Urban Violence in Africa : Pilot Studies (South Africa, Côte-d’Ivoire, Nigeria)

First words

This study has moderate objectives. It uses existing perspectives on violence in general, as a background for focusing on violence in the urban context. The major thesis is that towns and cities, as the hubs of political, economic and social processes, as well as social change, provide the locale for analysing the usually complex and interrelated forms of violence. The structural and spatial inequalities often found in towns, and the growth of slums and un-and underemployed sub-cultures, provide the milieu for the proliferation of violence, particularly against the existence of relatively high levels of opulence. By their very nature therefore, cities provide an enabling environment for violence, arising from individual and mass frustration caused by relative deprivation, political repression, and systemic injustice. For these reasons, the urban framework of revolution has been emphasized by many scholars, but this is only one part of the totality of violence. The urban ...

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