Manufacturing urbanism: Improvising the urban–industrial nexus through Chinese economic zones in Africa

The relationship between industrialisation and urban development is subject to assumptions based on experiences in the global North, with little research on how it plays out in countries undergoing urbanisation and industrialisation today. In the context of recent excitement about China’s role in stimulating an ‘industrial revolution’ in Africa, we examine how Chinese zones in Ethiopia and Uganda are influencing the urban–industrial nexus. We argue that Chinese zones are key sites of urban–industrial encounter, but these dynamics are not primarily driven by the government officials that dominate the ‘policy mobilities’ literature, nor by the State-Owned Enterprises usually associated with Chinese activity overseas. Rather, they are emerging through the activities of inexperienced private Chinese actors who do not even operate in the worlds of urban policy. Faced with government histories and capacities that vastly differ from China’s, directly replicating the Chinese experience is virtually impossible; yet the tentative and improvisational relationships between Chinese firms, African government authorities and other local actors are gradually moulding new urbanisms into shape. The piecemeal bargaining and negotiation that unfolds through these relationships bridges some of the gaps between industrialisation and planning, but this cannot compensate for the governance of the urban–industrial nexus at higher scales

Agglomeration of European industries

This chapter analyses the agglomeration of industrial activity across European regions over the past two decades. This period was characterized by the development of potent cross-border regional production networks in manufacturing in Central Europe that include both the more advanced regions of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Northern Italy, Sweden, and those of the new EU member states of Central and Eastern Europe. These developments were accompanied by serious deindustrialization processes in other parts of Europe which in turn had important macroeconomic implications in the form of sustained external imbalances. The chapter explores the geographic agglomeration of industrial activity in Europe, but also that of ‘advanced tradable services’ in which the more advanced regions of Europe can counter balance the loss of manufacturing. It also gives evidence of cross-border (vertical and functional) specialization patterns that characterize regional production networks