Seminar Two: Civic Academy for Africa’s Future (CiAAF), Benin, Cotonou

16 - 20 February 2026

Despite growing calls to decenter knowledge production and move beyond dominant Western perspectives, theoretical work from underrepresented regions has received limited attention (Müller et al, 2025). Yet these contexts are far from lacking in theoretical innovation—they offer rich opportunities to deconstruct and challenge entrenched analyses (Pobłocki, 2013; Ferenčuhová, 2016; Müller and Trubina, 2020; Robinson, 2022). African and Eastern European urban scholars have both grappled with the complexities of state actors in urban development (Ion, 2014; Cirolia and Harber, 2022; Igué, 1999), positioning them to contribute valuable perspectives to emerging debates on the state's role in urban development (Shatkin, 2022).

Understanding the nature of state agency in Africa and Eastern Europe requires new analytical approaches. We aim to foster interactions among scholars from both regions to develop insights and methodologies for cross-regional analysis of negotiated and emergent statehood in urban politics. Existing theories of urban politics, rooted in Western contexts, fail to capture the fluid and negotiated nature of statehood in regions where institutional structures and governance mechanisms intersect with diverse actor interests—including personal wealth accumulation, network building, and legitimacy projection (Kinossian, 2012; Hagmann and Péclard, 2010).

African studies offers rich literature on state power and state actors' interests (Fourchard, 2024), while Eastern European scholars have examined transitional forms of statehood after socialism's collapse (O'Dwyer, 2006; Ion, 2014). Colonial and socialist legacies have shaped current state formations in both regions, and both share experiences of rapid political transitions (Pienaar, 1995; O'Dwyer, 2004). This provides a strong foundation for "comparative conversations"—posing questions from each context to influence interpretations of the other (Ward, 2010).

In the Benin seminar, we will trace connections across contexts as a basis for comparative conversations (Robinson, 2022, Chapters 5 and 6). We will explore direct links between African and Eastern European contexts (e.g. Cibian, 2017; Pillay Gonzalez, 2024) and consider how wider connections and flows bring African urban experiences into dialogue with other regional contexts (Soderstrom, 2014; Dobler and Kesselring, 2019; de Boeck, 2011), revealing opportunities for comparative reflection.

By bringing these two contexts—each on the peripheries of urban studies and the global political economy—into closer dialogue (Stanek, 2022; Tuvikene et al., 2017), we hope to reinforce calls to learn from "ordinary" or "overlooked" cities and regions (Ruszczyk et al., 2020). More importantly, we aim to focus attention on neglected themes and theoretical debates in urban studies and inspire methodological innovation to support more global perspectives on key urban issues.

Call for Papers

Call for contributions to Urban Studies Foundation (USF) Seminar Series in Benin

Appel à contributions pour la série de séminaires de l'Urban Studies Foundation (USF) au Bénin