ABSTRACT
Both Nairobi, in Kenya, and Cape Town reflect geographies of stubborn inequality and growing spatial fragmentation. The city is taken as representing the outcome of continuous socio-technical processes that manifest spatially as the relationships between the material (technology, infrastructure, natural systems) and human agency (social action, planning and so on) evolve. This chapter explores three themes with associated examples that provide clues as to what this relationship could be. The first refers to grassroots efforts to render the margins more visible through online mapping and geo-referenced data capture. The second dimension explores how this information can empower and enable local communities to engage powerful stakeholders, with the third exploring the extent to which social activism that employs social media can shift public debate and policy. The chapter commences with an overview of debates on technology in developing settings.
