Peri-urban studies in Africa : annotated and general bibliographies

The report, not intended to be comprehensive, focuses on writings that pertain to land, labor, and financial markets. Part I provides over 100 annotated references, which are selected from the general listing of over 500 sources presented in Part II. Because the literature on peri-urban economies in Africa is often uneven and ill-defined, the report also addresses several ancillary topics (e.g., urban housing, informal sector) and examines the literature of other world regions. Citation of theoretical works is limited, since most are not based on African materials nor always relevant to the African context. Several points can be made about the selected materials. (1) Many of the sources address peri-urban economies only tangentially. (2) The peri-urban zone is not explicitly modeled or analyzed in a way that yields a precise definition of the concept and useful methodologies for research. Francophone researchers have gone the furthest in this area. (3) Geographic coverage of peri-urban economies in Africa is uneven, with emphasis given to Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia, Senegal, Uganda, Ghana, and Cameroon. Coverage of peri-urban economies in certain countries also corresponds to particular time periods (e.g., Uganda during the 1950-60"s, Zambia during the 1960-70"s). (4) Several African research institutions and universities have stressed peri-urban research and in so doing have created large databases -- Office de la Recherche Scientifique et Technique Outre-Mer in Francophone west and central Africa, government universities in Nigeria, and, in east and central Africa, the Makerere Institute of Social Research (Uganda), the Institute of African Studies (Zambia), and the University of Zambia"s Department of Geography.