Special economic zone urbanism in Africa: capital, territory, and contested industrialization

IF 3.1 2区社会学 Q1 GEOGRAPHY

Geoforum Pub Date : 2025-09-03 DOI:10.1016/j.geoforum.2025.104403

Han Gao , Xingping Wang

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

This study introduces the concept of Special Economic Zone Urbanism (SEZ Urbanism) to examine how SEZs operate as institutional tools for capital accumulation and territorial restructuring within multi-scalar networks, shaping Africa’s urbanization frontiers. African SEZs are shifting from traditional export-processing zones to integrated city–industry complexes that integrate infrastructure, real estate, manufacturing industries, and services. SEZ Urbanism is conceptualized as an ideal-type analytical framework, viewing urbanization as an institutional process rather than a fixed model. It rests on three key features: (1) policy coupling that links land governance, capital accumulation, and regulatory experimentation through multi-functional development; (2) cross-sectoral, multi-scalar governance embedding SEZs into national urban and regional strategies with unified planning and financialized investment; and (3) an urban-oriented logic where zones actively produce and reorganize urban space regardless of proximity to existing cities. Using a function–spatial embeddedness continuum, the study situates SEZ Urbanism within global infrastructure-led development and the spatialization of industrial policy. Drawing on a function–spatial embeddedness continuum, this study identifies three SEZ types: high-embedded integrated city SEZs, medium-embedded industrial–urban satellite SEZs, and low-embedded industrial city SEZs. Positioned within global infrastructure-led development and the spatialization of industrial policy, SEZ Urbanism acts as a governance laboratory where neoliberal privatization and developmental industrialization intersect, embedding in global production and financial networks while retaining strategic state control, yet carrying potential risks of spatial exclusion and socio-economic inequality under financialization.

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非洲经济特区的城市化：资本、领土和有争议的工业化

本研究引入了经济特区城市主义（SEZ Urbanism）的概念，以研究经济特区如何在多标量网络中作为资本积累和领土重组的制度工具，塑造非洲的城市化前沿。非洲经济特区正在从传统的出口加工区转变为集基础设施、房地产、制造业和服务业于一体的城市-工业综合体。经济特区城市主义是一种理想化的分析框架，将城市化视为一种制度过程，而不是一种固定的模式。它基于三个关键特征：(1)通过多功能发展将土地治理、资本积累和监管实验联系起来的政策耦合；(2)跨部门、多尺度治理，将经济特区纳入国家城市和区域战略，实行统一规划和财政投入；(3)以城市为导向的逻辑，即区域主动生产和重组城市空间，而不考虑与现有城市的接近程度。利用功能-空间嵌入连续体，本研究将经济特区城市化置于全球基础设施主导的发展和产业政策的空间化之中。根据功能-空间嵌入连续体，本研究将经济特区划分为三种类型：高嵌入型综合城市经济特区、中等嵌入型工业-城市卫星经济特区和低嵌入型工业城市经济特区。经济特区城市主义定位于全球基础设施主导的发展和产业政策的空间化，是新自由主义私有化和发展性工业化交叉的治理实验室，在保留国家战略控制的同时，嵌入全球生产和金融网络，但在金融化下存在空间排斥和社会经济不平等的潜在风险。

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来源期刊

Geoforum GEOGRAPHY-

CiteScore

7.30

自引率

5.70%

发文量

201

期刊介绍： Geoforum is an international, inter-disciplinary journal, global in outlook, and integrative in approach. The broad focus of Geoforum is the organisation of economic, political, social and environmental systems through space and over time. Areas of study range from the analysis of the global political economy and environment, through national systems of regulation and governance, to urban and regional development, local economic and urban planning and resources management. The journal also includes a Critical Review section which features critical assessments of research in all the above areas.