Centering Accumulation in African Studies

Between the City and the Countryside: Centering Accumulation in African Studies

Thinking beyond clear-cut rural-urban divides, this presentation is a call for centring accumulation in the study of African Cities, and developing respective theoretical concepts. “Accumulation” is much more than “growth” or “development”, which cloud the processes through which value is created and/or distributed and how they interact with power relations. “Accumulation” helps us center political economy questions: who owns what, who does what and why, who gets what and what do they do with it – in and beyond Africa. It allows us grounding these questions in larger relations and social structures that often transcend the domain of the locale, often amounting to global entanglements (global commodity chains; algorithmic infrastructures etc.). Debates on accumulation in Africa also offer the opportunity to link with global debates on increasing wealth divides, and the rise of the rentier economy.