Urban design, chaos, and colonial power in Zanzibar [electronic resource] / William Cunningham Bissell.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bissell, William Cunningham, 1962-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

City planning--Tanzania--Zanzibar--History.

City planning.

Sociology, Urban--Tanzania--Zanzibar--History.

Sociology, Urban.

Zanzibar--History.

Zanzibar.

Great Britain--Colonies--Africa--History.

Great Britain.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (394 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Bloomington : Indiana University Press, c2011.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Across Africa and elsewhere, colonialism promised to deliver progress and development. In urban spaces like Zanzibar, the British vowed to import scientific techniques and practices, ranging from sanitation to urban planning, to create a perfect city. Rather than remaking space, these designs often unraveled. Plans were formulated and then fell by the wayside, over and over again. By focusing on these flawed efforts to impose colonial order, William Cunningham Bissell offers a different view of colonialism and cities, revealing the contradictions, confusion, and even chaos that lay at the very core of British rule. At once an engaging portrait of a cosmopolitan African city and an exploration of colonial irrationality, Urban Design, Chaos, and Colonial Power in Zanzibar opens up new perspectives on the making of modernity and the metropolis.

Contents:

Introduction: landscapes of power and planning

Cosmopolitan lives, urbane worlds: space and society in Zanzibar City

Uncertain states: colonial practices and the ambiguities of power

Colonial cartographies: struggling to make sense of urban space

Disease, environment, and social engineering: clearing out and cleaning up the colonial city

Development and the dilemmas of expertise

Failures of implementation: circularity and secrecy in the pursuit of planning

Disorder by design: legal confusion and bureaucratic chaos in colonial planning

Conclusion: reflections on planning, colonial power, and continuities in the present.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-283-10171-8

9786613101716

0-253-00496-9

OCLC:

703155193