Complementing or Conflicting Rationalities? How Self-Production Practices in Collective Spaces Can Shape Urban Planning: Insights from Maputo City

Abstract

Spatial planning and governance in African cities are often framed and conceived through the formal-informal binary. This view has been responsible for negative connotations that increase urban populations’ vulnerability. Moreover, it has been heavily criticised as presenting a reductive view of urban development. Alternative framings such as “alternative informality” and “self-production” have recently contested such views by proposing process-oriented approaches that recognise the legitimacy of informal praxis. However, research on self-production practices has tended to focus on the household or municipal level, neglecting what can be termed “collective space”. This chapter explores the production and use practices within collective spaces based on research conducted in two peripheral neighbourhoods in Maputo in 2019. The findings highlight the role and legitimacy of self-production practices in collective space to provide services, consolidate local governance and substantiate urban development. It finds that the role of local residents and authorities in urban planning has only tentatively been accepted by official municipal-level planning agencies. The chapter will reflect on how collective space can better overcome local challenges beyond the household level and represent potentialities for inclusive and democratic planning. However, there are still many challenges in collective space that remain poorly addressed.