
S7 Ep24: Leonard Wantchekon on youth and governance in African cities
From VoxDev Development Economics by VoxDev.org
May 8, 2026 · 55 min · Season 7 · Episode 24
About this episode
Leonard Wantchekon discusses the potential of African cities as opportunities for youth rather than problems, focusing on governance and urban culture.
This is an episode from VoxDev's new podcast series, Ideas in Development. This series has a separate podcast feed , where you can find every episode of Oliver Hanney and Kurtis Lockhart's conversations on cities. YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOPG6UmOHGU Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cities-of-opportunity-not-powder-kegs/id1866874059?i=1000766172534 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6BoYX7rfpjn86KndCxsnyd?si=53213815c1fd4408 Audioboom: https://audioboom.com/posts/8899287-cities-of-opportunity-not-powder-kegs Substack: https://ideasindevelopment.substack.com/p/cities-of-opportunity-not-powder VoxDev: https://voxdev.org/topic/institutions-political-economy/leonard-wantchekon-youth-governance-and-africas-urban-future Are African cities a powder keg of restless youth – or the most promising place to build prosperity, peaceful politics and shared civic life? Leonard Wantchekon joins Ideas in Development to argue that African cities should be seen as a youth opportunity, not a youth problem. We discuss recent unrest in Kenya and Tanzania, his work showing that clientelism is overwhelmingly a rural phenomenon, and that deliberation and…
People in this episode
Guest: Leonard Wantchekon
Topics covered
- youth governance
- African cities
- deliberation
- decentralisation
- urban culture
- political economy
Keywords
- African cities
- youth opportunity
- governance
- clientelism
- urban future
- politics
- deliberation
- decentralisation
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: VoxDev, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audioboom, Substack
Places: Kenya, Tanzania
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