Mitigating Conflict and Violence in African Cities

2012 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 968-981 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Fox ◽  
Jo Beall
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Socioeconomic Development ◽  
Urban Governance ◽  
Urban Poverty ◽  
Social Unrest ◽  
Economic Stagnation ◽  
Urban Security ◽  
Urban Population Growth ◽  
Urban Planning And Management ◽  
Underlying Risk

The process of urbanisation has historically been associated with both socioeconomic development and social strain. Although there is little evidence that urbanisation per se increases the likelihood of conflict or violence in a country, in recent decades Africa has experienced exceptional rates of urban population growth in a context of economic stagnation and poor governance, producing conditions conducive to social unrest and violence. In order to improve urban security in the years ahead, the underlying risk factors must be addressed, including urban poverty, inequality, and fragile political institutions. This, in turn, requires improving urban governance in the region by strengthening the capacity of local government institutions, addressing the complex political dynamics that impede effective urban planning and management, and cultivating integrated development strategies that involve cooperation between various tiers and spheres of government and civil society.

СОВРЕМЕННОЕ РОССИЙСКОЕ ОБЩЕСТВО КАК ПРОСТРАНСТВО КОНФЛИКТА

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 92
Author(s):  
V. V. Gorshkova ◽  
A. A. Melnikova
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Social Structure ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Socioeconomic Development ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Western Society ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Social Conflicts ◽  
The Social ◽  
Modern Russian

The article considers the contradictions and conflicts that are characteristic of modern Russian society. The processes of social disintegration are analyzed and interpreted as a result of fundamental social and economic transformations. The problems of economic inequality are presented in the historical perspective in close connection with the previous stages of Russia's socioeconomic development. Significant polarization of the population is one of the most significant conflict factors in modern society, which leads to an increase in protest moods and may in the long term threaten social upheavals. Nevertheless, dissatisfaction with the socio-economic situation does not lead to ideas of the unification and consolidation of society, but find expression in social conflicts. The emergence and development of social conflicts is influenced by a number of factors: economic, ethnic, religious. One of the most important characteristics of society is its social structure. After the collapse of the USSR, the previous social structure was abolished, and a new social reality was formed in Russia. When considering the stratification structure of society, most attention is paid to the middle class, which is considered the backbone of a stable society. The middle class in Russia is in the stage of formation, it is hardly possible to speak of a complete analogy with the middle class of Western society. The share of middle class in society can be estimated in different ways depending on the methodological approaches used by researchers. An important consequence of the transformation of the social structure was the problem of marginalization, since the dismantling of the old social structure and the slow formation of the new one put the social status and place in the division of labor system of many individuals into question. The sharp impoverishment of representatives of prestigious professions led to a reassessment of their situation, especially for the younger generation. When analyzing the origins of social conflicts in modern Russian society, it is necessary to consider the issue of the attitude of the broad masses of the population to power and national elites. It should be noted that power in Russia historically takes shape around specific leaders and does not have an institutional character. The most significant factor shaping the attitude towards the authorities and the elite in general in Russian society are the economic results of the market reforms that have taken place. Only a small part of the population believes that they won as a result of the changes that have taken place, the natural consequence of which is the population's distrust of the authorities and, in general, political institutions.

scholarly journals Urban Conflict, Rent Seeking, and Corruption Economic and Political Institutions in a Historical Perspective

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 96
Author(s):  
Marie-Christine THAIZE CHALLIER
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Rent Seeking ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Social Unrest ◽  
Abuse Of Power ◽  
Medieval France ◽  
Limiting Property ◽  
Urban Conflict ◽  
Commitment Problems

This paper is an empirical analysis to explore the relationships between urban conflict and both rent seeking and corruption. It examines social disturbances in medieval France through a sample of twelve towns examined over the period 1270-1399 in a real context of informational asymmetries, commitment problems, and issues indivisibilities. As regards the economic corruption class, it is found that townspeople rebel more often and more intensely against the extortion of funds carried out by policy makers than against the embezzlement of a part of these funds. As to the political corruption class, the findings highlight that abuse of power against municipalities is identified in more social unrest than influence peddling against these local institutions. Furthermore, it is shown that rent-seeking-related policies (like arbitrary actions limiting property rights, economic rules-based policies, and targeted political measures) have less influence on urban conflict than corrupt policies do. These findings produce insights that apply beyond the historical context and analysis of the paper. Situations presenting over-indebted towns despite overtaxed people disturb also modern democracies.

