Planning Rules in Post-Colonial States: The Political Economy of Urban and Regional Planning in Cameroon

Document Type

Book

Publication Date

2001

Abstract

Although the struggle for independence in colonial Africa was characterized by pronouncements unconditionally condemning imperialism and promising to eliminate all vestiges of European domination, the post-colonial leaders, almost without exception, decided in favour of adopting European models of development. Thus, despite rhetoric to the contrary, development policies in post-colonial Africa continues to reflect and embody Western-especially European-Values. Nowhere else is this assertion more tenable than in the area of urban and regional planning, where the models were either inherited from the departing colonial administration or have recently been borrowed from some metropolitan country. Yet to receive the same degree of attention are questions relating to the rationale for adopting such models on the part of post-colonial states. In other words, crucial questions such as the following remain largely unanswered. Why have authorities in post-colonial states decided in favour of European or Western planning models? What are the implications for different societal groups of adopting such models? The main objective of this book is to attempt to uncover answers to these and cognate questions. The empirical referent of the project is Cameroon. The country's history-being the only African country to have been colonized by three different European powers, Germany, Britain and France-make it ideally suitable as a context for exploring questions of the genre raised above.

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Citation / Publisher Attribution

Planning Rules in Post-Colonial States: The Political Economy of Urban and Regional Planning in Cameroon, Nova Science Publishers, 208 p.

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