Concrete City (eBook)

Material Flows and Urbanization in West Africa

Armelle Choplin (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2023 | 1. Auflage
240 Seiten
Wiley (Verlag)
978-1-119-81202-9 (ISBN)

Infos

CONCRETE CITY Armelle Choplin s Concrete City weaves a novel and engaging analysis of urbanization by tracing the journeys of cement and people making urban life in West Africa. From post-independence high modernist ambitions to building the opportunities to make a living, the emerging transnational corridor along the West African coast provides a starting point for insights which will expand and inform understanding of both established and newly emerging urbanization processes in many different contexts. Jennifer Robinson, Professor of Geography, University College of London, UK In this very innovative and superbly illustrated book, Armelle Choplin makes cement vibrant with affect, politics, economic interests and cultural meanings. She takes us to a fascinating journey along the West African urban corridor following the social life of concrete and showing how this material shapes contemporary urbanization and everyday life. Ola S derstr m, Professor of Geography, University of Neuch tel, Switzerland Concrete City: Material Flows and Urbanization in West Africa delivers a theoretically informed, ethnographic exploration of the African urban world through the life of concrete. Emblematic of frenetic urban and capitalistic development, this material is pervasive, shaping contemporary urban landscapes and societies and their links to the global world. It stands and circulates at the heart of major financial investments, political forces and environmental debates. At the same time, it epitomises values of modernity and success, redefining social practices, forms of dwelling and living, and popular imaginaries. The book invites the reader to follow bags of cement from production plant to construction site, along the 1000-kilometre urban corridor that links Abidjan to Accra, Lom , Cotonou and Lagos, combining the perspectives of cement tycoons, entrepreneurs and political stakeholders, but also of ordinary men and women who plan, build and dream of the Concrete City. With this innovative exploration of urban life through concrete, Armelle Choplin delivers a fascinating journey into and reflection on the sustainability of our urban futures.

Autor

Armelle Choplin is Professor of Geography and Urban Planning at the University of Geneva. Her research explores how cities are produced in the Global South, especially in Africa. Combining ethnographic and comparative methods, she analyses the city as a place of encounter, confrontation and innovation between multiple ways of experiencing and inhabiting the world.

Inhalt

List of Figures xi

Series Editors' Preface xiii

Acknowledgements xv

Introduction: Concrete and the City 1

A Gray Matter 1

Age of Concrete 4

Africa Rising and Cement's New Frontier 6

The Lagos-Abidjan

Corridor: A Megacity Region under Construction 8

Cement As A Theoretical Binder 12

(Afri)Capitalism and Neoliberalism 13

Material Matters 15

Building, Dwelling, and Inhabiting a Postcolonial World 18

Tracking Urban Materiality: A Methodological Approach 21

Following Bags of Cement and the City under Construction 21

Thinking Cities Through West Africa 24

Notes 30

1 Concrete Politics 31

Africanizing Cement 33

From Colonial Import to Gray Gold "Made in Africa" 33

Patriotic Consumption and National Identity 37

Dangote, a Cement Magnate 39

Cement Business 42

Conquering Africa 42

"The Price of Cement Is like the Stock Market" 45

On the Road: Trucks and Logistics 47

The Rhetoric of Development 51

Emerging Through Concrete 53

Promoting Cement and Boosting the Economy 53

From Developmental States to Entrepreneurial Presidents 55

Builder Businessmen and Other Africapitalists 58

Conclusion 61

Notes 63

2 Making the City Concrete 65

The Multifaceted

Concrete City 67

Premium City-Megaprojects and the Business of the City 67

Affordable City-Social Housing Programs 72

Low Cost City-Autoconstruction in the Outskirts 76

A Booming Building Sector 83

Real Estate Agent: From Broker to Preacher 83

Property Developers and the Diaspora 86

Architects and Building Permits 88

Wholesalers and Retailers: Lebanese, Indian, and Chinese Connections 90

Materials: From Foundations to Finishing 93

A Matter of Sand 95

Reinforcing Steel and Corrugated Iron 98

Tiling from Floor-to-Ceiling 100

Digital Banking or How to Buy your Cement Online 102

Conclusion 104

Notes 106

3 The Social Life of Concrete 109

Caution - Work in Progress! 111

Concrete - Child's Play? 111

Concrete Block: The Ingot of the Poor 115

The Plot and the Block 117

I Build (with Concrete) Therefore I Am 117

The Incremental City: "Building Bit by Bit" 120

Right to Concrete for a Right to the City 125

Afropolitan Modernity, Imaginaries, and Experience 128

Desire and Success 128

Women at Work! Virility, Gender, and Emancipation 130

Concrete Palace, or Walter Benjamin in Lagos 134

Six-Bedroom-Villas 136

Concrete Fetishes and Voodoo 139

Conclusion 142

Notes 143

Contents ix

4 Uninhabitable Concrete 145

(De)Construction and Destruction 148

Collapse, Rubble, and Ruins 148

Sustainability and Greenwashing 151

Sand: Rarer than you Think 154

Green Expectations: Alternatives to Concrete? 156

Heritage and Vernacular Architecture 157

Back to Earth, Back to the Local 159

"Tropicalizing" Construction 163

Toward Innovation in the Concrete Industry 167

Putting African Architecture on the Map 169

Conclusion 172

Notes 173

Conclusion: Concrete Utopia 177

The West African Corridor: An Urban Laboratory 178

Utopia/Dystopia and Afro/Africanfuturism 182

Toward A Post-concrete

World 185

References 189

Index 209

Rezensionen

'Armelle Choplin's Concrete City weaves a novel and engaging analysis of urbanisation by tracing the journeys of cement and people making urban life in West Africa. From post-independence high modernist ambitions to building the opportunities to make a living, the emerging transnational corridor along the West African coast provides a starting point for insights which will expand and inform understanding of both established and newly emerging urbanisation processes in many different contexts.'
Jennifer Robinson, Professor of Human Geography, University College London, UK

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 29.3.2023
• Reihe/Serie: Studies in Urban and Social Change
• Reihe/Serie: Studies in Urban and Social Change
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Geowissenschaften ► Geografie / Kartografie
• Schlagworte: Geographie • Geography • Political Science • Politikwissenschaft • Sociology • Soziologie • Stadtgeographie • Stadtpolitik • Stadtsoziologie • Urban Geography • urban politics • Urban sociology
• ISBN-10: 1-119-81202-X / 111981202X
• ISBN-13: 978-1-119-81202-9 / 9781119812029