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- Convenors:
-
Sophie Naue
(UNITAC Hamburg)
Michelle Hinrichsen (Open Cities Lab)
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- Chair:
-
Abigail Kemper
(Open Cities Lab)
- Discussants:
-
Sandile Mbatha
(University of Stuttgart)
Nadine Appelhans (TU Berlin)
- Format:
- Panel
- Disciplinary streams:
- Digital trends and technology
Short Abstract
What can African cities' digitalisation journeys teach us? We ask who leads, who benefits and how risks are managed as digital public infrastructure, data governance and global digital development agendas reach local governments.
Long Abstract
Some African cities are early adopters of e-government and public-sector digital transformation. International development agencies like UNDP, G20 and the African Development Bank promote investment in Digital Public Infrastructure, whose governance should ensure public value, shared decision making, inclusivity and sustainability. Löffler (2025) observes that digitalisation of urban services can strengthen local governments and render them obsolete. While scholars call for integrated governance frameworks to ensure interoperability, enabling policies and capacity building for inclusive and sustainable development (Mofokeng 2026, Lobelo 2025), there are concerns that digital transformation for development (DX4D) serves “the strategic interests of powerful global actors over the public value” in what is conceptualised as an “antipolitics machine” (Kalema 2024). This raises questions about whose vision of the digital city shapes these transformations and how digitalisation reshapes relations between governments and residents.
This panel invites examination of the socio-technical factors that facilitate, hinder and attract digitalisation projects in major and secondary African cities. We ask who leads, who benefits and how risks are managed as digital public infrastructure, data governance and global digital development agendas reach local governments. How are these agendas negotiated in cities shaped by infrastructural inequalities, informal settlements and economies, and diverse forms of governance? How do major and secondary cities prioritise digital interventions, and how do quick wins compare with foundational DPI investments?
Drawing on empirical, comparative and conceptual contributions, the panel examines how locally grounded approaches to digitalisation emerge, how global agendas are adapted or challenged, and how African cities shape digital transformation.