打印

作者

James T. Murphy;Pádraig R. Carmody

来源

URBAN GEOGRAPHY,Vol.40,Issue1,P.128-157

语言

英文

关键字

Sociotechnical systems,urban-regional development,extraversion,parasitic urbanization,Tanzania

作者单位

Graduate School of Geography, Clark University, Worcester, MA, USA

摘要

Africa’s recent growth successes are raising hopes that its cities can generate the positive externalities needed to sustain long-term development. This paper examines the prospects for such a transformation in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. A sociotechnical systems framework is elaborated: one which conceptualizes urbanization pathways as determined by the practices, modes of governance, couplings, and multiscalar relations that constitute production, consumption, and infrastructure regimes in cities. The framework is deployed to assess whether Dar es Salaam’s industries, markets, public services, and built environments are generating distributive development outcomes. The analysis shows that the city is experiencing socioeconomically and spatially uneven development driven by processes of extraversion, intraversion, and splintering. Urban regimes are thus serving a more “parasitic” role by channeling capital offshore, bringing imports onshore, and creating highly uneven distributions of basic services. The paper highlights points of intervention and the value of the conceptual approach for comparative urban research.KEYWORDS: Sociotechnical systems, urban-regional development, extraversion, parasitic urbanization, TanzaniaAcknowledgmentsThe authors thank J. Alex Sphar for his assistance with the field research and Richard Grant and Francis Owusu for feedback on the paper’s conceptual approach. We also thank Ayona Datta and the anonymous reviewers for highly constructive feedback on prior versions of the paper.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by the National Science Foundation [BCS-0925151];