, whether neighborhoods project themselves as 'autochthonous' or 'migrant' communities shapes general attitudes toward the state and influences the capacity of the state to carry out development interventions in these areas. In these cities, states are more likely to successfully intervene in neighborhoods dominated by 'new' migrants to the city than in those neighborhoods that portray themselves as 'autochthones' of these cities.