The March issue of Antipode – volume 46, number 2 – is out now…

From Necropolis to Blackpolis: Necropolitical Governance and Black Spatial Praxis in São Paulo, Brazil by Jaime Amparo Alves

Precarious Lives in the Global South: On Being Disabled in Guyana by Vera Chouinard

The Mediation and Remediation of Disaster: Hurricanes Katrina and Felix in/and the New Media Environment by Julie Cupples and Kevin Glynn

Illuminating the Path to Grand Pari(s): Architecture and Urban Transformation in an Era of Neoliberalization by Theresa Erin Enright

Between Tragedy and Farce: 9/11 Compensation and the Value of Life and Death by Emily Gilbert and Corey Ponder

Situating In Situ: A Critical Geography of Agricultural Biodiversity Conservation in the Peruvian Andes and Beyond by T. Garrett Graddy

Street Theatre as Democratic Politics in Ahmedabad by Caleb Johnston and Dakxin Bajrange

Against Shareholder Value: Accumulation in the Oil Industry and the Biopolitics of Labour Under Finance by Mazen Labban

Provincialising Urban Political Ecology: Towards a Situated UPE Through African Urbanism by Mary Lawhon, Henrik Ernstson and Jonathan Silver

The Social Production of Latin@ Visibilities and Invisibilities: Geographies of Power in Small Town America by Adela C. Licona and Marta Maria Maldonado

Foodscapes and the Geographies of Poverty: Sustenance, Strategy, and Politics in an Urban Neighbourhood by Christiana Miewald and Eugene McCann

The Making of “World-Class” Delhi: Relations Between Street Hawkers and the New Middle Class by Seth Schindler

Subaltern Empowerment in the Geoweb: Tensions between Publicity and Privacy by Jason C. Young and Michael P. Gilmore

Here, Mary Lawhon (University of Pretoria), Henrik Ernstson (Stanford University) and Jonathan Silver (Durham University) introduce their paper, ‘Provincializing Urban Political Ecology: Towards a Situated UPE Through African Urbanism’, with a video abstract.

As Mary and her colleagues explain, urban political ecology has provided critical insights into the sociomaterial construction of urban environments, their unequal distribution of resources, and contestations over power and resources. Most of this work is rooted in Marxist urban geographical theory, which provides a useful but limited analysis; such works typically begin with a historical-materialist theory of power, then examine particular artifacts and infrastructure to provide a critique of society. The paper argues that there are multiple ways of expanding this framing, and goes on to demonstrate one possibility, starting from theory and empirics in the South. It shows how African urbanism can inform UPE and associated research methods, theory and practice to create a more situated UPE. It suggests what a situated UPE might entail, starting with everyday practices, examining diffuse forms of power, and opening the scope for radical incrementalism.

You can read more from Mary, Henrik and Jonathan here.

Antipode Abstract from Situated Urban Political Ecology on Vimeo.