Paper short abstract:

Challenges to globalising urban theory come from two opposing directions: disregarding African urban studies and claiming the exceptionalism of African cities. Drawing on comparative methodology, and insisting that urban theory is always provisional, can offer some ways forward.

Paper long abstract:

For some years now the globalisation of urban processes and the strength of postcolonial critiques of urban studies have placed the need to revise urban theory, with a wider range of cities in mind, high on the agenda. The challenges to this project of globalising urban studies currently come from two directions. One, the disregard for African urban studies in wider theory building efforts; and two, the claims for an exceptionalism regarding African cities. These are tricky intellectual waters, navigating the requirement to take seriously the distinctive challenges of urbanisation in poorer country contexts, while sustaining the expectation that these experiences and trends inform urban theory. Taking account of current openings to re-theorise the urban, as the uncertain contours and dynamic features of twenty-first century urbanisation demand fresh engagements with what the urban is, this paper will outline the grounds for scholars of urban Africa to contribute to such discussion, while insisting that theorists of cities elsewhere can significantly enhance and extend their insights on urbanisation in general by building urban theory with African cities in mind. Casting comparative methodology as thinking/theorising with elsewhere, and insisting on the always provisional nature of any theorisation of the urban, some navigational charts might emerge.