URBANIZATION, GLOBAL ECONOMY AND INNOVATION IN SUB-SAHARA AFRICA:

WHAT DYNAMICS?

Abstract

Based on a bibliographical survey and analysis, this study seeks to address the relationships between urbanization, global economy, and innovation, assuming that the growth of the urban population in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) tends to outpace that of the rural population. The assumption made is that the game of globalization, within the framework of the intensification of urbanization, due to the benefits it presents, tends to gradually increase the consistency of the attractiveness of the “urban”, thus having outcomes such as “intensification”, innovation, and other aspects. The economies of SSA countries are in a peripheral position in relation to the global “new economy”, developing a sense of innovation that is adjusted to this condition. From this perspective, the intensification of urbanization brings the opportunity to boost and improve living conditions, including urban socio-spatial conditions, which is not yet a widespread reality in SSA. In the relationship between the dynamics of urbanization, global economy and innovation, the attractiveness of urban centers or cities in SSA tends to intensify urbanization within the framework of the globalization game, influencing the maintenance of socio-spatial differentiations, which in other words, can be described as the existence of spaces of urban polarity and fragmentation.