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

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.