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On the Worlding of African Cities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

AbdouMaliq Simone
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Abstract:

How do African urban residents, who are conventionally assumed to operate within parochial, highly localized confines, operate at larger scales? How do they reach a “larger world”? The article looks at some of the overall effects on African cities and their residents of a global process of scalar recomposition and the reconfiguration of social cohesion that ensues. By examining renovations in a traditional Islamic institution, zawiyyah, an example is provided of ways in which urban Africans attempt to act effectively within larger domains.

Résumé:

Résumé:

Comment les Africains des zones urbaines, qui d'habitude sont présumés fonctionner dans des limites paroissiales fortement localisées, fonctionnent-ils à plus grande échelle? Comment communiquent-ils avec le “reste du monde”? Cet article explore quelques-uns des effets généraux, sur les cités africaines et sur leurs résidents, d'un processus global de recomposition d'échelle et de la reconfiguration de la cohésion sociale qui en découle. Grâce à l'examen des rénovations effectuées dans une institution islamique traditionnelle, zawiyyah, nous offrons un exemple des moyens par lesquels les Africains habitant en environnement urbain tentent d'agir de manière efficace dans des domaines plus vastes.

Type
Research Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 44 , Issue 2: Ways of Seeing: Beyond the New Nativism: A Special Issue , September 2001 , pp. 15 - 41
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2001

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