Traditional Authorities in African Cities: Exploring the tensions between urban expansion and urban governance in the African context , Kapstadt / Südafrika

Traditional Authorities in African Cities: Exploring the tensions between urban expansion and urban governance in the African context

Organizer
African Centre for Cities
University of Cape Town
Rondebosch, 7701
South Africa

Competition Contact
Ntombini Marrengane, African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town

Questions and comments may be directed to:
Ntombini.marrengane@uct.ac.za

Competition Assignment
Following a successful panel at the 1st African Centre for Cities International Urban Conference held in February this year, we are inviting submissions for a special journal issue dedicated to Traditional Authorities in African Cities: Exploring the tensions between urban expansion and urban governance in the African context. The aim of this special issue is to assemble recent papers concerned with the duality of traditional leaders’ actively commanding authority over access to infrastructure, housing and natural resources as part of established, if sometimes ambiguous, frameworks of urban jurisdictions.

Traditional authorities in the form of Kings, Oba, Kgosi, chiefs, Ohene, Amakhosi - all play a critical role in the physical development of urban spaces. However, in the African context, research on traditional authorities has historically focused on the cultural and political influence of these leaders as guardians of tribal customs and laws.

Scholarly treatment of traditional leadership has often been framed in the context of rural development or colonial history (Beall et al 2005; Buur and Kyed 2005). More recent discourse has looked at traditional authorities in relation to the new political systems and administrative architectures of the post-independence African state (Logan 2008; Logan 2009; Goodfellow and Lindemann 2013).

Traditional authorities are now being recognised as significant actors in urban spaces, yet given the scale and pace of urbanisation on the African continent, and the wide array of social and cultural contexts, the role and implication of traditional authorities in urban contexts needs closer and more comparative examination.

This special issue seeks to explore the similarities and differences in how traditional authorities operate both within and outside of urban environments across different regions, and the ways this is influencing urban development. A focus will be on examining the “formal and informal” roles of traditional authorities in the distribution of resources such as land and the changing landscape of governance. It will also encourage discussion on the extent to which these authorities have been incorporated into administrative structures and the ways that it supports or frustrates urban development.

Competition Type
Call for Papers

Special Issue Timeline
Deadline for submission of abstracts to editorial team – 15 June 2018
Reply from editorial team on acceptance or rejection of abstract – 01 July 2018
Submission of full drafts via email in word format – 30 August 2018
15 October 2018 – Feedback to authors.

Submission Details
Word format: font size 12; standard margins, Harvard referencing style
Abstract length: Should not exceed 500 words
Manuscript length: Should not exceed 7000 words