Structured around urban centers and peripheries, Extra/ordinary Johannesburg reimagines the African city as an “ordinary” space. 

In Extra/ordinary Johannesburg, urbanist Lindsay Blair Howe argues that Johannesburg, part of the highly urbanized Gauteng City-Region and often labeled as an “apartheid city,” is an “ordinary” space where spatial changes both marginalize and create opportunities for people in their everyday lives. Structured around the concepts of urbanization and peripheralization and drawing on Henri Lefebvre’s theory of spatial dialectics, the book uses empirical research methods like smartphone applications and volunteered geographic information to draw theoretical conclusions, providing exciting new insights into urban denizens’ daily lives and how urbanization in the Gauteng region relates to the decolonial project. One central premise is that understanding how people navigate the urban fabric of centralities, peripheries, and the spaces in between is crucial for reimagining effective ways to address poverty and inequality in urban Africa.