In this chapter of “The commons”, a book that explores the many forms of development being championed by Africa’s residents, users, and citizens, the authors – including Eric Denis, Director of Géographie-cités Laboratory – examine land dynamics in sub-Saharan Africa in the context of massive, rapid and dual-use urbanisation.
This chapter examines land dynamics in Sub-Saharan Africa in the context of massive, rapid, and diffuse urbanization. The first section focuses on the future of land-based commons (see chapter 2), particularly on the outskirts of urban areas, including the rural fringes that some actors expect to be absorbed by the urban area. The second section addresses the emergence of new types of commons designed to provide housing access to precarious and middle-class populations. This occurs in the absence of social housing policies at a time when access to urban land for housing is being cut off as its financial value and price increase. The third and final section discusses the renewal of public action—which is desirable in our view—in the face of these land use challenges.
The Commons explores the many forms of development being championed by Africa’s residents, users, and citizens. In addition to managing property and shared tangible and intangible resources collectively, communities are experimenting with a concept of “commoning” founded on values such as community, engagement, reciprocity, and trust. In practice, their approach takes the form of land-based commons, housing cooperatives, hybrid cultural spaces or places for innovation, and collaborative digital platforms. The purpose of this book, where observation of historical and recent practices converges with new theories within commons scholarship, is not to promote commons themselves. Rather, it examines the tensions, drivers of change, and opportunities that surround commons dynamics in Africa.
The commons
The Commons explores the many forms of development being championed by Africa’s residents, users, and citizens. In addition to managing property and shared tangible and intangible resources collectively, communities are experimenting with a concept of “commoning” founded on values such as community, engagement, reciprocity, and trust. In practice, their approach takes the form of land-based commons, housing cooperatives, hybrid cultural spaces or places for innovation, and collaborative digital platforms. The purpose of this book, where observation of historical and recent practices converges with new theories within commons scholarship, is not to promote commons themselves. Rather, it examines the tensions, drivers of change, and opportunities that surround commons dynamics in Africa.
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Modalities of land use conversion linked to urbanisation in the South
The “Land Tenure and Development” Technical Committee, a group for debate and exchange on rural and urban land tenure issues in developing countries, co-chaired by the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs and the French Development Agency, has launched a study into how land uses in developing countries are being converted as a result of urbanisation. The study was the subject of collective work and an issue of “Regards sur le foncier”, both co-authored by Eric Denis and Claire Simmoneau, researchers at the Géographie-cités laboratory.
