Reviewed by Kjersti Larsen in Africa (London) 82 (4) November 2012, pages 655-659. (DT1.A1 A258 AFA).
AFA copy is a gift from Janet Stanley.
Contents:
Introduction: landscapes of power and planning -- Cosmopolitan lives, urbane worlds: space and society in Zanzibar City -- Uncertain states: colonial practices and the ambiguities of power -- Colonial cartographies: struggling to make sense of urban space -- Disease, environment, and social engineering: clearing out and cleaning up the colonial city -- Development and the dilemmas of expertise -- Failures of implementation: circularity and secrecy in the pursuit of planning -- Disorder by design: legal confusion and bureaucratic chaos in colonial planning -- Conclusion: reflections on planning, colonial power, and continuities in the present
Summary:
Across Africa and elsewhere, colonialism promised to deliver progress and development. In urban Zanzibar, the British vowed to import scientific techniques and practices - ranging from sanitation to urban planning - to create a perfect city. However, Bissell shows how these plans had to be remade over and over again
