Paper short abstract:

The paper takes the example of the SAGCOT and LAPSSET development corridors in Tanzania and Kenya to discuss an analytical approach that views the planning and implementation of African development corridors as projections of future visions into space.

Paper long abstract:

The paper argues that corridors have become dominant blue-prints for spatial development in Africa because of a specific way in which they express, perform and implement 'desirable futures'. They reflect spatial imaginations that follow primarily European role models and experiences of spatial planning and modernization. The analytical approach presented in the paper is not meant as an alternative to political economy explanations that view development corridors primarily as entry points of global capitalism, but rather as a complimentary perspective. It refers to three strands of conceptual debates. The first discusses how futures are "made" and can be empirically approached through practices of future-making. The second looks at imaginations of African futures in relation to images of the continent itself. The third takes the empirical example of development corridors in Africa to scrutinize their meaning as 'dreamscapes of modernity', in the sense of Jasanoff (2015). The empirical background of the paper comes from two ongoing studies on the SAGCOT and LAPSSET corridors in Tanzania and Kenya. The studies scrutinize the power play, negotiations and translations that can be observed in the interaction between politicians, investors, development experts, and local populations.