Luke Boyle

Smart city discourse dominates imaginaries of digital transformations across urban Africa, excluding perspectives based on African ways of knowing, understanding, and materializing the city. This research examines what new understandings emerge about digital transformation and futuring when the future African city is imagined from the perspectives and experiences of those living in informal settlements. Through ethnographic and collaborative research methods, this project centers everyday digital strategies and experimentations in Cape Town’s informal settlements, demonstrating how these spaces serve as fertile sites for theorizing the urban, the technological, and the future. This approach opens up a plurality of possibilities for Africa’s digital transformations, challenging dominant narratives and creating pathways for more inclusive, diverse, and contextually relevant technological futures across the continent.