Simon Bekker

Research and Publications

Broadly, my research interests over the past decade have comprised urban issues, initially in South Africa and increasingly beyond its borders in sub-Saharan Africa. I have tried to understand some of these issues by using collective identities, migration streams and xenophobic behaviour as ideas that facilitate analyses of urban life in Africa.

A research programme on urban issues in sub-Saharan Africa has resulted in three publications: a book on capital cities edited by Göran Therborn and myself and a second, edited by Laurent Fourchard and myself, entitled Governing Cities in Africa: Politics and Policies. The third publication is Bekker S., S. Croese & E. Pieterse (eds) 2021 Refractions of the National, the Popular and the Global in African Cities. Cape Town: African Minds.

A selection of my publications is listed in the four sub-pages given below. Some of these publications are available here in electronic format (via hyper-links).