Smart cities are becoming a popular urban development strategy to address complex and multiple challenges confronting cities globally, including in Africa. Using the 3RC framework, this paper critically analyses smart cities using experiences from Nairobi (Kenya), Johannesburg (South Africa), Lagos (Nigeria), Kigali (Rwanda) and Casablanca (Morocco). Are smart cities a panacea to Africa's quest for sustainable urbanization? Our analyses demonstrate that, if carefully planned and implemented, smart city interventions have the potential to transform the ways African cities are planned, managed, and governed. At the same time, smart city interventions in Africa are being implemented in contexts characterized by socio-economic inequalities, chaotic transport systems and massive governance failures among other challenges. We demonstrate that if ineffectively deployed, smart urban technologies might deepen existing inequalities and amplify spatial exclusion through privatization and marketization of urban space. Therefore, the adoption of smart city ideas in Africa must be rooted in contextual realities and properly calibrated to create urban spaces that are sustainable and inclusive.

In recent times, African governments have been adopting explicit National Urban Policies (NUPs). The adoption of NUPs is a sharp contrast to the past when some governments were ambivalent to it. Focusing on eight (8) African countries-South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Malawi and Uganda, we undertook systematic content analysis of the written policy documents for each country. African governments recognise the need for coordinated policy responses to enhance sustainable urban growth in line with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG #11) and the New Urban Agenda (NUA). The paper cautions against adopting ‘silver bullet’ solutions to avoid jeopardising the creation of local policy innovations that are more suitable to national and local contexts.

Conducting primary data collection can be a fulfilling and interesting adventure producing significant learning experiences particularly for early career researchers. However, fieldwork can be marred with complex challenges and frustrations, especially if conducted in dynamic and politically sensitive environments and with highly vulnerable urban populations. This paper contributes to and advances academic scholarship on fieldwork experiences in the social sciences. Drawing from the first author’s doctoral fieldwork experiences, we share our reflections on the application of the photovoice method in researching street traders in Harare, Zimbabwe. We engage with different issues that researchers could consider in the application of photovoice, especially with dynamic and marginalized urban populations like street traders. These include dealing with and managing complex and multiple ethical dilemmas, dealing with the content-quality conundrum, exploring ‘missing’ photographs and handling ‘leftover’ photographs, handling conflictual council-street trader relations, building rapport, and ensuring participant commitment, joint interpretation, and co-construction of meaning and methodological benefits of using photovoice with street traders. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper that reflects on the use of photovoice with street traders in Global South cities, and we hope that the insights presented here will be useful for future urban researchers working on similar topics.

The role of informal settlements in human development remains contested in urban studies literature. For instance, some existing studies view urban informal settlements as hotspots of social unrest, squalor and precarious residential environments (poverty traps); while others perceive them as places where the poor become resourceful, ingenious, and develop necessary skills to navigate urban life (pathways out of poverty). The absence of systematic evidence on the nexus between informal settlements and human progress hinder sound urban policy practices. This paper examines the role of informal settlements in human development focusing on Hopley, Hatcliffe Extension and Epworth Ward 7–Harare’s three largest informal settlements. The study combines surveys, in-depth interviews, and focus group discussions with selected residents from the three neighborhoods. The study reveals that despite feeling ‘trapped’ in conditions of precarious, overcrowded, and insecure housing, coupled with discursive territorial stigmatization, some informal settlement residents are hopeful that their settlements will eventually improve. The ambivalence of Harare’s urban policy toward informal settlements must be replaced by a more positive approach to improve the livelihoods of people living in these neighborhoods.