Economic Conjunctures: Planners, Residents, and Chinese-Led Urban Development in Nairobi

Elisa Tamburo, Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow, Anthropology Department, Harvard University; School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford

Moderator: Michael Puett, Walter C. Klein Professor of Chinese History and Anthropology; Harvard College Professor; Director, Harvard University Asia Center

Registration appreciated for planning purpose. 

Abstract: Since the early 2000s, the rise of Chinese businesses in the construction sector of Nairobi has transformed how the city is planned, built, and lived. The talk sets out to examine such urban transformations from the point of view of builders, planners, and residents. Not only does Chinese-led urban development divide the Kenyan urban middle class, but it evidences a multiplicity of interests among Chinese stakeholders. In examining how Chinese entrepreneurs have come to thrive in the real estate market in Nairobi, the paper enlivens the role of transnational economic and temporal conjunctures, which can impact individual and family trajectories in significant ways.