Short Abstract:
As the smart city concept continues to gain global acceptance as a valuable tool for the development of the critical sectors of urban life, some scholars doubt its relevance to Africa. This panel seeks to examine the concept, especially the extent of its viability and adaptability for use in Africa.
Long Abstract:
Smart cities have been described as "a developed urban area that creates sustainable economic development and high quality of life by excelling in multiple key areas; economy, mobility, environment, people, living, and government".
Although the concept continues to receive global acceptance as a tool for the development of critical areas of urban life, some scholars remain skeptical to the relevance of the concept to Africa. Other scholars however believe that rather than view it with suspicion, efforts should be geared towards taking advantage of the concept to speed up the development of the continent.
This panel seeks to examine the smart city concept within the African context. It will offer discussions around the viability and adaptability of the concept for the socio-economic development of the continent and its people.
Issues to be discussed will include:
a) The potential of smart cities as sites for advancing development and the deepening of regional integration in Africa.
b) The relevance of the concept in addressing poverty levels in rural areas, especially in terms of the effective management of rural-urban migration.
c) The contextual factors that will shape the viability or non-viability of the concept in Africa.
d) The options available for Africa to finance its smart city initiatives.
Our expectation is that stakeholders from different backgrounds - government, solution providers, professionals and the academia - will form the panel. Each panelist will discuss his or her perspective after which we would then open it up to the audience for comments and suggestions.
Accepted papers:
Session 1
Reclaim the African Smart City
Mandu dos Santos Pinto
(mandu| architexture & urbanizm)
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Paper short abstract:
African Cities are Smart Cities. How else cities with over 65% informal settlements are able to run and do not collapse? The smart city definition has to be redefined considering “smart” informal knowledge, -infrastructure and -economical systems which keep the African cities on moving and growing.
Paper long abstract:
This contribution asks to question the necessity to apply an occidentally shaped Smart City concept 1 to 1 to the Urban African context and appeals to adapt and define an African Smart City concept based on African urban best-practices. Highlighting the efficiency of informal infrastructure, as informal transportation models, informal construction sector and informal markets, which function even with low investments and contribute to food security, provide popular transportation systems, supply shelter and generate income to a large part of the city inhabitants and therefore by definition should be considered Smart Cities.
This proposal further illustrates by analyzing urban concepts based on the informal African settlements and with the example of ongoing projects how this African Smart Cities could get even smarter by combining informal knowledge with sustainable technologies as for example decentralized renewable energy systems and decentralized waste-water infrastructure.
And discusses the necessity of integral knowledge management on city and on neighborhood level to guarantee the accessibility and participation to smart City solutions to all layers of the inhabitants of African cities enabling exchange, ownership and share of solutions and thereby fostering an integral and sustainable development of Africa's Smart Cities.
Knowledge-based Development in Africa; the case of Egypt
Amal Abdrabo
(Alexandria University, Egypt)
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Paper short abstract:
The paper asks what understanding of knowledge and its social preconditions is introduced by the Egyptian policymakers in order to ascertain whether that understanding is likely to promote or undermine the commitment to transforming Egypt into a knowledge based society.
Paper long abstract:
Since early nineteenth, Egypt showed a commitment to the global development discourse where new knowledge-based development policies (KBD) were issued and new projects of knowledge precincts (KPs) were initiated. Recently, the economic development strategy for the country was announced with a general aim of transforming Egypt into a knowledge-based society while fostering a knowledge-based economy through launching new seven KPs, one of which was declared to be the first Egyptian knowledge city knowing as The Capital Cairo (Egypt's 2030 vision, 2016). Many studies have shown that the process of creating a knowledge society cannot be considered as an easy or fast process; because it needs a real support from all social agents including local government, citizens, civil society, and universities (Parry and Deog-Song, 2007; Alraouf, 2008; UNECA, 2009; UNESCO, 2016). Within this frame, KPs have been endorsed as the engines of KBD policies for cities that choose knowledge production as a key goal in their development strategy (Yigitcanlar, 2008). Thus, the paper nvestigates the contextual factors that shape the viability or non-viability of the KBD policies within the African context in general to question the sociopolitical paradigm that surrounds the Egyptian KPs and shift the focus from the knowledge precincts themselves to the episteme in which they emerged. It seeks to know if and how the KPs contribute to establish knowledge cities, as indicated within the discourse of the Egyptian policy makers. What notion of Knowledge underlies the government's programs? Does Egypt need more KPs in order to achieve development?
