Idalina Baptista
Biographic Data
| ID | 220047 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Idalina Baptista |
| GIVEN NAMES | Idalina |
| FAMILY NAME | Baptista |
| SIGNATURE | BAPTISTA I |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Oxford |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7052-8589 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 160 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Financial value regime alignment and Mozambique’s heterogeneous energy landscape
Meeting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 7 of universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030 will require an unprecedented amount of private sector finance and development assistance. To this end, African utilities and governments are asked to put substantive efforts into aligning themselves with the demands of the dominant financial value regime of ‘the Wall Street Consensus’ (Gabor in Dev Change 52:…
Corridors as empty signifiers: The entanglement of Mozambique’s colonial past and present in its development corridors
This article examines the infrastructural histories and legacies of three transnational corridors centred on the Mozambican cities of Maputo, Beira and Nacala. Underpinned by physical infrastructures, corridors were central to the extractive European colonial enterprise in Africa. Corridors facilitated the flows of resources, goods and knowledge between metropoles, African urban centres, and their hinterlands. Nowadays, corridors insert African c…
Delivering an off-grid transition to sustainable energy in Ethiopia and Mozambique
Background Off-grid and decentralized energy systems have emerged as an alternative to facilitate energy access and resilience in a flexible, adaptable way, particularly for communities that do not have reliable access to centralized energy networks both in rural and urban areas. Much research to date on community energy systems has focused on their deployment in Europe and North America. This paper advances these debates by looking at how commun…
From problematisation to propositionality: Advancing southern urban infrastructure debates
In this article, we explore the notion of propositionality to advance southern urban infrastructure debates towards more anticipatory forms of scholarship. By propositionality, we mean a research sensibility that engages, first and foremost, with propositions for infrastructure futures on their own terms. While scholarship on infrastructures in southern cities has contributed to very fruitful conceptual and methodological innovations, we argue th…
Guerrilla urbanism, guerrilla governance: Governing neighbourhoods in ‘with-Covid’ times
Energy landscapes in Mozambique: The role of the extractive industries in a post-conflict environment
Rather than an integrated project of modernity, the provision of energy in Mozambique is characterized by social and territorial fragmentation. Our concern in this article is with spatial-political projects that enlist energy-related infrastructure as a means of furthering national unity across the national territory. We argue that the Mozambican state’s efforts to knit together its territory through energy provision have heightened divisions, su…
Electricity services always in the making: Informality and the work of infrastructure maintenance and repair in an African city
Access to ‘formal’ electricity networks remains a key challenge in many African urban areas. Significant attention has been paid to how access to an electricity connection should be provided, with much less attention paid to how electricity infrastructures are operated and maintained. Attention to how utilities govern the challenges inherent to ‘informality’ in the production of ‘formal’ networked infrastructure is less common, especially in Afri…
Spaceship in the Desert: Energy, Climate Change, and Urban Design in Abu Dhabi by Gökçe Günel
Reviewed by: Spaceship in the Desert: Energy, Climate Change, and Urban Design in Abu Dhabi by Gökçe Günel Idalina Baptista Gökçe Günel, Spaceship in the Desert: Energy, Climate Change, and Urban Design in Abu Dhabi. Durham: Duke University Press, 2019. 272 pp. Spaceship in the Desert is a timely contribution to a growing field of anthropological scholarship on energy. Günel engages Abu Dhabi’s Masdar City as a site for exploring intersecting con…
Energy justice and sustainability transitions in Mozambique
This paper advances the debate on energy justice by opening up a dialogue with postcolonial critiques of development. There is an imperative to develop energy justice theory fit to address the complex demands of a global energy transitions in poorer countries of the Global South. Delivering transformative change in contexts where energy systems are underdeveloped requires assessing energy justice principles from multiple situated perspectives, ad…
Space and energy transitions in sub-Saharan Africa: Understated historical connections
We Live on Estimates: Everyday Practices of Prepaid Electricity and the Urban Condition in Maputo, Mozambique
