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

Published Bloomington, Indiana : Indiana University Press, [2024]

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Description 1 online resource (xiii, 296 pages) ; illustrations (some color) 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 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 Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on January 26, 2024) Subject City planning -- Ghana -- Accra -- History -- 19th century City planning -- Ghana -- Accra -- History -- 20th century City planning and redevelopment law -- Ghana -- Accra -- History -- 19th century City planning and redevelopment law -- Ghana -- Accra -- History -- 20th century City planning City planning and redevelopment law Colonial influence Politics and government HISTORY / Africa / West SUBJECT Accra (Ghana) -- Colonial influence Accra (Ghana) -- Politics and government -- 19th century Accra (Ghana) -- Politics and government -- 20th century Subject Ghana -- Accra Genre/Form History Form Electronic book LC no. 2023045242 ISBN 9780253069344 0253069343 9780253069351 0253069351

Other Titles Technopolitics and the infrastructure of everyday life in colonial Accra

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