Paper short abstract:

The proposed paper speculates about the political possibilities of DIY urbanism. The paper thus advances some tentative theoretical reflections on the connections between democratic politics, civil society, public space, and urban marginality in contemporary African cities.

Paper long abstract:

The proposed paper speculates about the political possibilities of DIY urbanism. I depart from classic works by thinkers like Hannah Arendt and Lewis Mumford who considered the dynamic relationships between space, cities and politics. These arguments often hinged on idealizations about durable built environments - Mumford himself invoked the image of the city-as-container - that sheltered norms and publics forming the basis for political action and democratic politics. However, the accelerated development of African cities amidst conditions of pervasive instability, both challenges these assumptions and suggests a need to reconsider possible spaces and practices of political action at a time in which most residents of urban Africa live in and with extreme precarity. I thus seek to identify the emancipatory potentialities of DIY urbanism. Key questions include: are practices of DIY urbanism democratic? Does the persistent absence or dysfunction of state institutions promote alternative forms of civic engagement, political action or public life? If so, what form might these practices take? Under conditions in which long-term survivability is not guaranteed how are networks of citizenship and social capital created, nurtured, and enforced? These immense challenges need not portend the end of the democratic project, but instead offer both creative and regressive opportunities. Though as yet uncertain, answers to the above questions will likely require us to rethink the relationships between accepted notions of democratic politics, civil society, public space, and urban marginality. The proposed paper offers a tentative salvo in an increasingly urgent conceptual and policy dialogue.