African agency in transnational city networks: The case of the City of Johannesburg

ABSTRACT

Transnational city networks have generally been portrayed as a more inclusive and egalitarian mode of international organizing. However, recent research has questioned these assumptions and highlighted the dynamics of power, domination and control at the heart of the functioning of these networks. These studies have also suggested a North–South power dynamic in global city networks, which seems to deny any significant agency to Global South cities in these networks. In this paper, I seek to qualify this view by analysing the manifestation of agency by an African city in a major transnational city network. I show how, despite finding itself at the bottom of the global city hierarchy, the City of Johannesburg was able to capitalize on the visionary leadership of its Mayor and a favourable domestic political alignment to direct the affairs of the United Cities and Local Governments and in the process shape global discourse on urban development.

KEYWORDS:

• City networks
• African agency
• global cities
• city diplomacy
• global governance
• paradiplomacy

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Personal conversation with Parks Tau, former Executive Mayor of the City of Johannesburg, 4 February 2016.

2 Personal conversation with official in the Economic Development Department, City of Johannesburg, 15 June 2020.

3 Of course, some would argue that the defeat of the ANC in the 2016 local government elections in Johannesburg was more a vote against the corruption-laden government of President Jacob Zuma at the national level than it was against the leadership of the metropolitan municipality under Parks Tau.