This article examines the transition to prepaid electricity happening in Maputo, Mozambique, in order to reflect on the contemporary geographies of urban energy infrastructure and urbanization in sub-Saharan Africa and other cities of the South. The article draws on fieldwork and archival research conducted in 2013 and 2014, arguing that prepayment constitutes a productive juncture in the urban experience of electricity infrastructure in Maputo's…
Enclosures within Enclosures and Hurricane Reconstruction in Cancún, Mexico
This article focuses on the reconstruction processes undertaken in Cancún, Mexico after hurricanes Gilbert in 1988 and Wilma in 2005. The article argues that both hurricanes facilitated the creation of an evolving logic of "enclosures within enclosures," whereby hotel and real estate investors, aided by government authorities, privatized and commoditized Cancún's public lands and resources for the exclusive use of the global tourism market. In pr…
The Travels of Critiques of Neoliberalism: Urban Experiences from the “Borderlands”
This article contributes to the ongoing scrutiny of the travels of critiques of neoliberalism in urban studies. Using the case of a state-led urban regeneration program implemented in Portugal since 2000, the Polis Program, the article weighs in on meta-analytical discussions about the hegemonic status of neoliberalism as a theoretical concept and as an analytical framework and on discussions about the travels of dominant critiques of neoliberali…
Practices of Exception in Urban Governance: Reconfiguring Power Inside the State
Supported on the analysis of a case study from Portugal (the Polis Programme), the article analyses the use of legal practices of exception in urban governance to explore the on-going reconfiguration of relationships within the state. A growing number of studies address how practices of exception shape state–society relationships, but little attention has been paid to how they shape the relationships among those governing while eliciting antagoni…
How Portugal Became an 'Unplanned Country: A Critique of Scholarship on Portuguese Urban Development and Planning
In this article, I seek to expose how scholars came to construct the idea that Portugal is an 'unplanned country'- a product of disorderly growth. While urban scholarship has now challenged the hegemonic view of spatial order as a proxy for modernity, development and progress, Portuguese scholarship has remained largely impervious to these debates as it consistently offers a view of the Portuguese city as 'not quite yet' modern and civilized. Bas…
Electricity services always in the making: Informality and the work of infrastructure maintenance and repair in an African city
Access to ‘formal’ electricity networks remains a key challenge in many African urban areas. Significant attention has been paid to how access to an electricity connection should be provided, with much less attention paid to how electricity infrastructures are operated and maintained. Attention to how utilities govern the challenges inherent to ‘informality’ in the production of ‘formal’ networked infrastructure is less common, especially in Afri…
From problematisation to propositionality: Advancing southern urban infrastructure debates
In this article, we explore the notion of propositionality to advance southern urban infrastructure debates towards more anticipatory forms of scholarship. By propositionality, we mean a research sensibility that engages, first and foremost, with propositions for infrastructure futures on their own terms. While scholarship on infrastructures in southern cities has contributed to very fruitful conceptual and methodological innovations, we argue th…
Space and energy transitions in sub-Saharan Africa: Understated historical connections
We Live on Estimates: Everyday Practices of Prepaid Electricity and the Urban Condition in Maputo, Mozambique
This article examines the transition to prepaid electricity happening in Maputo, Mozambique, in order to reflect on the contemporary geographies of urban energy infrastructure and urbanization in sub-Saharan Africa and other cities of the South. The article draws on fieldwork and archival research conducted in 2013 and 2014, arguing that prepayment constitutes a productive juncture in the urban experience of electricity infrastructure in Maputo's…
The Travels of Critiques of Neoliberalism: Urban Experiences from the “Borderlands”
This article contributes to the ongoing scrutiny of the travels of critiques of neoliberalism in urban studies. Using the case of a state-led urban regeneration program implemented in Portugal since 2000, the Polis Program, the article weighs in on meta-analytical discussions about the hegemonic status of neoliberalism as a theoretical concept and as an analytical framework and on discussions about the travels of dominant critiques of neoliberali…
Practices of Exception in Urban Governance: Reconfiguring Power Inside the State
Supported on the analysis of a case study from Portugal (the Polis Programme), the article analyses the use of legal practices of exception in urban governance to explore the on-going reconfiguration of relationships within the state. A growing number of studies address how practices of exception shape state–society relationships, but little attention has been paid to how they shape the relationships among those governing while eliciting antagoni…
