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Paper short abstract:

The paper examines the kind of DIY urbanisms that emerge between the interaction of top down driven planning and settlement processes catalysed by mining activity in Africa's Copperbelt.

Paper long abstract:

Studies on urbanisation in Africa normally focus on the informal processes that make up much of its urban landscape, with the majority of its built infrastructure driven by do-it-yourself initiatives. Less examined though has been the practice of the planners, architects and engineers who attempt to impose their plans and visions of the urban. Focussing on the case of urbanisation driven by large-scale industrial mining in Africa's Copperbelt, the paper examines the interactions between top down driven planning and DIY settlement processes that are catalysed by mining activity.

Built environment professionals working in these settings have to not only plan and build the infrastructure for mining's core business, the extraction of mineral resources. They also need to consider how they will accommodate the various categories of workers and new migrants to the area, as well as integrate native populations who in most cases will have reluctantly given way to mining activity. This requires that built environment professionals engage with populaces of varying interests, and modes of life. These interactions can be conflictual in their visions of place, expectations and the tools of coercion and/or persuasion available to them. The paper shows how these contestations over place-making can influence the kind of DIY urbanisms that emerge in extractive locales, as well as the forms of urban management.