Confronting Sociospatial Exclusion on the Fringe of Africa’s Cities Using Participatory GIS: Lessons from Athi River Town, Kenya

Mainstream planning practices in Africa’s peri-urban locations embrace the rational planning model. As a result, fringe communities are constantly subjected to new standards by local governments. In terms of dwelling space, these previously rural settlements are treated as homogeneous categories of land use within formalized classification systems. Consequently, their living spaces and experiences and those of other marginalized groups are socially and spatially excluded, and their internal differences are made less visible. In this paper, I demonstrate a connection between traditional conceptualization of African peri-urbanization and sociospatial exclusion. Despite their limitations, geospatial technologies are found to enhance and impact exclusionary practices. A participatory GIS conceptual framework is introduced to demonstrate how the inclusion of local knowledge into decision-making databases can impact social and spatial exclusion.