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This book presents a cross-regional comparative study of the role of capital cities and urbanization in the rise of authoritarianism. It explores the multiple ways in which authoritarian regimes have been attempting to build and sustain long-term dominance, drawing on six diverse case studies from Africa and Asia.
List of contents
- 1: Tom Goodfellow and David Jackman: Introduction: Political dominance in an urbanizing world
- 2: Tom Goodfellow and David Jackman: Generativity and repression: Strategies for urban control
- 3: Nansozi K. Muwanga, Paul I. Mukwaya, and Tom Goodfellow: Carrot, stick, and statute: Elite strategies and contested dominance in Kampala
- 4: Eyob Gebremariam: The politics of dominating Addis Ababa, 2005-2018
- 5: David Jackman: Dominating Dhaka
- 6: Marja Hinfelaar, Danielle Resnick, and Sishuwa Sishuwa: Fragile dominance? The rise and fall of urban strategies for political settlement maintenance and change in Zambia
- 7: JoAnn McGregor and Kudzai Chatiza: Geographies of urban dominance: The politics of Harare's periphery
- 8: Iromi Perera and Jonathan Spencer: Beautification, governance, and spectacle in post-war Colombo
- 9: Tom Goodfellow and David Jackman: Conclusions: Within and beyond urban dominance
About the author
Tom Goodfellow is a Professor of Urban Studies and International Development at the University of Sheffield. His research focuses on the comparative political economy of urban development in Africa, particularly the politics of urban land and transportation, conflicts around infrastructure and housing, migration, and urban institutional change. He is author of Politics and the Urban Frontier: Transformation and Divergence in Late Urbanizing East Africa (OUP, 2022) and co-author of Cities and Development (Routledge 2016).
David Jackman is a Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow at the University of Oxford. His research interests lie in the political economy of crime and violence in South Asia, with a focus on Bangladesh, where he has worked since 2010. His work on gangsterism, labour politics, party-police relations, and beggar bosses have been published in journals such as Development and Change, Modern Asian Studies, and Journal of Contemporary Asia. His current project examines the pirates of the Sundarbans in Bangladesh and West Bengal.
Summary
This book presents a cross-regional comparative study of the role of capital cities and urbanization in the rise of authoritarianism. It explores the multiple ways in which authoritarian regimes have been attempting to build and sustain long-term dominance, drawing on six diverse case studies from Africa and Asia.
Additional text
A timely book to understand processes of urban control in the rapidly urbanizing developing world. Taking six capital cities as key spaces of political action, the book provides a trenchant analysis of how authoritarian regimes enmesh urban citizens, repress/prevent dissent among others by co-opting key actors and sections of society, to ensure political domination and authoritarian durability.
