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31 January 2013

Simon Bekker and Laurent Fourchard Examine Politics and Policies of Governing Cities in Africa

Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC)

HSRC Press is pleased to announce the release of Governing Cities in Africa: Politics and Policies, edited by Simon Bekker and Laurent Fourchard

Studies of government and politics in Africa are dominated by a focus on the national and are typically set apart by anglophone, francophone and lusophone historical influences, with South Africa as an exception.

This volume departs from a different set of questions and employs a novel approach in discussing them: cities in sub-Saharan Africa provide the pivot around which issues of policy and practice, planning and service delivery turn, at different scales and both from the top down as well as from the bottom up. Party politics, for example, is discussed at city level and urban security both within a state and a non-state context. The novelty of the approach is found in thematic rather than single-city chapters written by multiple authors each of whom displays depth knowledge of one of three or more cities treated in each case.

Source: Times Live

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Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC)