Taibat Lawanson

This article examines the transformation of Onike, a central Lagos neighbourhood, through the presence and expansion of the Pentecostal mega-church Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries (MFM). The paper engages with the concept of ‘religious gentrification’ to describe how MFM religious actors, operating as ‘informal elites’, reshape urban space through moral authority, political patronage and selective compliance with planning regulations. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with local residents and urban stakeholders, the study traces how MFM’s territorial and moral projects reconfigure local space and affect everyday life in a context of (relative) religious plurality. By connecting theorisations of informal urbanism with debates on gentrification and religious urbanisation, the paper suggests that Pentecostal city-making in Lagos is both spiritual and entrepreneurial, producing new moralised urban orders without necessarily transforming entrenched urban inequalities. The article contributes to global urban theory by showing how non-state religious elites drive urban change in the Global South through hybrid moral–economic logics. It argues for a rethinking of urban informality and elite power beyond secular and neoliberal paradigms, situating African Pentecostal urbanism within wider debates on governance, spatial inequality and the moral politics of urban transformation.

Climate risk and impacts are concentrated in cities. Many cities are vulnerable to and already experiencing extreme weather events – flooding from excess precipitation, heat waves from rising temperature, and others. The low-income and informal nature of urbanization in African cities makes residents more vulnerable, making climate-proofing an imperative. In this chapter, we review evidence of climate impacts in African cities, especially in the context of informality. To illustrate climate-proofing pathways, we draw on some cases offering lessons on community-centered early warning, risk communication, and nature-based approaches. The cases echo the value that vulnerable residents, as part of the urban assemblage, can contribute to pluriversal urban future imaginaries. While recognizing inherent heterogenous and interconnected characteristics, it shows the importance of centering the needs of vulnerable groups. Shaping African's urban future in an era of climate change must be pivoted by justice and inclusion, so that climate-proofing benefits all residents, now and into the future.

Climate change and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) represent intersecting global health crises whose impacts are profoundly shaped by structural inequities within a globalized world. The convergen...

Drawing on comparative qualitative research across six African cities, this paper conceptualises everyday adaptation as negotiated urban governance through which residents of informal settlements navigate and respond to climate-related risks. We show how material flows of sludge, waste, and floodwaters become entangled in cycles of risk accumulation intensified by climate change and disproportionately borne by marginalised urban dwellers. We analyse material and relational labour of informal residents emerging in response to these everyday risks. This labour materialises in technological improvisations, infrastructural repairs, collective maintenance work, and mutual aid networks, and holds transformative potential in three interrelated ways. First, when collective practices stabilise over time, they can contribute to scale-making processes, occasionally translating into more durable adaptation governance at neighbourhood or city scales. Second, everyday adaptation can generate multiscalar co-benefits, including cleaner environments, reduced exposure to hazards, improved health and wellbeing, and strengthened social cohesion, trust, and solidarity. Third, everyday adaptation operates as a site of intersectional negotiation, where leadership roles taken up by women and youth may enable empowerment and visibility but also reproduce or intensify gendered and generational labour burdens. Concurrently, everyday adaptation remains constrained by government inaction or hostile interventions such as evictions that limit the potential, durability, and translation of grassroots innovations beyond crisis response. We conclude by calling for local and national policies that recognise and support community agency to disrupt cycles of risk accumulation and advance more inclusive, sustainable urban development pathways under intensifying climate change.

Throughout human history, communities have responded to challenges in urban and rural contexts by engaging multiple agents and actors, including individuals, institutions, and governments. Disciplinary expertise, including deep knowledge and practice, has contributed to economic, social, technological, and political change. Yet, it is increasingly apparent that the complex global, systems‐level challenges facing twenty‐first century communities require responses that transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries. The ability of communities to respond to challenges faced, from natural and anthropogenic hazards to the systemic threat of climate change, is often referred to as ‘community resilience’. Despite increasing scholarly interest, there appears to be, however, a lack of consistency in understanding and applying community resilience among cross‐disciplinary practitioners. This ambiguity can limit the potential of collaborative action and impact at the community level. This study explores cross‐disciplinary perspectives of community resilience to better understand how the term is described and applied in practice. Drawing on the experiences of more than 100 international respondents to an online survey, this study analyses the emerging themes to gauge the potential of transdisciplinary community resilience in realising the possible value of collective action.

This paper examines how grassroots coalitions mobilize for the right to the city, the politics they encounter and the extent to which their actions result in urban reforms benefiting marginalized communities. The paper invokes a discourse on the right to the city as the mobilizing frame for grassroots social movement encounters against exclusionary development and displacement. Drawing on interviews and documents, we situate this discourse within two case studies of forced eviction in Lagos, Nigeria. To ground the investigation and highlight the tactics and politics of coalitions, the paper applies the conceptual framework of the invited–invented space of encounter. Our findings reveal that state-led neoliberal urban restructuring and spatial displacement in Lagos have triggered grassroots movements and the formation of coalitions, which, depending on the politics encountered, have both enhanced and constrained the struggle for transformative urban reforms that enable the right to the city for marginalized communities.

Public space initiatives (PSIs) in African cities can significantly promote health and social well-being, yet their implementation and impact are unknown across the continent. There is a substantial gap in literature on PSIs in African countries, with most studies concentrated in wealthier cities and lacking comprehensive assessments of long-term health impacts. The objective of this study was to synthesise evidence on the typology, location, features, and outcomes of these initiatives as well as the guiding principles that underlie their design and implementation. Employing a mixed-methods model, the study systematically reviews peer-reviewed and grey literature articles, focusing on the types, settings, and outcomes of PSIs. Data is analyzed using the CASP appraisal tool and thematic analysis. We analysed 47 studies, 15 of which were mixed methods, 22 qualitative and 10 quantitative. Sports accounted for 50% of initiatives. 30 of the 47 papers originated from South Africa. Communities viewed initiatives’ wellbeing impacts through social, economic, and ecological lenses, with health being but one dimension. The sustainability of initiatives was often limited by funding, historical marginalization, and competing land uses. Findings underscore the need for more comprehensive, long-term evaluations and cross-sector collaborations to sustain and enhance health-promoting public spaces in African cities.