Universität zu Köln

Nangolo, Justina Tuulikefo ORCID: 0009-0008-3328-2768 (2026). Beyond Development Corridors: Infrastructure and Uneven Rural Transformation in Southern Africa. PhD thesis, Universität zu Köln.

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Abstract

Infrastructure-led development has made a comeback in recent years with development corridor promoted as a strategy for regional development that aims to connect productions sites to global value chains while promising to attract investment along the route and foster regional economic integration. Critical scholarship challenges this win-win narrative, arguing that development corridors often function as tools of commodity circulation that selectively integrate logistic hubs and production sites, creating extractive enclaves and leaving the areas in between behind. However, most of this literature analyse infrastructure-led development in isolation without considering other overlapping infrastructures. Yet most rural regions are pursuing development corridor alongside other development visions in the same territory. This dissertation therefore aims to examine how corridor-led development produces uneven development focusing on the Walvis Bay Ndola Lubumbashi Development (WBNLDC), a 2500 km transport corridor that connects the copper belt and Katanga region of Zambia and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to the port of Walvis Bay in Namibia via rail and road. Empirically, this dissertation combines remote sensing and household survey with policy and planning documents to characterise the evolution of economic activities along the corridor since its inception. Conceptually, the paper draws from neoclassical economic, critical political economy, assemblage theory and capabilities to develop a multi-scalar framework for analyzing the outcomes of infrastructure-led development. Results revealed that uneven development is produced through three analytical dimensions such as spatial selectivity, infrastructural interaction, and differentiated household capability. The results indicate increased economic and land sue transformation along the corridor is highly unevenly distributed. In Zambezi Region higher land use transformation was found along regional roads than development corridor which suggest that road infrastructure produces differentiated outcomes. Similarly, economic activities along the corridor were found to be tied to global commodity including mining towns, logistic hubs and tourism sector. Further, the analysis of household’s proximity to infrastructural assemblage revealed that the interaction among infrastructure can either complement or undermine one another depending on their spatial logic. The analysis also revealed that households experienced the assemblage differently depending on their capabilities. Education and asset ownership determines how access to infrastructure can be converted into v livelihood gains and determine how household transition among livelihood groups. Overall, this dissertation contributes to economic geography and infrastructure-led development by providing a multi-scalar framework for analysing infrastructure-led development and creating an analytical framework that explain uneven development through interaction of spatial selectivity, infrastructural assemblages and household capabilities.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD thesis)
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Nangolo, Justina Tuulikefo jtnangoloh@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0009-0008-3328-2768 UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-814351
Date:	2026
Language:	English
Faculty:	Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences
Divisions:	Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences > Department of Geosciences > Geographisches Institut
Subjects:	Economics Geography and travel
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language Development English Livelihoods English infrastructure English
Date of oral exam:	13 October 2026
Referee:	Name Academic Title Revilla Diez, Javier Prof.Dr. Bareth, Georg Prof.Dr. Hutt, Christopher Dr.
Funders:	Collaborative Research Centre TRR 228 for fieldwork, German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/81435