TY - BOOK
T1 - Suburbanization, Intra-Urban Mobility and Homeownership Aspirations
T2 - Exploring Processes and Dynamics of Urban Expansion from the Viewpoint of Residents Living in the Periphery of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
AU - Andreasen, Manja Hoppe
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - Urban expansion is a significant trend in cities of Africa, but the processes and dynamics of urban expansion are still understudied and poorly understood. This PhD thesis presents an explorative study of the processes and dynamics of urban expansion in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The research is based on case studies undertaken in 2013-2014 of five rapidly growing, peripheral settlements. Urban expansion processes are viewed from the perspective of urban residents buying land, settling and living in the periphery. The overall objective of the research is to understand how urban residents are shaping and influencing processes and dynamics of urban expansion through their settlement practices, preferences and aspirations, and based on this analysis to contribute to an emerging scientific debate on how transformations of peripheral spaces of African cities can be conceptualized as suburbanization processes. The thesis argues that the concept of suburbanization is able to capture the nature of the on-going transformation processes of the peripheral settlements of Dar es Salaam in significant ways. The research findings indicate that these transformations are characterized by incremental construction of housing, financed, built and inhabited by individual residents, who are predominantly long-term urban residents moving from central parts of the city and who are engaging in urban-based livelihood activities, which are often critically reliant on daily or regular mobility and access to central parts of the city. The findings highlight residents’ search for affordable urban housing as well as intra-urban residential mobility as central dynamics in urban expansion. The thesis also highlights how the on-going transformation processes differ from common conceptions of suburbanization in important ways, as housing development generally happens without provision of basic services and infrastructure in place. The research findings emphasize the hardships related to engaging in processes of suburbanization in the context of ill-serviced and poorly accessible peripheral settlements and draw attention to the agency and resourcefulness of residents in overcoming these challenges. Overall, the findings imply that urban expansion processes are associated with industrious and socially upward-moving urban residents gaining a foothold and carving out a space for themselves in the city. The thesis calls for a more nuanced understanding of urban expansion processes and emphasizes the need to move beyond a narrow focus on and informality in the study African cities.
AB - Urban expansion is a significant trend in cities of Africa, but the processes and dynamics of urban expansion are still understudied and poorly understood. This PhD thesis presents an explorative study of the processes and dynamics of urban expansion in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The research is based on case studies undertaken in 2013-2014 of five rapidly growing, peripheral settlements. Urban expansion processes are viewed from the perspective of urban residents buying land, settling and living in the periphery. The overall objective of the research is to understand how urban residents are shaping and influencing processes and dynamics of urban expansion through their settlement practices, preferences and aspirations, and based on this analysis to contribute to an emerging scientific debate on how transformations of peripheral spaces of African cities can be conceptualized as suburbanization processes. The thesis argues that the concept of suburbanization is able to capture the nature of the on-going transformation processes of the peripheral settlements of Dar es Salaam in significant ways. The research findings indicate that these transformations are characterized by incremental construction of housing, financed, built and inhabited by individual residents, who are predominantly long-term urban residents moving from central parts of the city and who are engaging in urban-based livelihood activities, which are often critically reliant on daily or regular mobility and access to central parts of the city. The findings highlight residents’ search for affordable urban housing as well as intra-urban residential mobility as central dynamics in urban expansion. The thesis also highlights how the on-going transformation processes differ from common conceptions of suburbanization in important ways, as housing development generally happens without provision of basic services and infrastructure in place. The research findings emphasize the hardships related to engaging in processes of suburbanization in the context of ill-serviced and poorly accessible peripheral settlements and draw attention to the agency and resourcefulness of residents in overcoming these challenges. Overall, the findings imply that urban expansion processes are associated with industrious and socially upward-moving urban residents gaining a foothold and carving out a space for themselves in the city. The thesis calls for a more nuanced understanding of urban expansion processes and emphasizes the need to move beyond a narrow focus on and informality in the study African cities.
UR - http://rex.kb.dk/KGL:KGL:KGL01009242264
M3 - Ph.D. thesis
BT - Suburbanization, Intra-Urban Mobility and Homeownership Aspirations
PB - Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen
ER -