Density as threshold and resource: Urban life and futures in Dar-es-Salaam

McFarlane, Colin; Kombe, Wilbard; Muheirwe, Florence; Nuhu, Said

Abstract

Cities in Sub-Saharan Africa are rapidly urbanising, producing new geographies of densification and sprawl. Amidst the debate about the current and future patterns of informal urbanization, the ways in which residents perceive and experience urban densities has been largely absent. We argue for the value of attending to how residents experience and perceive densities, including what this approach reveals for research in Geography and Urban Studies. Drawing on fieldwork in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, one of the fastest growing cities in the world, we focus on three concepts: ‘density-as-resource’, ‘threshold density’, and ‘future densities’. In examining the ways in which people encounter high density urbanism, we use this ‘resource-threshold’ density framework to find connections to how the city has transformed and density’s role within it. We do so from the context of Mlalakuwa, a densifying small and mixed income neighbourhood. From this context, we seek to advance conceptualisations of urban density, call for greater research on experiential densities, and consider the policy consequences for supporting and enabling dense urban life.

Citation

McFarlane, C., Kombe, W., Muheirwe, F., & Nuhu, S. (online). Density as threshold and resource: Urban life and futures in Dar-es-Salaam. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2025.2516090

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 11, 2025
• Online Publication Date: Jul 7, 2025
• Deposit Date: Apr 22, 2025
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 15, 2025
• Journal: Annals of the American Association of Geographers
• Print ISSN: 0004-5608
• Electronic ISSN: 1467-8306
• Publisher: Association of American Geographers (AAG)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2025.2516090
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/3796183