Negotiating the city: Urban planning and dwelling amidst China-built infrastructure in Nairobi, Kenya

中国领导的基础设施项目促进了撒哈拉以南非洲的快速城市化，但非洲城市的发展仍存在争议。在肯尼亚内罗毕，中国对住房和互联基础设施的大规模融资正在从根本上推动城市规划和居住的新方式，往往是以牺牲城市穷人的利益为代价的。这些大型项目涉及清除贫民窟、城市搬迁和新形式的居住--高层居住和封闭式社区--正在改变城市的社会结构，加剧现有的社会不平等。为了将这些城市变革理论化，该项目从民族志的角度调查了奈罗比新的规划和居住实践的相互作用。研究的目的有两个：1)评估中国的基础设施项目和专业知识如何在内罗毕产生新的城市治理模式。2)展示城市居民如何根据他们的居住习惯、未来愿望和发展愿景支持、挪用或更确切地说是对这些模式的竞争，同时评估新出现的动员可能性。为了实现这些目标，我将分两个阶段进行总共6个月的人种学田野工作。首先，我将对基础设施的制度“生产者”进行半结构化访谈：中国的出资人、开发商、承包商、建筑工人和当地政府的规划师；其次，我将对基础设施的“使用者”--受到基层发展项目影响的城市居民--进行参与式观察和访谈。通过辩证地调查城市在不同分析尺度上的谈判，这种跨学科的民族志研究对城市地理学和基础设施人类学做出了贡献。这项研究的成果包括在顶级同行评议期刊上发表的两篇文章、一本专著和一部简短的纪录片，这将把我的触角伸向非学术受众。

China-led infrastructural projects have fostered the rapid urbanisation of Sub-Saharan Africa, yet the development of African cities remains contested. In Nairobi, Kenya, China's massive financing of housing and connective infrastructure is radically propelling new ways of planning and dwelling in the city, often at the expense of the urban poor. These mega projects involve slum clearance, urban relocation, and new forms of habitation - high-rise living and gated communities - which are transforming the social fabric of the city and furthering existing social inequality. To theorise these urban transformations the project ethnographically investigates the interplay of new practices of planning and dwelling in Nairobi.The aims of the study are twofold: 1) Assessing how Chinese infrastructural projects and expertise are producing new models of urban governance in Nairobi. 2) Showing how city dwellers are espousing, appropriating, or rather contesting these models according to their dwelling practices, future aspirations, and visions of development, while assessing emerging possibilities of mobilisation. To achieve these objectives, I will conduct a total of 6 months of ethnographic fieldwork in two phases. I will first conduct semistructured interviews with the institutional 'producers' of infrastructure: Chinese funders, developers, contractors, construction workers, and planners in the local government; second, I will conduct participant observation and interviews among the 'users' of infrastructure: city dwellers who have been affected by development projects at the grassroots. By dialectically investigating the negotiations of the city across scales of analysis, this interdisciplinary, ethnographic study contributes to urban geography and the anthropology of infrastructure. Outcomes from this research include two articles in top peer-reviewed journals, a monograph, and a short documentary, which will extend my outreach to a non-academic audience.