Liquid Urbanisms in Africa: Thinking Climate Adaptation with and through Water
An International Conference co-organized by PRECURBICA project (Critical Urbanisms, University of Basel) and the Swiss Society for African Studies.
Basel, 12-13 June 2025
The workshop aims to bring together urban planning and critical social theory by exploring the diverse ways African urban communities are adapting their lives and environments to these challenges. Through a focus on various real-world examples based on in-depth qualitative empirical research, including but not limited to the practices of street-level bureaucrats, fishing communities, home-builders, residents’ associations and city planners, the workshop seeks to uncover new modes for living in and with the “urban sea”.
These insights are crucial for reimagining urban futures in times of environmental change, especially for African contexts, where pessimistic or development-centric narratives of crisis dominate, to develop a perspective of critical hope on sustainable urban development in the face of global climate challenges.
Mazzolinis presentation will focus on ethnographic evidence from Central Mozambique. It will consider how post-disaster planning and recovery practices associated with a language of climate change response are reshaping the processes of settlement and territorialisation on the outskirts of major urban areas. It will also consider how the experience of post-flood resettlement reshapes identities, life choices and citizenship paths.
Venue/hosting institution: Division of Urban Studies and Centre of African Studies, Basel.
