This book is accessible in the best sense of the term and yet offers complex ideas and challenges to traditional planning norms that have shaped a geography of vulnerability across Maputo, says Jonathan Silver

Silver, Jonathan David

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10.2.2017Book review: Participatory planning for climate compatibledevelopment in Maputo, Mozambiqueblogs.lse.ac.uk/africaatlse/2017/02/10/book-review-participatory-planning-for-climate-compatible-development-in-maputo-mozambique/This book is accessible in the best sense of the term and yet offers complex ideas and challenges to traditionalplanning norms that have shaped a geography of vulnerability across Maputo, says Jonathan Silver.The climate crisis is not an uncertain future or purely scientific debate but a frighteningly real present thatparticularly threatens coastal, low-lying cities that an estimated one billion globally reside in. Maputo is one ofthese coastal metropolises that has experienced rapid and often under-planned development demonstrated bythe 2000 floods which left parts of Mozambique’s capital city devastated. As Christina Figueres, UNFCCCExecutive Secretary writes in the forward, “Right now, the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people are keenlyfeeling the impacts of climate change” (p. v)Responding to such climate change imperatives is vital in Maputo butopens up a whole series of new challenges for communities andauthorities in making sure the city and its people are prepared for theclimate instability of the 21st century. While in cities like Maputo thisplanning has been ongoing for much of the last decade, there stillremain too few accounts of such processes, on how urban authoritiesand neighbourhoods have faced these challenges and the vitallearning that has emerged. It is into this space that a new publicationby UCL press has emerged. In a collaborative endeavour led byVanesa Castán Broto, the detailed and interesting book about theactions taken in Maputo provides an essential account of the frontlines in humanity’s response to limit the full horrors of climate changealong coastal, urban regions. This book is fascinating to thoseinterested in such responses, and an all but necessary read forplanners, social scientists, climate experts and activists well beyondthe streets of Mozambique’s capital.The book is structured into five succinct chapters that examine whyparticipatory planning is essential in addressing climate change inMaputo. It goes on to show how climate change concerns can be brought into the planning process, theknowledge production process, the partnerships required and a final concluding chapter. The book’scontributions make it clear that it is “not guidance for urban management, but inspiration in the research foralternatives” (pg 3). In honest reflection of their experimental and explicatory participatory approach, the bookhas much to offer readers that might not have considered the challenges of urban planning and climate change.It is equally suitable for the practitioners and activists to whom this publication and its writing seem to have beenwritten with the aim of sparking a broader movement in Maputo and beyond for climate compatible development.This book is accessible in the best sense of the term and yet offers complex ideas and challenges to traditionalplanning norms that have shaped a geography of vulnerability across the city. The book is fully referenced andbehind each section lies a series of interesting ideas from disciplines including urban studies, planning, climatescience, development studies, geography and others, brought together to anchor the reflections on the processdescribed in the book.Part of the success of the book can be attributed to the use of clear figures, tables and explanatory boxes thatoffer an alternative to pages of text. With over 20 full colour photos of Chamanculo C, the reader gets a realunderstanding of this poor but popular neighbourhood and the challenges it faced in relation to climate change.These include the textured nature of the area’s development and its people that help bring the particular1/3topographies of climate change to a neighbourhood level. The key lessons that conclude each chapter add tothis accessibility and illustrate how it might be used by policymakers pressed for time and more inclined tosearch for the highlights of such publications.The dual English/Portuguese language is perhaps the most prominent component of the book that illustrates theattention and ethical care that has gone into both the research process and the reflective writing that the readerencounters. All too often publications about African cities are written in English, limiting the audience and failingto connect with local policymakers and concerned citizens.Poor and marginalised populations stand staring at the climate change crisis as they struggle with an existingplethora of everyday development issues. Planning will be essential to navigate these issues, but, as this bookshows, involving those on the frontline in which there have often been overly technocratic exercises is the onlyway to ensure that cities like Maputo are not overwhelmed in the Anthropocene. But participation is not enoughand the book makes clear that being able to recognise power imbalances and “the risk of co-option” (p 69) areequally important. The book explores the many facets of undertaking such planning that shows climate change isas much a political issue as it is a planning issue.This book is a guiding light for planners, communities and anyone concerned with climate change in our cities. Itwill join a growing but still limited collection of studies and is likely to become an important guide to living in ourclimate-changed present. Participatory action planning might not be the only way to involve urban residents inaddressing this new landscape, but it offers a deeply considered approach that is needed across Maputo andcities more widely.Participatory planning for climate compatible development in Maputo, Mozambique. Vanesa CastánBroto; Jonathan Ensor; Emily Boyd; Charlotte Allen; Carlos Seventine; Domingos AugustoMacucule(eds). UCL Press. 2015Dr Jonathan Silver (@InvisibleMapper) is the Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow in the Urban Instituteat the University of Sheffield. The views expressed in this post are those of the authors and in no way reflect those of the Africa at LSEblog or the London School of Economics and Political Science.2/33/3

Book review: participatory planning for climate compatibledevelopment in Maputo, Mozambique

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