This paper explores the emerging new master-planned city-building trend on the African continent. Situating our research within urban policy mobilities literature, we investigate the ‘Africa rising’ narrative and representation of Africa as a ‘last development frontier’ and ‘last piece of cake’, an imaginary that provides fertile ground for the construction of new cities. Building upon research on the practices of ‘seduction’ that facilitate urban policy circulation, we argue for the relevance of critically examining elite stakeholder rhetoric to understand the relative ease with which the new city development model is being promoted in Africa. We investigate the enablers, advocates and boosters of new cities, represented mainly by states, corporations, non-profits and consultants to render visible the complex networks of relations and private interests that support and enable the creation and circulation of the new cities model in Africa. We also analyse the pervasive ‘right to development’ argument among African elites, which precludes criticism of new city ventures and circulates problematic assumptions about modernity and development. We conclude by discussing how stakeholder rhetoric limits the range of urban visions that are put into circulation and mobilized for Africa’s urban future.
本文探讨了非洲大陆正在出现的新的总体规划城市建设趋势。将我们的研究置于城市政策流动性文献中，我们探讨“非洲崛起”的叙述，和将非洲视为“最后的发展前沿”和“最后一块蛋糕”的叙述，这是一个为新城市建设提供肥沃土壤的想象。在研究促进城市政策传播的“诱导”实践的基础上，我们认为，批判性地探讨精英利益相关者的言论是一种适当的做法，可以了解非洲新城市发展模式推广的相对容易程度。我们调查新城市的赋能者、倡导者和推动者，他们主要由国家、企业、非营利组织和顾问组成。我们这样做是为了凸显支持和促进非洲新城市模式的创建和传播、复杂的关系和私人利益网络。我们还分析了非洲精英中普遍存在的“发展权”论点，这些论点排除了对新城市建设的批评，并传播有关现代性和发展的、有问题的假设。最后，我们讨论了利益相关者的言论如何限制了城市愿景的范围，这些愿景被传播，并被作为建设非洲城市未来的动员工具。