The Post-Global City Theorizing Technology Cultures in Urban Africa

The book “The Post-Globalized City” seeks to open new horizons in analytical research, dealing with the production of knowledge and technological developments in African cities, based on their local and historical reality, while at the same time participating in global transnational processes. This work explores the ways in which city dwellers have used technologies and networks to operate within, transcending, the state and international order, and challenges stereotypes of Africa as a continent either devoid of technology or filled with disruptive technologies or technologies from the Global North or Asia. The book focuses on narratives and critiques of new “Africa Renaissance” ideologies, covering mega-projects such as geothermal and hydropower plants, new network startups that transcend state hierarchies and patriarchy, street vendors selling their products online, young people designing and building oil refining technologies, and technology startups operating around the world. The Post-Global City is based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in urban spaces in Nigeria, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Gabon, Cameroon, and Tanzania, and brings together voices from Africa, Europe, and the United States to investigate the dialectic between technology and urban life on the African continent.