The Smart City - There are Parts to be Salvaged
Maximilian Flupke
(hackerspaces.org)
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Paper short abstract:
The smart city is currently imagined in vivid colors and shiny surfaces, often neglecting those in need of access to the digital world. But alternatives have been developing for many years. This constribution voices a perspective influenced by technology-aware benevolent circles on three continents.
Paper long abstract:
Dreams of the smart city is currently imagined in vivid colors and shiny surfaces. Its prominent incarnations are often unimaginative company-driven highways to surveillance-capitalism, neglecting those in need of access to the digital world.
Independent initiatives following a bottom-up approach have been developing on the ground for years, and in some instances even decades. The hacker/makerspace movement has become prominent in creating (physical) social spaces with a technological imprint, often in contrast to cybernetic futures. There are apparent differences. European spaces are still very much influenced by ideas of the enlightenment. Asian ones often to focus on innovation to climb the social ladder.
Smart city initiatives everywhere tend to follow ideas of entrepreneurship and less ideas of engaging with the local population and their needs. The third spaces offer regional integration while connecting to the world at large. This is conducive to different ways to address social issues like poverty or migration and learning from shared experiences.
My perspective is informed by being a longtime member of the international hacker/makerspace movement. I will take a look at common patterns of empowering projects like choosing federation over walled gardens to ward off the detrimental effects of authoritarian monocultures. It will show how cheap silicon and free/libre open source software offer opportunities for particular African solutions. The case will be made that whatever the scholarly verdict about the concept of smart cities, it can be (re-)purposed. Urban centres have been catalysts, but rural areas have demonstrated a lot of ingenuity.
"The Lagos - Johannesburg Axis": Examining the subsidiary roles of cities as sites for deepening regional integration in Africa
Babatunde Fagbayibo
(University of South Africa)
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Paper short abstract:
This paper explores the roles that cities of Lagos and Johannesburg can play in advancing regional integration efforts in Africa.
Paper long abstract:
Africa's regional integration drive, like arrangements in other climes, is essentially state-centric. Such state-centric conception has ensured that the representatives of member states in the policy matrix of regional integration process are mainly bureaucrats from the highest level or sphere of government. The roles of subsidiary elements such as civil society, private sector and cities are usually not treated beyond the rhetorical context. It is against this background that this paper intends to examine the specific roles two major cities in Africa, Lagos and Johannesburg, can play in advancing Africa's integrative efforts. If both cities were countries, they will be among the top ten economies, in GDP terms, in Africa. They boast of big businesses and innovation hubs, relatively stable metropolitan governments, vibrant culture and strong research units. This paper argues for a "Lagos - Johannesburg Axis" for coordinating and implementing key integrative goals in Africa. At the heart of this is the extent to which the cities of Lagos and Johannesburg can collaborate around three broad nodes of engagement: culture, academia, and business. The expectation is that these engagements will serve as the nucleus for developing broader regional initiatives.
Uprooted but not Transplanted: Ethnic Identities in Uganda's Capital City, Kampala.
Charles Amone
(Gulu University)
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Paper short abstract:
This research analyses ethnic identities in Kampala City. It relies on data obtained from key informants’ interviews, document analysis and observations made in the city. The research concludes that Ugandans living in Kampala are highly ethnic or ‘tribal’ leading to disunity, conflict and underdevelopment.
Paper long abstract:
Although a common characteristic of city dwellers all over the world is the incoherent interpersonal ties leading to individualization and the eventual breakdown of the family, lineage and clan ties, Ugandans living in cities, municipalities and towns have kept their ethnic solidarity to the detriment of national unity, peace and tranquility. Ethnic or 'tribal' associations, activities and sentiments are common in Kampala, Mbarara, Soroti, Gulu and other urban centers of Uganda. Little is known about why people who have left their ethnic groupings in rural Uganda and emigrated to live in the cities have failed to adapt to the modern city lifestyles but instead fall back to the ethnic cushion in terms of their choices for drinks, food, residential quarters, recreation and social organizations. The current research delves into the rise and metamorphosis of ethnic identities and groupings in Kampala City, Uganda's capital. It relies on data from key informants' interviews, document analysis and observations made during transect walks in residential quarters, recreational facilities and market places. The research concludes that the urban population of Ugandans living in Kampala is highly ethnic or 'tribal' in conduct and this has been a source of disunity, conflict and underdevelopment.