Between Fixity and Fantasy: Assessing the Spatial Impact of Colonial Urban Dualism

Abstract

This essay seeks to historicize shifting views of colonial urbanism since the 1960s. Dualistic oppositions once dominated scholarly understandings of colonial cities, but more recently postcolonial visions of hybridity and indeterminacy have come to the fore. More than shifts in academic paradigms are at stake; indeed, such divergent discourses raise critical questions as to how we should interpret urban forms and processes more generally. Instead of championing either side, the author seeks to bring these ostensibly divergent perspectives together, arguing for a more integrated historical and analytic approach to urban landscapes. Rather than opposing colonial accounts and postcolonial narratives, materialism and discourse, social sciences and humanities, the real and the ideal, we need to articulate these frameworks in order to grasp the actual complexities of colonial urban dynamics. Analyzing flawed urban interventions in East Africa, the author shows how colonial dualities were often asserted but rarely imposed, simultaneously informed by fantasies and yet all too real.

Histories of Technology and the Environment in Post/Colonial Africa: Reflections on the Field

“…Other (urban) technologies and infrastructures forged similar geographies of inequality-the often-cited "cordon sanitaire" between European and indigenous quarters being the most infamous [166]. This notion of colonial cities as "dual cities", characterized by a sharp segregation of "black" and "white" urban spaces and practices, has been complicated by recent studies [254][255][256][257]. In many cases, the "dual city" seems to have been more of an administrative and urban planning ideal than actual reality.…”

Bombay Lights: Gas Light and the Transition to a Modern City

“…Early academic studies of colonial cities developed theories and concepts to distinguish the colonial town from the European and Western metropole. Colonial urbanism conceptualises how social control and economic dominance inherent in colonialism shaped all aspects of the colonial city (Beverley, 2011; Bissell, 2011; Farooqui, 1996; Haynes & Rao, 2013; Klein, 1986). Furthermore, the modernisation of the colonial city was led by colonial interests and their native assistants followed and imitated Western economic, social, technological and cultural models (Hazareesingh, 2007; Mitsui, 2012).…”

Job Accessibility as a Lens for Understanding the Urban Structure of Colonial Cities: A Digital Humanities Study of the Colonial Seoul in the 1930s Using GIS

“…In recent years, the urban structure of colonial cities in the period of New Imperialism has been widely studied by urban geographers and historians. Examining the urban structure of colonial cities provides insightful clues to understanding socio-spatial inequality (such as racial segregation, and disparity in economic opportunities) that might be historically rooted [1][2][3][4]. These studies have largely focused on colonial cities established by Europeans in South Asia [5][6][7], South America [8,9], and Africa [10][11][12].…”