Disposable Cities: Garbage, Governance and Sustainable Development in Urban Africa

by Myers,Garth Andrew

• ISBN13: 9780754643746
• ISBN10: 0754643743
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-11-28
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Based on in-depth fieldwork in three cities, Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar and Lusaka, this book provides a critical analysis of the United Nations Sustainable Cities Program in Africa (SCP). Focusing on the SCP's policies for solid waste management, which was identified as the top priority problem by the SCP, the book examines the success of these pilot schemes and the SCP's record in building new relationships between people and government. It argues that the SCP has operated in a political vacuum, without recognition of the long and problematic histories and cultural politics of urban environmental governance in Eastern and Southern Africa. This book brings these cultural and political histories to the fore in its examination of the contemporary dynamics. In doing so, it not only provides an insightful analysis of the policies and outcomes for the SCP, but also puts forward a historically grounded critique of neoliberalism, good governance and sustainable development discourses.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	vii
List of Tables	viii
Foreword	ix
Acknowledgments	xi
List of Abbreviations	xiii
Glossary of Foreign Words	xv
Toward a Political Ecology of African Cities	1	(16)
Introduction	1	(2)
African Cities	3	(10)
Neoliberalism	5	(2)
Sustainable Development	7	(1)
Good Governance	8	(2)
The Politics of Cultural Difference	10	(3)
Political Ecology and Urban Africa	13	(1)
Conclusion	14	(3)
The Sustainable Cities Program and African Cities	17	(22)
Introduction	17	(2)
The SCP Map of Operations	19	(5)
Tanzanian and Zambian Cases	21	(3)
The United Nations and African Urban Development	24	(4)
Top-down Donor-driven Bottom-up Localized Development	28	(6)
The Exclusive City	34	(2)
Conclusion	36	(3)
Dar es Salaam: Model City for the World	39	(32)
Introduction	39	(2)
Dar es Salaam	41	(6)
The Sustainable Dar es Salaam Program	43	(4)
Neoliberalism in Dar es Salaam	47	(5)
Sustainable Development in Dar es Salaam	52	(4)
Good Governance in Dar es Salaam	56	(6)
The Politics of Cultural Difference in Dar es Salaam	62	(6)
Conclusion	68	(3)
The Mirror that Zanzibar Holds up for the World	71	(34)
Introduction	71	(1)
It all Comes Together in Zanzibar	72	(9)
The Zanzibar Sustainable Program	75	(6)
Neoliberalism in Zanzibar	81	(7)
Sustainable Development in Zanzibar	88	(4)
Good Governance in Zanzibar	92	(6)
The Politics of Cultural Difference in Zanzibar	98	(4)
Conclusion	102	(3)
Lusaka: The Years of the Rule of Money	105	(34)
Introduction	105	(1)
Lusaka	105	(8)
The Sustainable Lusaka Program	109	(4)
Neoliberalism in Lusaka	113	(6)
Sustainable Development in Lusaka	119	(4)
Good Governance in Lusaka	123	(8)
The Politics of Cultural Difference in Lusaka	131	(5)
Conclusion	136	(3)
Conclusion	139	(10)
Introduction	139	(5)
Neoliberalism or ubinafsishaji: The Years of the Rule of Money and Garbage	140	(1)
Beyond Sustainability Rhetoric: Environment and Development in Urban Africa	141	(1)
``New Geographies of Governmentality'' in African Cities?	141	(1)
``New Culture'' and the Politics of Cultural Difference	142	(2)
(Post)Script: Postcolonial Geography and Urban Policy	144	(5)
Bibliography	149	(30)
Index	179