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Abstract

This chapter presents a discussion of planning cultures in African contexts. Using a planning culture framework, the chapter presents evidence on the variety of ways in which planning occurs at different levels of government, scales of geography and through varied historical influences. By looking at the historic colonial, postcolonial and contemporary experiences of three African countries that share a British planning tradition, differences in planning culture emerge and can be more easily identified. Each of these countries has moved beyond their colonial past to construct a unique planning culture of their own making. At the same time, four case studies on housing within Nairobi, Kenya are presented. The planning culture lens provides an approach for uncovering and understanding key drivers of planning and project conceptualization that suggest planning practise is far more diverse and situational, even within the same city, than previously understood.

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Correspondence to Andrea Garfinkel-Castro .

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Garfinkel-Castro, A., Mitullah, W.V., Larice, M.A. (2022). Planning Cultures. In: Khayesi, M., Wegulo, F.N. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Urban Development Planning in Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06089-2_2

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