IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v59y2022i9p1763-1781.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Urban paradox and the rise of the neoliberal city: Case study of Lagos, Nigeria

Author

Listed:
  • Oluwafemi Olajide
  • Taibat Lawanson

Abstract

In a bid to actualise the vision of transforming Lagos into Africa’s model megacity and global economic and financial hub, the state government has embarked on and/or supported various urban development projects. Drawing on the theoretical underpinnings of neoliberalism, we argue that governance practices in Lagos are transforming the city in a manner that is paradoxical to the intents of the city’s development plan. This paper, therefore, explores how government practices have shaped the city, and the socio-spatial consequences of the recent Lagos state government-supported developments. Of interest are projects from the Lagos State Development plan (2012–2025) which have resulted in significant spatial displacements – hence the selected case studies of Lekki Free Trade Zone and Badia-East Housing Estate. The study reveals that the Lagos state development policy results in creative destruction largely due to the uncritical embrace of market logic over social logic, thereby entrenching urban discontent and socio-spatial fragmentation across the city.

Suggested Citation

  • Oluwafemi Olajide & Taibat Lawanson, 2022. "Urban paradox and the rise of the neoliberal city: Case study of Lagos, Nigeria," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(9), pages 1763-1781, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:59:y:2022:i:9:p:1763-1781
    DOI: 10.1177/00420980211014461
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00420980211014461
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/00420980211014461?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:59:y:2022:i:9:p:1763-1781. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.