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Considering the uneven geography of foreign direct investment in Africa, this article examines political, demographic and infrastructural factors that have led six countries – Burundi, Central African Republic, Comoros, the Gambia, Guinea Bissau and São Tomé and Príncipe – to be the least attractive territories to the external capital. This paper investigates the extent to which political stability, qualification of labor, potential consumer market, regional integration, and infrastructure play a central role in attracting investments. It also debates Geography's role in investigating African countries' particularities to avoid common generalizations, which are still disseminated by Afro-Optimism and Afro-Pessimist perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

E-waste generation has been increasing on a global scale in the past decades, reaching the unprecedented figure of 53.6 million tons (Mt) in 2019 and raising concerns and debates around the risks, challenges and opportunities related to its management. Collecting and recycling this type of waste – activities that are encompassed in the term 'urban mining' – should happen under proper environmental and social conditions, to ensure that reverse logistic system and the circular economy become a reality over the globe. Through exploratory qualitative research, this article establishes a comparative analysis among the multiple actors – operating both formal and informally – responsible for e-waste management in London Larger Urban Zone (LLUZ), Sao Paulo Macrometropolis (SPMM) and Greater Accra Region (GAR). These case studies are the most dynamic functional urban areas (FUA) of their respective national territories and integrate the world system with different roles: the United Kingdom representing the core, Brazil the semi-periphery and Ghana the periphery. Findings uncover the broad spectrum of ways in which e-waste can be recycled and confirm the relevance of political economy for understanding the regulatory and technological aspects of its management in different geographic contexts. The article also suggests a reflection on the 'urban economy recommodization', a process that is adding new contents to the urban space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

E-waste production increase in the industrialised countries of the Global South follows the worldwide trend in the early 21st century. In large urban centres of these territories, e-waste disposal occurs in more significant quantities, and the need to implement a reverse logistics system within a proper regulatory and technical conditions has become a challenge. To the extent that most researches on the e-waste recycling in the developing world are dedicated to the analysis of informal stakeholders – especially in the waste collection and processing stages –, this article aims to contribute to the scientific debate by analysing the organisation of formal recyclers in Sao Paulo Macrometropolis, the most expressive consumer market of Brazil, encompassing more than 30 million inhabitants. Through a comparative case study of formal recyclers operating before the enforcement of national e-waste management regulation (2020), it was revealed some logistics limitations related to the low/irregular flow of e-waste collected, and the lack of technologies to enable the final stages of recycling. Research also points to possible synergies between the demands of these formal companies and the instruments that will be enforced by the recently approved regulation as a way to overcome these limitations in the short term partially.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent growth of most African economies has led to the development of numerous analyzes that conditioned the phenomenon in question to the Chinese economic dynamism. However, in addition to the evident influence of the Asian country - which operates in Africa through bilateral agreements, loans and different types of investments - it is also necessary to raise what are the specific conditions of the productive forces of the 54 African socio-spatial formations today. The understanding of these specificities - as well as the idle capacities of their territories - is the primary vector for directing the Foreign Direct Investments, which reveal the architecture of economic interests between African heads of state and the rest of the world, beyond China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The São Paulo Macro Metropolis (SPMM) is one of the richest and most inequitable regions of the Global South and is already experiencing the impacts of severe climate events. This study analyzes climate risk assessments and policy responses for this territory as well as its vulnerabilities. The Index of Vulnerability to Natural Disasters related to Droughts in the Context of Climate Change (IVDNS—acronym in Portuguese) was used to identify and select the most vulnerable municipalities in the SPMM. Following vulnerability analysis, the municipalities were subjected to risk analysis in the context of existing Brazilian legislation. The results indicate that, despite having positive capacities to respond to climate change, the analyzed municipalities are far from advancing from the status quo or taking the actions that are necessary to face future challenges in a climate emergency scenario. The results indicate that, despite being the most vulnerable to droughts and natural disasters, the cities analyzed are not the most vulnerable in the São Paulo Macro Metropolis from a socio-economic point of view. On the contrary, these are regions that could have a strong institutional capacity to respond to present and future challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]