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The general theoretical frameworks in urban studies have previously been criticized for not being relevant for understanding dynamics of African cities, characterised by informality, high levels of poverty and extreme sociospatial inequality. In response to these theoretical limitations, issues of urban governance and politics with an explicit focus on African case studies have emerged on the agenda.

 

This paper examines the local politics of inclusion and exclusion at a community scale in Dakar and Cape Town, respectively. Here, struggles for social justice revolve to a large degree around livelihoods and politics of survival. However, such local mobilisation is also informed by, and informs, broader political processes and practices. The theoretical starting point is to understand urban governance as a deeply political process (Pieterse 2009), which takes into consideration the formal and informal institutions, networks and practices at a community and city scale that inform urban development processes. The case studies explore such networks and practices involved in sociopolitical struggles, where symbolic and material politics are central to claim-making and local mobilisation in response to socioeconomic and political marginalisation. Struggles for social justice in African cities involve political strategies and practices at the neighbourhood scale which emerge partially in response to, but also intersects with, formal political institutions and processes at a neighbourhood, city, national and international scale.