Book review: The aesthetics of belonging: Indigenous urbanism and city building in oil-boom Luanda, Claudia Gastrow, 2024

Abstract

In The Aesthetics of Belonging: Indigenous Urbanism and City Building in Oil-Boom Luanda (2024), Claudia Gastrow argues that aesthetic judgements mediate urban citizenship and emerge as a key factor in urban governance. Gastrow’s analysis examines Luanda during the oil boom (2002-2024), which saw spectacular economic growth and massive investments in urban redevelopment, accompanied by widespread demolitions of the city’s self-built neighbourhoods. Combining participant observation and interviews with archival research, often engaging with communities through NGOs such as Development Workshop and SOS Habitat, Gastrow traces how Luanda’s majority areas are built and governed. Against the notion of informality, she argues for Indigenous urbanism as a more accurate frame for understanding how belonging, community, and rights have been historically constructed through material practice. Her core argument links aesthetic governance to urban citizenship—showing, for instance, how materials such as concrete blocks versus corrugated iron function as moralised markers of urban respectability. Her book is essential reading for researchers and practitioners seeking to understand urban transformation beyond reductive formal/informal or modern/traditional binaries.