Cities in Relations

Cities in Relations advances a novel way of thinking about urban transformation by focusing on transnational relations in the least developed countries. Examines the last 20 years of urban development in Hanoi, Vietnam, and in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso Considers the ways in which a city’s relationships with other places influences its urban development Provides fresh ideas for comparative urban studies that move beyond discussions of economic and policy factors Offers a clear and concise narrative accompanied by more than 45 photos and maps

List of Figures vii List of Tables x Acronyms xi Series Editors’ Preface xiii Preface and Acknowledgements xiv 1 Comparing Cities in Relations 1 Relating Hanoi, Ouagadougou … and Palermo 4 A Brief Introduction to Two Distant Cousins 5 World-city Research Beyond the West 9 Relational Geographies 12 Comparing Cities 17 The Structure of the Book 26 2 Trajectories of Urban Change in Two Ordinary Cities 31 Regime Change in Hanoi and Ouagadougou 33 Forms of Relatedness 42 Conclusion 55 3 Transnational Policy Relations 60 Mobile Planners and City Networks 63 Concrete and Paper in Hanoi’s Urban Development 64 Ouagadougou’s Competing Worlds of Policy Relations 76 Conclusion 87 4 Public Space Policies on the Move 92 A Repertoire of Translocal Connections 94 Public Space: Understandings, Practices and Things 97 Translocal Connections and Public Space Policy in the Making 103 The Politics of Translocal Connections 108 Traveling Participation and Public Space Design 110 Conclusion 116 5 Connecting to Circuits of Architectural Design 120 Stretched Geographies of Design 121 Circuits of Architectural Design in Hanoi and Ouagadougou 123 Hanoi: Design Spaces of an Emerging Economy 125 Ouagadougou: Architectures of Development 131 Grounding Design 136 Conclusion: Transnational Learning Processes and “Banal” Nationalism 140 6 On Road Interchanges and Shopping Malls: What Traveling Types Do 145 Modernization as Morality and Power 147 Modernization Through Ouagadougou’s Built Environment 150 Staging New Social Identities in Hanoi’s Shopping Malls 159 Conclusion 166 Conclusion: For a Politics of Urban Relatedness 171 Comparing Processes, Worlds of Relations, and Relational Effects 172 The Evolving Relational Worlds of Cities 175 An Assets-based Politics of Relatedness 178 References 181 Index 196