How can Africa’s urban majority reframe sustainability agendas?

Abstract

Reporting from ongoing research and planning with low-income residents in Nairobi, Lagos and Johannesburg, this field note discusses infrastructure-led sustainability transitions that are in progress, probable and possible from the perspective of Africa’s politically marginalized urban majority. Its authors probe to what extent efforts to advance more sustainable urban futures in African cities can foster climate justice – not only in terms of resource distribution and infrastructural access but also in terms of political rights, recognition and participation in decision-making about what those futures should or could be. They suggest different ways by which engaging with the infrastructural lives of politically marginalized urban subjects and collectives may allow reframing of dominant, donor-driven sustainability agendas.