Corridors as empty signifiers: The entanglement of Mozambique’s colonial past and present in its development corridors
This article examines the infrastructural histories and legacies of three transnational corridors centred on the Mozambican cities of Maputo, Beira and Nacala. Underpinned by physical infrastructures, corridors were central to the extractive European colonial enterprise in Africa. Corridors facilitated the flows of resources, goods and knowledge between metropoles, African urban centres, and their hinterlands. Nowadays, corridors insert African c…
Enclosures within Enclosures and Hurricane Reconstruction in Cancún, Mexico
This article focuses on the reconstruction processes undertaken in Cancún, Mexico after hurricanes Gilbert in 1988 and Wilma in 2005. The article argues that both hurricanes facilitated the creation of an evolving logic of "enclosures within enclosures," whereby hotel and real estate investors, aided by government authorities, privatized and commoditized Cancún's public lands and resources for the exclusive use of the global tourism market. In pr…
Energy landscapes in Mozambique: The role of the extractive industries in a post-conflict environment
Rather than an integrated project of modernity, the provision of energy in Mozambique is characterized by social and territorial fragmentation. Our concern in this article is with spatial-political projects that enlist energy-related infrastructure as a means of furthering national unity across the national territory. We argue that the Mozambican state’s efforts to knit together its territory through energy provision have heightened divisions, su…
Delivering an off-grid transition to sustainable energy in Ethiopia and Mozambique
Background Off-grid and decentralized energy systems have emerged as an alternative to facilitate energy access and resilience in a flexible, adaptable way, particularly for communities that do not have reliable access to centralized energy networks both in rural and urban areas. Much research to date on community energy systems has focused on their deployment in Europe and North America. This paper advances these debates by looking at how commun…
How Portugal Became an 'Unplanned Country: A Critique of Scholarship on Portuguese Urban Development and Planning
In this article, I seek to expose how scholars came to construct the idea that Portugal is an 'unplanned country'- a product of disorderly growth. While urban scholarship has now challenged the hegemonic view of spatial order as a proxy for modernity, development and progress, Portuguese scholarship has remained largely impervious to these debates as it consistently offers a view of the Portuguese city as 'not quite yet' modern and civilized. Bas…
How Portugal Became an 'Unplanned Country: A Critique of Scholarship on Portuguese Urban Development and Planning
In this article, I seek to expose how scholars came to construct the idea that Portugal is an 'unplanned country'- a product of disorderly growth. While urban scholarship has now challenged the hegemonic view of spatial order as a proxy for modernity, development and progress, Portuguese scholarship has remained largely impervious to these debates as it consistently offers a view of the Portuguese city as 'not quite yet' modern and civilized. Bas…
The Travels of Critiques of Neoliberalism: Urban Experiences from the “Borderlands”
This article contributes to the ongoing scrutiny of the travels of critiques of neoliberalism in urban studies. Using the case of a state-led urban regeneration program implemented in Portugal since 2000, the Polis Program, the article weighs in on meta-analytical discussions about the hegemonic status of neoliberalism as a theoretical concept and as an analytical framework and on discussions about the travels of dominant critiques of neoliberali…
Practices of Exception in Urban Governance: Reconfiguring Power Inside the State
Supported on the analysis of a case study from Portugal (the Polis Programme), the article analyses the use of legal practices of exception in urban governance to explore the on-going reconfiguration of relationships within the state. A growing number of studies address how practices of exception shape state–society relationships, but little attention has been paid to how they shape the relationships among those governing while eliciting antagoni…
Enclosures within Enclosures and Hurricane Reconstruction in Cancún, Mexico
This article focuses on the reconstruction processes undertaken in Cancún, Mexico after hurricanes Gilbert in 1988 and Wilma in 2005. The article argues that both hurricanes facilitated the creation of an evolving logic of "enclosures within enclosures," whereby hotel and real estate investors, aided by government authorities, privatized and commoditized Cancún's public lands and resources for the exclusive use of the global tourism market. In pr…
We Live on Estimates: Everyday Practices of Prepaid Electricity and the Urban Condition in Maputo, Mozambique
