AbdouMaliq Simone
1955
Urbanist who studies African and Asian cities through what does work: the networks of people that stand in for absent infrastructure.
His most cited idea is «people as infrastructure». Where there is no reliable public transport, no stable electricity grid and no formal services, what connects the city are arrangements among neighbours, traders and drivers: improvised, shifting and surprisingly effective.
Simone insists this should be read neither as deprivation nor as folklore. It is a form of urban organisation with its own rules, and policies that ignore it — or replace it with formal infrastructure without understanding it — tend to destroy more than they build.
On AbdouMaliq Simone in this archive
- Urban economy
Urban life depends on informal networks
Urban life relies on informal networks to sustain daily activities when formal institutions are insufficient. The…
AbdouMaliq Simone 3 min read - Urban geopolitics
Urbanization in the Global South: Challenges and Opportunities
Urbanization in the Global South has followed patterns that differ from those observed in more developed countries
AbdouMaliq Simone 3 min read - Urban economy
Informal Economies and Settlements: Urban Challenges in the Global South
Informal economies and informal settlements are deeply intertwined with the urban structure of cities in the Global…
AbdouMaliq Simone 2 min read
