African peripheries and Brazilian circumstances

Substantial published work now examines diverse aspects of peripheries of Brazilian cities. Peripheries are certainly not only areas of poverty, neglect and deprivation, but can also be areas of wealth. Across the Atlantic ocean from Brazil, in Africa peripheries of great diversity are the sites of most urban growth. Terminology used to describe these peripheries varies and the word “suburb” is often used in various ways. Like Brazil, diversity and complexity form a theme of work on African urban peripheries, recognising the mix of autoconstruction, state directed projects, and highly capitalised for-profit “developments”. Peripheral governance requires intensive inter-sectoral and inter-scalar coherence. There is enormous scope for a two-way traffic of work on peripheries between Africa and Brazil.