'Urbanizing a New Global South' focuses on the politics incumbent to this process - an 'anticipatory politics' - that encompasses a wide range of practices, calculations and economies.

Among government officials, urban planners, and development workers, Africa's burgeoning metropolises are frequently understood as failed cities, unable to provide even basic services. Whatever resourcefulness does exist is regarded as only temporary compensation for fundamental failure. In "For the City Yet to Come," AbdouMaliq Simone argues that by overlooking all that does work in Africa's cities, this perspective forecloses opportunities to capitalize on existing informal economies and structures in development efforts within Africa and to apply lessons drawn from them to rapidly growing...