scholarly journals The smart grid as a security device: Electricity infrastructure and urban governance in Kingston and Rio de Janeiro

Urban Studies ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 004209802098571
Author(s):  
Francesca Pilo’
Keyword(s):  
Smart Grid ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Smart Grids ◽  
Rio De Janeiro ◽  
Urban Governance ◽  
Spatial Inequality ◽  
Technical Failure ◽  
Spatial Inequalities ◽  
Urban Security ◽  
Security Device

This article aims to contribute to recent debates on the politics of smart grids by exploring their installation in low-income areas in Kingston (Jamaica) and Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). To date, much of this debate has focused on forms of smart city experiments, mostly in the Global North, while less attention has been given to the implementation of smart grids in cities characterised by high levels of urban insecurity and socio-spatial inequality. This article illustrates how, in both contexts, the installation of smart metering is used as a security device that embeds the promise of protecting infrastructure and revenue and navigating complex relations framed along lines of socio-economic inequalities and urban sovereignty – here linked to configurations of state and non-state (criminal) territorial control and power. By unpacking the political workings of the smart grid within changing urban security contexts, including not only the rationalities that support its use but also the forms of resistance, contestation and socio-technical failure that emerge, the article argues for the importance of examining the conjunction between urban and infrastructural governance, including the reshaping of local power relations and spatial inequalities, through globally circulating devices.

scholarly journals Urbanisation and Urban Governance in Ghana: Identifying Key Actors and their Roles

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-102
Author(s):  
David Adade
Keyword(s):  
Urban Population ◽  
Urban Governance ◽  
Urban Poverty ◽  
Sustainable Cities ◽  
Urban Management ◽  
The Government ◽  
Management Approaches ◽  
Governance Processes ◽  
Socioeconomic Benefits

The rapid increase in the urban population in Africa has created many urban challenges, including informalities, waste management problems, increased health risks, and growing urban poverty. With the unplanned spatial patterns and informalities that exist with the current urban population, this raises the question of whether African cities are ready to host more than 1.3 billion people by 2050 and still achieve urban sustainability. Using Ghana as a case study, this research undertook a critical review of urban population trends and their relation with economic growth. It identified the actors of urban governance in Ghana, as well as their roles, contributions and level of participation in urban governance processes. Findings indicate that most urban management decisions in Ghana are made by the government and exclude the non-governmental actors and citizens who bear the outcome of such decisions. This has resulted in deficiencies in actualising local needs, thus hindering the provision of urban services. The study proposes an inclusive and participatory form of urban governance with active participation of non-governmental actors and a paradigm shift from the existing urban management approaches to a more sustainable one that delivers socioeconomic benefits for more inclusive and sustainable cities in Africa in the future.

scholarly journals Understanding Sensor Cities: Insights from Technology Giant Company Driven Smart Urbanism Practices

Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (16) ◽  
pp. 4391 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gaspare D’Amico ◽  
Pasqua L’Abbate ◽  
Wenjie Liao ◽  
Tan Yigitcanlar ◽  
Giuseppe Ioppolo
Keyword(s):  
Intelligent Systems ◽  
Urban Governance ◽  
Urban System ◽  
Sustainable Urban Development ◽  
Sustainable Urbanism ◽  
Urban Security ◽  
Data Driven Approach ◽  
Waste Energy ◽  
Water Waste

The data-driven approach to sustainable urban development is becoming increasingly popular among the cities across the world. This is due to cities’ attention in supporting smart and sustainable urbanism practices. In an era of digitalization of urban services and processes, which is upon us, platform urbanism is becoming a fundamental tool to support smart urban governance, and helping in the formation of a new version of cities—i.e., City 4.0. This new version utilizes urban dashboards and platforms in its operations and management tasks of its complex urban metabolism. These intelligent systems help in maintaining the robustness of our cities, integrating various sensors (e.g., internet-of-things) and big data analysis technologies (e.g., artificial intelligence) with the aim of optimizing urban infrastructures and services (e.g., water, waste, energy), and turning the urban system into a smart one. The study generates insights from the sensor city best practices by placing some of renowned projects, implemented by Huawei, Cisco, Google, Ericsson, Microsoft, and Alibaba, under the microscope. The investigation findings reveal that the sensor city approach: (a) Has the potential to increase the smartness and sustainability level of cities; (b) Manages to engage citizens and companies in the process of planning, monitoring and analyzing urban processes; (c) Raises awareness on the local environmental, social and economic issues, and; (d) Provides a novel city blueprint for urban administrators, managers and planners. Nonetheless, the use of advanced technologies—e.g., real-time monitoring stations, cloud computing, surveillance cameras—poses a multitude of challenges related to: (a) Quality of the data used; (b) Level of protection of traditional and cybernetic urban security; (c) Necessary integration between the various urban infrastructure, and; (d) Ability to transform feedback from stakeholders into innovative urban policies.