This article examines the transition to prepaid electricity happening in Maputo, Mozambique, in order to reflect on the contemporary geographies of urban energy infrastructure and urbanization in sub-Saharan Africa and other cities of the South. The article draws on fieldwork and archival research conducted in 2013 and 2014, arguing that prepayment constitutes a productive juncture in the urban experience of electricity infrastructure in Maputo's…
Space and energy transitions in sub-Saharan Africa: Understated historical connections
Energy justice and sustainability transitions in Mozambique
This paper advances the debate on energy justice by opening up a dialogue with postcolonial critiques of development. There is an imperative to develop energy justice theory fit to address the complex demands of a global energy transitions in poorer countries of the Global South. Delivering transformative change in contexts where energy systems are underdeveloped requires assessing energy justice principles from multiple situated perspectives, ad…
Electricity services always in the making: Informality and the work of infrastructure maintenance and repair in an African city
Access to ‘formal’ electricity networks remains a key challenge in many African urban areas. Significant attention has been paid to how access to an electricity connection should be provided, with much less attention paid to how electricity infrastructures are operated and maintained. Attention to how utilities govern the challenges inherent to ‘informality’ in the production of ‘formal’ networked infrastructure is less common, especially in Afri…
Spaceship in the Desert: Energy, Climate Change, and Urban Design in Abu Dhabi by Gökçe Günel
Reviewed by: Spaceship in the Desert: Energy, Climate Change, and Urban Design in Abu Dhabi by Gökçe Günel Idalina Baptista Gökçe Günel, Spaceship in the Desert: Energy, Climate Change, and Urban Design in Abu Dhabi. Durham: Duke University Press, 2019. 272 pp. Spaceship in the Desert is a timely contribution to a growing field of anthropological scholarship on energy. Günel engages Abu Dhabi’s Masdar City as a site for exploring intersecting con…
Energy landscapes in Mozambique: The role of the extractive industries in a post-conflict environment
Rather than an integrated project of modernity, the provision of energy in Mozambique is characterized by social and territorial fragmentation. Our concern in this article is with spatial-political projects that enlist energy-related infrastructure as a means of furthering national unity across the national territory. We argue that the Mozambican state’s efforts to knit together its territory through energy provision have heightened divisions, su…
Guerrilla urbanism, guerrilla governance: Governing neighbourhoods in ‘with-Covid’ times
Delivering an off-grid transition to sustainable energy in Ethiopia and Mozambique
Background Off-grid and decentralized energy systems have emerged as an alternative to facilitate energy access and resilience in a flexible, adaptable way, particularly for communities that do not have reliable access to centralized energy networks both in rural and urban areas. Much research to date on community energy systems has focused on their deployment in Europe and North America. This paper advances these debates by looking at how commun…
From problematisation to propositionality: Advancing southern urban infrastructure debates
In this article, we explore the notion of propositionality to advance southern urban infrastructure debates towards more anticipatory forms of scholarship. By propositionality, we mean a research sensibility that engages, first and foremost, with propositions for infrastructure futures on their own terms. While scholarship on infrastructures in southern cities has contributed to very fruitful conceptual and methodological innovations, we argue th…
Corridors as empty signifiers: The entanglement of Mozambique’s colonial past and present in its development corridors
This article examines the infrastructural histories and legacies of three transnational corridors centred on the Mozambican cities of Maputo, Beira and Nacala. Underpinned by physical infrastructures, corridors were central to the extractive European colonial enterprise in Africa. Corridors facilitated the flows of resources, goods and knowledge between metropoles, African urban centres, and their hinterlands. Nowadays, corridors insert African c…
Financial value regime alignment and Mozambique’s heterogeneous energy landscape
Meeting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 7 of universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030 will require an unprecedented amount of private sector finance and development assistance. To this end, African utilities and governments are asked to put substantive efforts into aligning themselves with the demands of the dominant financial value regime of ‘the Wall Street Consensus’ (Gabor in Dev Change 52:…
Political science (11 works) · Economics (10 works) · Law (9 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Urban Planning and Governance (7 works) · Politics (6 works) · Water Governance and Infrastructure (6 works) · Geography (5 works) · Computer Science (4 works) · Energy and Environment Impacts (4 works)