Post-grad course of lectures Africa
Project name Post-grad lectures “Structural change of and sustainable provisions for African cities”
Acronym Promotionskolleg Afrika
Coordinator TU Darmstadt, Graduate School for Urban Studies (URBANgrad)
Project partner
  • TU Darmstadt, Department Bau- und Umweltingenieurwissenschaften, Institute IWAR, Section Spatial and Infrastructure Planning (Leadership)
  • TU Darmstadt, Department History and Social Sciences, Institute of History, Section History of Technology
  • TU Darmstadt, Department Architecture, Fachgruppe Stadtplanung, Fachgebiet Entwerfen und Stadtentwicklung
  • Goethe Universität Frankfurt, FB Geowissenschaften/Geographie, Institut für Humangeographie, Fachgebiet Wirtschaftsgeographie mit dem Schwerpunkt Globalisierungsforschung
  • Goethe Universität Frankfurt, Zentrum für interdisziplinäre Afrikaforschung (ZIAF)
  • DFG-Schwerpunkprogramms „Kreativität und Adaption in Afrika“
  • Institute for Settlement Studies, Ardhi University, Dar es Salaam (Tansania)
  • Department of Urban and Regional Planning / Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Nairobi University (Kenia)
Duration October 2014 – December 2017
(An extension by three more years is pursued)
Grantor
  • Hans-Böckler-Stiftung (8 PhD scholarships, 1 Postdoc position)
  • Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (1 Postdoc position)
  • Marie Curie Fellowship (1 Postdoc position)
Project content The focus of the research programme, currently conducted by 10 scientists working on their doctorate and three scientist holding a doctorate, lies on the structural change of the two East African cities Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) and Nairobi (Kenia). These are researched from the perspective of change in energy supply, water supply, wastewater removal, public transportation and telecommunications, particularly with regards to the interplay between network-bound and non-network-bound or planned and incremental supply patterns. The project illuminates the tension relationship between globally circulating models of city and technology development (especially that of a “networked city”), and the locally specific patterns of creativity and adaptivity in the two cities. The post-grad course of lectures is carried by professors from the fields of study Spatial and Infrastructure Planning, History of Technology and Urban Development at TU Darmstadt as well as the field of study Economic Geography at Goethe-Universität Frankfurt.