Skip to content
CIFAR header logo
fr
menu_mobile_logo_alt
  • Our Impact
    • Why CIFAR?
    • Impact Clusters
    • News
    • CIFAR Strategy
    • Nurturing a Resilient Earth
    • AI Impact
    • Donor Impact
    • CIFAR 40
  • Events
    • Public Events
    • Invitation-only Meetings
  • Programs
    • Research Programs
    • Pan-Canadian AI Strategy
    • Next Generation Initiatives
  • People
    • Fellows & Advisors
    • CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholars
    • Canada CIFAR AI Chairs
    • AI Strategy Leadership
    • Solution Network Members
    • Leadership
    • Staff Directory
  • Support Us
  • About
    • Our Story
    • Awards
    • Partnerships
    • Publications & Reports
    • Careers
    • Equity, Diversity & Inclusion
    • Statement on Institutional Neutrality
    • Research Security
  • fr
  • Home
  • Bio

Follow Us

AbdouMaliq-Simone_bw

AbdouMaliq Simone

Appointment

Fellow

Humanity's Urban Future

Connect

Website

About

For four decades I have worked with practices of social interchange, technical arrangements, local economy, and the constitution of power relations that affect how heterogeneous African and Southeast Asian cities are lived. I have worked on remaking municipal systems, training local government personnel, designing collaborative partnerships among technicians, residents, artists, and politicians.

Above all, the focus of these efforts has to been to build viable institutions capable of engaging with the complexities of life across the so-called “majority world.” My work deals with a multiplicity of propositions and capacities for relationships that remain untapped in popular districts across urban Asia and Africa, even though they are deployed everyday. This is not a matter of celebrating the informal; it is not a matter of the subaltern getting their due. This is discovering the incipient formation of new cities and urban regions in the intricate relational meshes of how things get done, a city and region that are more inclusive and which maximize the resourcefulness of their inhabitants, that suggest new ways for institutions to concretely connect with their constituents, and for the practices of residents to inform the operations of those very institutions.

Awards

  • Rockefeller Humanities Fellowship, New York University, 1999-2000
  • Fulbright Teaching Fellowship, University of the Western Cape 1990-91
  • William Lim Siew Wai Fellowship in Cultural Studies in Asia, National University of Singapore, 2014

Relevant Publications

  • Simone, A. (2004), For the City Yet to Come: Urban Life in Four African Cities. Duke University Press
  • Simone, A. (2004) People as Infrastructure. Public Culture 16(3): 407-429
  • Simone, A. (2022) The Surrounds: Urban Life Within and Beyond Capture. Duke University Press

Institution

University of Sheffield

Department

The Urban Institute

Education

  • Ph.D. Social-Clinical Psychology, the Wright Institute

Country

United Kingdom

Support Us

The Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) is a globally influential research organization proudly based in Canada. We mobilize the world’s most brilliant people across disciplines and at all career stages to advance transformative knowledge and solve humanity’s biggest problems, together. We are supported by the governments of Canada, Alberta and Québec, as well as Canadian and international foundations, individuals, corporations and partner organizations.

Donate Now
CIFAR footer logo

MaRS Centre, West Tower
661 University Ave., Suite 505
Toronto, ON M5G 1M1 Canada

Contact Us
Media
Careers
Accessibility Policies
Supporters
Financial Reports
Subscribe

  • © Copyright 2025 CIFAR. All Rights Reserved.
  • Charitable Registration Number: 11921 9251 RR0001
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy
  • Sitemap

Subscribe

Stay up to date on news & ideas from CIFAR.

Fields marked with an * are required

Je préfère m’inscrire en français (cliquez ici).


Subscribe to our CIFAR newsletters: *

You can unsubscribe from these communications at any time. View our privacy policy.


As a subscriber you will also receive a digital copy of REACH, our annual magazine which highlights our researchers and their breakthroughs with long-form features, interviews and illustrations.


Please provide additional information if you would like to receive a print edition of REACH.


This website stores cookies on your computer. These cookies are used to collect information about how you interact with our website and allow us to remember you. We use this information in order to improve and customize your browsing experience and for analytics and metrics about our visitors both on this website and other media. To find out more about the cookies we use, see our Privacy Policy.
Accept Learn more

Notifications