Making an African city : technopolitics and the infrastructure of everyday life in colonial Accra / Jennifer Hart.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hart, Jennifer A. (Jennifer Anne), author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

City planning--Ghana--Accra--History--19th century.

City planning.

City planning--Ghana--Accra--History--20th century.

City planning and redevelopment law--Ghana--Accra--History--19th century.

City planning and redevelopment law.

City planning and redevelopment law--Ghana--Accra--History--20th century.

Accra (Ghana)--Colonial influence.

Accra (Ghana).

Accra (Ghana)--Politics and government--19th century.

Accra (Ghana)--Politics and government--20th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (316 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Indiana University Press 2024

Bloomington, Indiana : Indiana University Press, [2024]

Summary:

"Making an African City follows up in many ways on John Parker's Making the Town, tracing the politics of urban development in Accra from the late 19th century through the first half of the 20th century. Hart argues that regulation in Accra constituted a form of informalization-a historical process through which longstanding African social, economic, cultural, and political practices were increasingly marginalized through the categorizations, policies, and material interventions of technocratic experts and government officials. The book covers five major spheres of regulation in the city-sanitation, health, trade, mobility, and housing-and in doing so, explores how diverse groups of European and African agents shaped Accra as an "African city." In addressing and critiquing the way that scholars and practitioners use the idea of "informality" to describe the contemporary city, this book intervenes in scholarly conversations about the past, present, and future of cities in Africa and around the world. As such, it is part of an emerging critical scholarship on cities in the Global South which seeks to reshape debates about and understandings of "the city" that have historically been dominated by Western models. By placing African residents at the center of the debate about informalization, regulation, and urban governance, this book also challenges some of the overly simplistic characterizations of agency in the context of colonialism, which has dominated African history scholarship for decades"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction

"Fruity" Smells, City Streets, and the Politics of Sanitation

"Health is the First Wealth"

African Trade and Expatriate Enterprise in the Colonial City

Of Pirate Drivers and Honking Horns

Building Homes in the "New Accra"

Conclusion.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780253069351

0253069351

9780253069344

0253069343