CRG Seminar: Contested sovereignty: Chinese-led urban development and the Kenyan middle class in Nairobi

The paper takes the lead from the recent substantial investments by Chinese companies in building urban infrastructure in Kenya. Since the early 2000s, a multiplicity of businesses from China have thrived in the construction market in Nairobi. This has brought significant changes in the ways the city is planned, built, and lived. In the paper, dr Elisa Tamburo will explore the effects of China’s financial engagement in Kenya from the perspective of city building, asking which kinds of contested visions of the city may emerge.

By relating questions of governance, citizenship, and, ultimately, sovereignty, dr Tamburo will show how China-run urban development in Nairobi not only divides the Kenyan urban middle class but also promotes different agendas among ‘Chinese actors’. It argues for the necessity of nuanced and careful differentiations among stakeholders and that the domains of governance and sovereignty are not in operation simply at the level of the nation-state, which keeps being eroded by sovereign debt and government-to-government loans. Rather, ultimately, the scale of the city offers new vistas to the powers at work to produce visions of the future, which are often different from those that urban dwellers imagine and aspire to.

This seminar is organised by the CRG Africa in the world - Rethinking Africa’s global connections.
Please note that this event will not be streamed online - you can only attend in person.

Image: Photo taken on Oct. 14, 2020 shows the Nairobi Expressway is under construction at Bellevue in Nairobi, capital of Kenya. /Xinhua