Socioeconomic Challenges and Opportunities of Urbanization in Nigeria

2018 ◽  
pp. 937-958
Author(s):  
Ismaila Rimi Abubakar ◽  
Umar Lawal Dano
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Socioeconomic Development ◽  
Local Economic Development ◽  
Urban Poverty ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Rapid Urbanization ◽  
The World ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Future Research Directions ◽  
Rural Dwellers

Nigeria, with a population of about 186 million people (48% living in urban areas) in 2016, is the most populous country in Africa and eighth in the world, and by 2050 it is projected to become the third largest country in the world. This chapter highlights major challenges of rapid urbanization in Nigeria, caused mainly by in-migration of rural dwellers in search of better living conditions and employment opportunities. They include unemployment and urban poverty, social exclusion and crimes, poor housing and slum, inadequate provision of public services and proliferation of the informal sector. Notwithstanding, Nigeria can exploit these urbanization challenges and turn them into opportunities for socioeconomic development. As such, some key opportunities for sustainable urbanization in Nigeria has been discussed: (a) local economic development; (b) promoting urban sustainability; and (c) smart and knowledge city initiative. The chapter concludes with some future research directions.

Gulf states and Islamist responses to COVID-19: a changing relationship

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 439-444
Author(s):  
Lucia Ardovini
Keyword(s):  
Social Control ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Religion And Politics ◽  
National Context ◽  
Social Unrest ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
Mutual Dependency ◽  
Gulf States ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Islamic Institutions

This article focuses on the outbreak of COVID-19 in the Gulf and examines how different responses to the pandemic are affecting the relationship between state institutions and Islamist actors. Several states and regimes are attempting to contain the spread of COVID-19 by imposing increasingly authoritarian measures and tightening social control, which in turn is causing a renewed wave of social unrest. The article shows how, in this increasingly unstable context, the relationships between state institutions and Islamist actors are developing along two main trends.As a response to the pandemic, states in the Gulf are increasingly relying on the mobilisation of Islamic institutions and religious bodies to support lockdown and isolation policies, enlisting Islamic authority to compensate for the decreasing levels of popular trust in the regime. The tightening of authoritarian measures is bringing pre-existing tensions between Islamists and authorities back to the fore, resulting in an increased crackdown on religious opposition actors ad movements. This article shows that, while the extent to which these trends are developing depends on the national context under analysis, different state reactions to COVID-19 are already drastically altering the relationship between political institutions and Islamic ones, affecting both domestic and regional balances of power and highlighting the mutual dependency between religion and politics in the Gulf.

scholarly journals The Conditional Relationship between Inequality and Development

2009 ◽  
Vol 42 (04) ◽  
pp. 645-649 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carles Boix
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
Income Distribution ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Growth And Development ◽  
Economic Stagnation ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Persistent Inequality ◽  
Do So

In recent years political scientists and economists have spent considerable efforts investigating the impact of income inequality both on political institutions and social conflict (Boix 2003, 2008; Acemoglu and Robinson 2006; Geddes 2007) and on growth and development (Atkinson and Bourguignon 2000). In this article I focus on the latter question: I discuss the extent to which (that is, the conditions under which) inequality may hinder economic growth. I do so by moving away from the current literature, which models the relationship between development and inequality in a linear fashion—with the latter unconditionally distorting (or boosting) the incentives to invest and therefore reducing (or increasing) the rate of growth. Instead, I claim that the potential correlation between inequality and development will be always conditional on the (mostly political and institutional) causes that generate the existing income distribution to start with. Hence it is not surprising to find instances in which growth and (mostly temporary) inequality come hand in hand as well as other periods and countries where there is both high and persistent inequality jointly with economic stagnation.

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