Living the Urban Periphery: investment, infrastructure and economic change in African city-regions

Living the Urban Periphery is a joint project between the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Sheffield. It was funded the ESRC Newton Fund in the UK and the NRF in South Africa, and ran from February 2016 to June 2019. The offiical project is now complete, but the team continues to collaborate to develop outputs including project reports and academic publications. Using mixed methods the project examined seven case studies in the city-regions of Gauteng, eThekwini and Addis Ababa. It examined change and lived experiences on the peripheries of these cities and seeks to inform urban governance and strategies for poverty reduction. It responds to the central research question:

A summary of the project's findings can be found here.

Explore our website to discover our innovative methodology; visit our case studies in eThekwini, Gauteng and Addis Ababa; meet our dynamic team; and see our latest publications and conference presentations.

View the Edge City exhibition of photographer Mark Lewis¡¯s images from the project.