Böcker av Abraham R. Matamanda

This book is the first to consider the roles, challenges and governance responses of secondary cities in southern Africa to changing circumstances. Among the challenges are governance under conditions of resource scarcity, managing informality, the effects and responses to climate change and the changing roles of the cities within the national space economy. It fills the gap in the literature on secondary cities with original case studies drawn from South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The authors are all African scholars, working and living in the region with intimate knowledge of the settings they describe. The book is critical as it includes such regional case studies of different secondary cities in Southern Africa but also because of it¿s multidisciplinarity: it contains substantive and pertinent issues such as climate change, disaster management, local economic development, and basic services delivery. It considers diverse environments, yet with similar challenges that could provide useful policy and governance proposals for other cities.

The book provides insights into urban infrastructure debates and discourses in Zimbabwe. Through an inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary approach, the book explores the theoretical, conceptual and lived experiences in urban infrastructure. The book focuses on case studies relating to urban transport, public housing, water and sanitation and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) among other substantive issues relating to urban infrastructure and services.

The housing and human settlement sector is fast changing, and technology is making it more complex than ever before. With reference to Zimbabwe, a developing country in Southern Africa, the essence of this book is to bring out housing as an issue within the technology debate and practice. The following themes emerge from the 6 chapters in the book:   The characterisation and conceptualisation of housing and technology and the nexus of both  The complexity of housing challenges and the problems governments face in providing adequate housing, especially for the poor Diverse practices in housing construction through the application of different typologies of technology Assessment of the feasibility of technologies in housing development in Zimbabwe by mirroring them against global experiences.  Discussion of alternative policy approaches that may guide technology integration in housing development. This book will excite scholars and practitioners in urban and development studies, construction project management, urban sociology, geography, real estate together with policymakers and government officials.