Metropolitics

Dakar, Portrait of a Capital City

Armelle Choplin — 2025-09-12T05:00:00Z

Dakar, métamorphoses d'une capitale, by architects Carole Diop and Xavier Ricou, takes readers on a journey through the history of the Senegalese capital, from pre‑colonial Lebu villages to contemporary urban laboratory.
In their book Dakar, métamorphoses d'une capitale, Senegalese architects Carole Diop and Xavier Ricou present a masterful exploration of Dakar. Through meticulous archival research and iconography, the authors explore the lesser-known history of the former West African

- Reviews / Dakar, housing, history, housing policy, heritage, Africa, culture, urban planning, urban growth, West Africa, Senegal

Fablabs in Africa: Digital Innovation for Sustainable Cities?

Armelle Choplin & Martin Lozivit & translated by Oliver Waine — 2021-04-16T05:00:00Z

In a context where “smart cities” are being promoted in urban projects in Africa, Armelle Choplin and Martin Lozivit examine the role “fablabs” can play in cities' futures. They show that their emergence can be an opportunity to design a frugal African city, by making use of inhabitants' ingenuity.
The next Africa-France summit—initially to be held in June 2020, now to take place in July 2021—will focus on the “sustainable city” with digital technology and innovation at the heart of debates.

- Essays / innovation, Global South, fablab, Africa, West Africa, technology, digital city

Land Rights in the Urban Global South

Armelle Choplin & Éric Denis (†) & translated by Oliver Waine — 2018-05-18T05:00:00Z

In choosing to focus on the Global South, Metropolitics turns its attention to a key aspect of contemporary cities: land and land rights. By shedding light on situations in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Arab world, this series analyses land-rights strategies deployed by residents of low-income neighbourhoods to access land, and the way these populations benefit – or not – from land reform and from land-titling policies.
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Despite a slight slowdown

- Series / land, Global South, land tenure, land rights, land titles, land titling, land use

Social housing in Africa: a model to be (re)invented?

Alexandra Biehler & Armelle Choplin & Marie Morelle & translated by Oliver Waine — 2015-10-16T04:55:00Z

While the question of housing for working-class populations remains a recurrent issue in sub‑Saharan African cities, the “social-housing” policies implemented by states following independence, and under the influence of lenders, have almost always benefited the most well-off. Are the “participatory” alternatives now promoted by some NGOs enough to create a new model for social housing in Africa?
Strong demographic growth and urban sprawl, planning “failures”, areas of illegal occupation and

- Debates / homeownership, participation, housing, housing policy, urban policy, social housing, African cities, Africa, Global South, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Mauritania, Nouakchott, Yaoundé

De-Westernising Urban Theory

Armelle Choplin & translated by Oliver Waine — 2012-12-05T05:55:00Z

Three recent publications share a common aim: to move beyond the dichotomies of Western vs Third-World cities, developed vs developing cities, North vs South. By examining the case of African cities in particular, they provide the reader with a vision and understanding of other urban trajectories and offer valuable tools for contemplating the future of cities.
While the quantity of literature and scientific meetings on the subject of Western cities continues to grow, the other cities of the

- Reviews / postcolonial, postmodernism, African cities, Africa, Global South