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| Semester | fall semester 2023 |
| Course frequency | Once only |
| Lecturers | Ernest Sewordor (ernest.sewordor@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
| Content | By 2050, the population of Africa is estimated to double. Its urban residents will increase almost threefold, and become the most demographically youthful worldwide if current growth rates continue. This prediction has prompted policymakers, planners, and architects on the continent to think about the unprecedented implications for urban governance/planning. Taking a historical approach, this course retraces how the continent’s socio-spatial pasts have shaped contemporary urban realities and examines, through decolonial lenses, the potential in Africa’s non-colonial urban histories for confronting the challenges of planning future cities. Each week, participants will read and discuss scholarly publications. This activity will be complemented by a semester-long reading, analysis, and interpretation (in the final week of teaching) of one African-authored novel that intimately documents modern urban lifeworlds in a colonial African city, yet refuses it as a sole model for organising urban space and lived experiences by imagining Black-centred alternative future possibilities. |
| Learning objectives | (a) To develop a historically informed understanding of current urban experiences in Africa (b) To reflect on how urban research relates to ongoing processes of city-making/ life in Africa (c) To use Africa as a lens to question and rethink urban theories rooted in global northern epistemologies from the perspectives of global southern urbanism (d) To independently assess, interpret, and present urban historical scholarship about Africa |
| Bibliography | Selected Bibliography 1. Adelusi-Adeluyi, Ademide. Imagine Lagos: Mapping History, Place, and Politics in a Nineteenth-Century African City. Ohio University Press, forthcoming. 2. Ekwensi, Cyprian. People of the City. New York Review Books, [2020] 1954. 3. Pieterse, Edgar. City Futures: Confronting the Crisis of Urban Development. University of Cape Town Press, 2008. 4. Simone, AbdouMaliq. For the City Yet to Come: Changing African Lives in Four Cities. Duke University Press, 2004. 5. Silva, C. Nunes (ed). Urban Planning in Sub-Saharan Africa: Colonial and Post-Colonial Planning Cultures. Routledge, 2015. 6. Yiftachel, Oren and Mammon, Nisa (eds). TheorISE: Debating the Southeastern Turn in Urban Theories. Africa Centre for Cities, 2022. |
| Comments | The course is open to Master students from other programs with a priority for Critical Urbanisms students on timely registration |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | No specific media used |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|---|
| wöchentlich | Monday | 10.15-12.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 212 |
| Date | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|
| Monday 25.09.2023 | 10.15-12.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 212 |
| Monday 02.10.2023 | 10.15-12.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 212 |
| Monday 09.10.2023 | 10.15-12.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 212 |
| Monday 16.10.2023 | 10.15-12.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 212 |
| Monday 23.10.2023 | 10.15-12.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 212 |
| Monday 30.10.2023 | 10.15-12.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 212 |
| Monday 06.11.2023 | 10.15-12.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 212 |
| Monday 13.11.2023 | 10.15-12.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 212 |
| Monday 20.11.2023 | 10.15-12.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 212 |
| Monday 27.11.2023 | 10.15-12.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 212 |
| Monday 04.12.2023 | 10.15-12.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 212 |
| Monday 11.12.2023 | 10.15-12.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 212 |
| Monday 18.12.2023 | 10.15-12.00 | Kollegienhaus, Seminarraum 212 |
| Modules |
Modul: Europäisierung und Globalisierung (Master's Studies: European Global Studies) Module: Fields: Environment and Development (Master's degree program: African Studies) Module: Migration, Mobility and Transnationalism (Master's degree program: Changing Societies: Migration – Conflicts – Resources) Module: The Urban across Disciplines (Master's degree program: Critical Urbanisms) |
| Assessment format | continuous assessment |
| Assessment details | Pass/Fail |
| Assessment registration/deregistration | Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required |
| Repeat examination | no repeat examination |
| Scale | Pass / Fail |
| Repeated registration | no repetition |
| Responsible faculty | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Offered by | Fachbereich Urban Studies |