Bulldozers, homes and highways: Nairobi and the right to the city

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Periodical article

Title:	Bulldozers, homes and highways: Nairobi and the right to the city
Author:	Manji, Ambreena
Year:	2015
Periodical:	Review of African Political Economy (ISSN 0305-6244)
Volume:	42
Issue:	144
Pages:	206-224
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Kenya
Subjects:	road construction informal settlements eviction
External link:	https://doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2014.988698
Abstract:	In Kenya road building, widely viewed as an 'unqualified human good', is closely linked to an 'Africa Rising' narrative. In this paper the author argues that road building is an attempt to assert political authority derived from a longstanding developmentalist impulse, one in which private accumulation and spectacular public works go hand in hand. In light of massive infrastructural transformations, the author develops a conceptualisation of the right to the city: what is needed is a radical understanding of the city and its potentialities that wrests control of the idea away from a bureaucratic vision, and imbues it instead with collective meaning. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English and French. [Journal abstract]