Urban visions from Lusaka, Zambia

• We asked Lusaka residents for their views on new master plans for African cities depicting new super modern cities.
• We explored their aspirations for Lusaka and their lived experience of the city’s rapid private sector driven development.
• The new master plans for African cities find support among a cross section of socio-economic groups in Lusaka.
• Approval of the new master plans for African cities does not reflect a convergence of aspirations around global city imagery.
• Support for the master plans reflects projections of residents' views about their local context and how it needs to change.

Economic growth in African cities has attracted the attention of international property developers and architecture firms seeking new opportunities as demand has waned in the shrinking economies of the Global North. Their interest has produced new computer generated master plans for African cities depicting modern utopias which would not look out of place in Dubai or Shanghai. The incongruity of these plans for cities where 70% or more of urban residents live on the margins in unplanned settlements raises important questions about the processes shaping the future of African cities.Urban theories, in particular neoliberal ideologies of urban entrepreneurialism, offer compelling explanations for how these visions have come to be. What is less well understood is the local dynamics at play in the structuring of African cities and the role of local actors in the construction of these new master plans. This paper documents the attitudes of residents of Lusaka to market driven development in their city and new master plans for African cities. Making use of concepts of policy mobility – it explores the aspirations of those that live in the city and the extent to which these correspond to the promises of these grand new visions. The findings highlight ways in which these new visions of African cities are at odds with lives and concerns of residents in Lusaka from across the social spectrum.