Conventional regionalisations and delimitations of cities and urban societies are increasingly questioned, empirically as well as theoretically. This paper discusses the related debate unfolding in urban studies and shows that some of the fault lines of this debate can be attributed to different research agendas. Relating to the South African background, different understandings of the 'city' and the 'region' are identified, as well as in interpretations of ongoing trends towards global urban societies. Starting point of our paper is the assumption that the World and Global City debate on the one hand and the conceptions of Global Value Chains on the other offer a range of research questions which may lead to a reinterpretation of global cities in Africa. Using the situation in Gauteng as a reference we will unravel different directions of the debate. Based on this we propose a synthesis taking the concept of global city regions to a further level. We argue that through this new lens a two-pronged reflection is possible: in this way, an integration of regional evolutionary pathways of urban development with a growing dependence of global and international flows of products and money can be constructed.

New urban plans are popping up all over Sub-Saharan African cities. Private firms and consortia are all involved in the preparation of the future plans and images of these cities. These images represent stunning, supermodern, high-rise glass buildings, mesmerizing seductive words to investors and politicians. These projects include both new areas of development, usually placed in proximity of the primate cities, or they strategically define the new city schemes: satellite centres, new centralities.

The research tries to set the relation between the development of these large development plans and the governance process behind them.

The case study analysed is Kigamboni, an area of 6.492 hectares in the southern part of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, selected to be the site for the development of a New City. The project has been sponsored directly by the MLHHSD, and tries to reach foreign capital to be invested in the real estate sector.

The case study investigates the governance of these new plans. The necessity to overcome the different public institutions difficult to coordinate and to manage is replaced by other kind of institutions. In the case of Kigamboni, the size of the project seems to justify the proposal of a new local authority over the project area, with the possible birth of a new agency, basically a new Municipality.

When South Africa crowned its transition to democracy with a new constitution in 1997, a key promise of this new legal dispensation was to ensure a safe and secure life for all residents. However, given the various ways in which the systematic terrors of colonialism and apartheid have profoundly inscribed themselves into the country's social and spatial fabric, fostering in its wake high levels of disproportionately violent crime particularly in the country's major cities, this promise still begs to be realised. In turn, the proposed paper investigates the multivariate production of urban safety in postapartheid cities by focusing on the shifting regime of security governance in Cape Town. It considers the influential role certain intermediary organizations have come to occupy in shaping local government's programmatic thinking about and practical implementation of crime prevention strategies. Drawing on an in-depth empirical study of the Violence Prevention Through Urban Upgrading Initiative (VPUU), the paper traces why and how the urban development paradigm of 'crime prevention through environmental design' was able to gain critical traction in local urban governance circles, even beyond the immediate safety and security portfolio. In following recent scholarship that casts 'the city as a machine for learning' (McFarlane 2010) and highlights the growing importance of understanding global urban policy mobilities (and mobilizers) in the production of seemingly local political responses, the paper critically comments on the possibilities of as well as limits to inter- and intra-urban learning and what this means for contemporary urban governance arrangements in African cities.

Rapid urbanisation is taking place in many cities in Africa alongside the growth of digital social media use. We explore Zambia, where urban construction is experiencing exponential growth, where women, previously excluded, are making use of social networking to become developers in their own right. This is evident from the growing populations and the expansion of cities as can be seen from the traffic gridlocks, businesses and at the very heart the construction of new and modern structures. Women's participation is supported through the availability of land which for a long time lay untapped, docile and undeveloped. It is Zambian women's ability to bypass traditional hierarchical gender structures by using digital social media that has enabled them to take part in urban development. And now suddenly, it is as if a sleeping Lioness is awoken, and at every turn in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, new structures are springing up including those led by women developers. New social media platforms are allowing educational information regarding construction materials, land availability, cost and a discussion on negotiation practices including the exchange of ideas related to modern design that all enhance and further women's standing in their society. Previously this was a male domain, but new pockets of urban development, including those led by women are transforming the landscape. While this is encouraging, women continue to face considerable difficulties because of unemployment, accessing loans and low incomes when in work. However, digital social media seems to be helping in helping women forge new realities for themselves.