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Addis Ababa: Shantytown Or Global City? an Assessment of Large-Scale Inner-City Renewal, Redevelopment and Displacement for the Construction of a ‘New’ Addis Ababa

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Addis Ababa: Shantytown Or Global City? an Assessment of Large-Scale Inner-City Renewal, Redevelopment and Displacement for the Construction of a ‘New’ Addis Ababa Kloosterboer, Marjan Hilde (2019) The ‘new’ Addis Ababa: shantytown or global city? An assessment of large-scale inner-city renewal, redevelopment and displacement for the construction of a ‘new’ Addis Ababa. PhD thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/74327/ Copyright and moral rights for this work are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This work cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Enlighten: Theses https://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] 1 The ‘New’ Addis Ababa: Shantytown or Global City? An Assessment of Large-Scale Inner-City Renewal, Redevelopment and Displacement for the Construction of a ‘New’ Addis Ababa. Marjan Hilde Kloosterboer M.Sc Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Studies School of Social and Political Sciences University of Glasgow May 2019 ii Abstract The aim of this thesis is to assess large-scale, inner-city renewal, redevelopment, and displacement in Addis Ababa for the construction of a ‘new’ Addis Ababa, while referring to the wider historical, contextual, and the global setting in which this process takes place. This research followed an inductive, qualitative research strategy and used an embedded single-case study research design. Primary data was collected through in-depth, semi- structured interviews, for which thematic-based interview guides were developed; the data was then analysed thematically. The main argument of this thesis is that in Addis Ababa urban renewal and redevelopment have grown in volume and scale transforming into a new form of urban development. The construction of a ‘new’ Addis Ababa as a City-within-a-City on top of the exiting urban fabric is a type of New City development that seeks to re-make and re-model the city alongside Global and World City (GaWC) standards. This research found that the construction of the ‘new’ Addis Ababa is a form of new-built gentrification, which is producing social-economic spatial segregation through a form of social-spatial restructuring at a municipal scale, which can lead to distributional differences and spatial inequality. This research also found, while the construction of the ‘new’ Addis Ababa is still underway (and may always remain partial and incomplete), it is questionable if this urban transformation will ultimately lead to an improved position in global urban hierarchies. The city’s transformation has already had significant exclusionary effects on households displaced for the sake of inner-city renewal and redevelopment. Households without lawful land or tenancy rights are not compensated for their losses when they are displaced. This is a neglect of their basic rights to housing. Even though the transformation of Addis Ababa aims to prevent and reduce illegal settlements, it is instead forcing a specific group of low- income urban dwellers, whose demand is not addressed by the housing market, to migrate and reappear elsewhere in the city as illegal settlers. Households that do receive compensation may on the other hand not be able to afford the relocation associated costs, which puts them at risk for impoverishment. These households are relocated to peri-urban zones through an ex-situ strategy in a dispersed manner, which dismantles their social and economic neighbourhood based inter- and intra-community networks and leads to social and economic losses. The restoration of these social and economic networks post-relocation is hindered by a spatial and lifestyle change imposed on households, which furthermore prohibits them from returning to their old ways of life and hinders their ability to ‘bounce- back’. iii Table of Contents Abstract ...................................................................................... ii Table of Contents .......................................................................... iii List of Tables ................................................................................ vi List of Figures .............................................................................. vii Acknowledgements ......................................................................... ix Authors Declaration ......................................................................... x Abbreviations ............................................................................... xi Explanation of Terminology ............................................................. xiii 1 Introduction ............................................................................ 1 1.1 The challenges of planetary urbanisation .................................. 1 1.2 Focus of this research ......................................................... 4 1.3 Research aim and objectives ................................................ 11 1.4 The political situation in Ethiopia during the study (2014–2018) ...... 12 1.5 Thesis structure ............................................................... 15 2 Introducing the Concept of New Cities ........................................... 18 2.1 Introduction .................................................................... 18 2.2 The concept of New Cities ................................................... 18 2.3 Parallels between New Cities and Global and World Cities ............. 22 2.4 The concept of Cities-Within-Cities ........................................ 26 2.5 Impact of Cities-Within-Cities ............................................... 28 2.6 Summary........................................................................ 45 3 A Call for New Urban Theories ..................................................... 46 3.1 Introduction .................................................................... 46 3.2 Cities as focal nodes in the global economy .............................. 46 3.3 Global and World City Networks ............................................ 48 3.4 A call for new urban theory ................................................. 53 3.5 Summary........................................................................ 55 4 Research Strategy, Design and Methodology ..................................... 56 4.1 Introduction .................................................................... 56 4.2 Research aim and objectives ................................................ 56 4.3 Ontological and epistemological position ................................. 57 4.4 Research design ............................................................... 58 4.5 Validity and reliability ........................................................ 59 4.6 Research strategy and data collection ..................................... 62 4.7 Data analysis ................................................................... 72 4.8 Research ethics ................................................................ 74 4.9 Positionality and reflexivity ................................................. 76 iv 4.10 Summary........................................................................ 79 5 Housing Development in Addis Ababa ............................................. 80 5.1 Introduction .................................................................... 80 5.2 Addis Ababa’s housing crisis ................................................. 80 5.3 Housing development in Addis Ababa since the city’s founding ....... 83 5.4 Addis Ababa’s housing typology ............................................. 99 5.5 Summary....................................................................... 109 6 Addis Ababa’s History of Urban Planning ........................................ 111 6.1 Introduction ................................................................... 111 6.2 The founding of Addis Ababa in 1886 ..................................... 111 6.3 Taitu’s settlement plan ..................................................... 115 6.4 The short-lived Italian occupation of Addis Ababa ...................... 118 6.5 A City with different urban imprints ...................................... 122 6.6 Post-1991 urban planning ................................................... 128 6.7 The ‘new’ Addis Ababa ...................................................... 131 6.8 Summary....................................................................... 143 7 Renewal and Relocation Induced Displacement ................................ 144 7.1 Introduction ................................................................... 144 7.2 Displacement of tenure insecure households ............................ 174 7.3 Summary....................................................................... 186 8 The Loss of Social-Economic Networks and Adaptation to Spatial Changes 187 8.1 Introduction ................................................................... 187 8.2 The loss of social networks ................................................. 187 8.3 The loss of economic networks ............................................ 194 8.4 Adjusting to spatial changes after relocation ............................ 202 8.5 Summary....................................................................... 208 9 Conclusion ...........................................................................
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