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Kigali
A New City for the End of the World
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2025
About this book
A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more.
In the first decade of the twenty-first century, the government of Rwanda hired American and Singaporean design firms to transform the image of Kigali from a wounded city into a competitive destination for foreign investment. The firms produced promotional images of a post-conflict tabula rasa waiting to be rebuilt by foreign investors as an urban solution to climate change. However, to make this marketing image real, much of the actual city would need to be destroyed and its residents converted to consumers of green housing and service delivery systems.
Kigali is an ethnography of a city that is being destroyed so that it can be rebuilt for the end of the world. Drawing on years of ethnographic fieldwork with Kigali residents as they navigate the catastrophes induced by sustainable urbanism, this book offers a searing critique of capitalist solutions to climate change and an account of the city’s popular alternatives to sustainable urbanism.
In the first decade of the twenty-first century, the government of Rwanda hired American and Singaporean design firms to transform the image of Kigali from a wounded city into a competitive destination for foreign investment. The firms produced promotional images of a post-conflict tabula rasa waiting to be rebuilt by foreign investors as an urban solution to climate change. However, to make this marketing image real, much of the actual city would need to be destroyed and its residents converted to consumers of green housing and service delivery systems.
Kigali is an ethnography of a city that is being destroyed so that it can be rebuilt for the end of the world. Drawing on years of ethnographic fieldwork with Kigali residents as they navigate the catastrophes induced by sustainable urbanism, this book offers a searing critique of capitalist solutions to climate change and an account of the city’s popular alternatives to sustainable urbanism.
Author / Editor information
Contributor: Samuel Shearer
Samuel Shearer is Assistant Professor in the Department of African and African American Studies at Washington University in St. Louis.
Topics
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Frontmatter
i -
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Contents
vii -
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List of Illustrations
viii -
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Preface
xi -
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1. Introduction: Capital of the African Century
1 -
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2. Production: Making an African Metropolis
26 -
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3. Brand: Ruled by Fictions
55 -
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4. Destruction: Making Fictions Real
86 -
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5. Repair: Punk Urbanism
113 -
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6. Recycle: Wasted Space
142 -
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Epilogue: Urban Humanities for a Broken World
169 -
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Acknowledgments
181 -
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Notes
185 -
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References
193 -
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General Index
211
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
October 28, 2025
eBook ISBN:
9780520409989
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Main content:
238
eBook ISBN:
9780520409989
