Emplacing god: the social worlds of miracle cities – perspectives from Nigeria and Uganda

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the complex, dynamic and multifaceted transformations in Africa’s religious field through a critical and comparative investigation of two high contrast prayer camps (Miracle Cities), their histories, functions and activities and ownership. The study is based on the ethnography of Prayer Camps in two African cities, Lagos (Nigeria) and Kampala (Uganda), one Pentecostal in orientation, the other, neo-traditionalist in character. The Redemption Camp/City, owned by the Redeemed Christian Church of God, is the largest landmass dedicated to the production and consumption of religion in Africa. The Faith of Unity religious movement, founded by Omukama Ruhanga Owobusozi Desteo Bisaka in Western Uganda, is a neo-traditionalist religious group dedicated to the reinvention of an ‘original’ African spirituality. The paper describes ‘Miracle Cities’ as entheogenic, competitive spaces, symbolic resources and complex social worlds that re-inscribe the importance of space, place and location in the conceptualisation and performance of salvation in Africa.     

A Tale of One City: The Devo Manc Deal and Its Implications for English Devolution

On 2 November 2014 George Osborne stood in the impressive great council chamber of Manchester town hall and, flanked by the ten leaders of Greater Manchester's local authorities, announced a devolution deal for the city‐region. Greater Manchester would receive a significant package of powers over transport, housing, planning, skills, business support and welfare in exchange for creating new governance structures, including a directly elected mayor for the city‐region. This article explores the background to the Devo Manc deal, arguing that it is the product of both a long history of local government collaboration in Greater Manchester and George Osborne's desire for a sweeping restructure of English governance. It traces how the key decisions were taken quickly and by a small number of key officials. The article also identifies some flaws in Devo Manc and considers whether it is an appropriate model for other city‐regions in the UK.     

Environmental Harm or Natural Hazard? Problem Identification and Adaptation in U.S. Municipal Climate Action Plans

A number of cities in the United States have devised climate action plans (CAPs) to mitigate the effects of climate change. However, few of these plans address strategies to adapt to the long term effects of climate change that will occur in the near and distant future. The research presented in this article examines why cities choose to embed adaptation provisions in their CAPs. Our study codes the content of CAPs for all cities (N = 98) in the United States with populations greater than 50,000. We find cities that frame problems associated with climate change in the language of hazards are more likely to include adaptation strategies in their CAPs than cities that focus on other types of environmental harm. Our findings suggest that more robust efforts to plan for climate change will require the activation of communities of interest beyond those that have been instrumental in setting the current climate agenda.     

China’s Phantom Urbanisation and the Pathology of Ghost Cities

This article examines the production of China’s “ghost cities” and constant urban expansion to challenge the dominant conceptual narrative of rural-to-urban migration as the driver of urbanisation. It argues that behind China’s “miraculous” urbanisation story is a powerful ideological commitment to urban growth as the “royal road” to modernity and assessment of political performance. Local governments have a wide-ranging “tool-kit” for pursuing urbanisation, ranging from administrative border-drawing to expropriation of rural land and investment in expanding urban infrastructures. Urbanisation is the destination to which all paths seem to lead. Indeed, local states pursue the construction of new urban space, even when doing so harms them financially. But why? The concept of phantom urbanisation names the process whereby constructing the aesthetic form of the urban is even more important to local state actors than economic, demographic or environmental repercussions.     

Imagining the modern city: Miyamoto [Chūjō] Yuriko in Moscow and London, 1927–1930

After her life-changing sojourn in the Soviet Union and Europe in the late 1920s, Miyamoto [Chūjō] Yuriko (1899–1951) devoted herself to the cause of communism. Her ideological conversion was rooted in the context of the modern city – in particular, Moscow and London – and the close interrelation between literary and filmic modernism and the modern city is evident in two key articles she wrote during her time abroad. In this article I will analyse how Yuriko represented her profoundly political experience and interpretation of two cities embodying alternative, opposed modernities – communism and capitalism – through modernist literary techniques and the new artistic technology of film.     

关于城镇人口失业问题的若干思考

目前 ,城镇人口下岗失业问题日益突出 ,引起全社会的普遍关注。然而 ,关于失业的原因、失业现状对社会稳定的影响以及解决就业的政策等方面仍存在着一些认识上的误区 ,值得我们反思。     

农村高校毕业生就业困境分析

在当前严峻的就业形势下,由于家庭背景、经济状况、思想观念等因素的影响,相对于城市生源高校毕业生而言,农村生源高校毕业生面临着更多的就业困难。要使农村生源高校毕业生走出就业困境,必须教育他们树立科学的价值观和就业观;调整高校专业结构设置,全面展开高校教育改革;为农村生源高校毕业生提供科学、宽容的就业环境;制定多样化的政策吸引他们回乡就业。     

The maquiladora electronics industry on Mexico’s northern border and the environment

The electronic sector, in particular, the computing industry, has become an increasing concern because of the environmental impact of its products throughout their life cycle. The United States, Europe and Japan as the greatest consumers of electronic goods have given special attention to this issue. The fast computer obsolescence and its difficult confinement, because of the hazardous substances contained, have required a special effort of technical innovation. Nevertheless, this effort seems to respond mainly to the standards required by the countries in which these goods are produced, consumed and confined, which are radically different in developed and developing countries. Though an important part of the production process (assembling) is done in developing countries, little attention has been paid to the environmental quality at this production stage. This study examines the environmental problems and strategy of the electronic assembly industry in the three northern border cities of Mexico. Almost half of 200 electronic maquiladora enterprises surveyed had not undertaken any active environmental policy and there was a limited environmental standards enforcement. Evidence was found that the firms that had operated for a longer period of time had better chances of taking better care of the environment. Environmental firm policies became weaker as one descended from the head office to the subsidiaries and then to their suppliers. It is also found that some transnational corporations operate with double standards in Mexico and thus strong national policies on environmental standards in Mexico are required to change this practice.

浅议超大城市经济增长模式

超大城市经济增长模式的内涵应该包括经济增长驱动力、资源配置方式、资源利用效率和环境支撑力以及超大城市与周边地区关系四个部分。促使超大城市经济增长模式发展变化的主要影响因素可以概括为三个方面,历史沿革、发展现状和功能定位。而对于超大城市经济增长模式的评价体系,主要来自于三个视角：包括经济增长的实效、经济增长的潜力以及经济增长的可持续性。     

Explaining Urban Social Disorder and Violence: An Empirical Study of Event Data from Asian and Sub-Saharan African Cities

By 2050, two thirds of the world's population will live in cities, and the greatest growth in urban populations will take place in the least developed countries. This presents many governments with considerable challenges related to urban governance and the provision of services and opportunities to a burgeoning urban population. In the current article, we use a new event dataset on city-level urban social disorder, drawing upon prominent theories in the conflict literature. The dataset spans the 1960–2009 period, covering 55 major cities in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa and includes data on nonviolent actions such as demonstrations and strikes and violent political actions like riots, terrorism, and armed conflict. We find that urban social disorder is associated in particular with low economic growth rates and hybrid democratic regimes, while level of development, economic inequality, large youth bulges, and economic globalization do not seem to affect levels of urban social disorder.