Corruption, Conflict and Cities: Towards a Typology of Urban Political Articulations

Both corruption and conflict are routinely associated with politics in Africa, and raise serious questions with regard to the effectiveness, stability and legitimacy of political orders. They also raise questions with regard to emerging forms of governance that are capable of addressing complex social problems. Whereas there is a plethora of literature on the macro-level of African politics, there is as yet very little research focusing on spaces in which political order is emerging. This paper argues that cities play a crucial role as sites of new and changing social interactions and constitute significant spaces in which transformations of political order can and should be explored. However, this exploration requires not only a critical examination of the relationship between corruption and conflict in urban spaces, but a thorough conceptualisation of urban political articulations