Phillip Garjay Innis has successfully defended his doctoral thesis on ‘Navigating Urban Riskscapes: Everyday Risks, Infrastructure Challenges, and Governance in Monrovia, Liberia.’ He was supervised by Prof. Detlef Müller-Mahn.
His research investigated how residents and governance systems in Monrovia, Liberia, navigate complex urban landscapes shaped by environmental risks, infrastructural deficits, and the legacy of civil war. Focusing on informal settlements, the study explores the interplay between everyday risks and urban challenges, such as flooding and unreliable electricity, and the formal and informal strategies used to manage them.
The dissertation contributes to debates on urban governance by integrating the concepts of ‘riskscapes’ and ‘evolutionary governance’ to show how risk is socially produced and how governance structures adapt, or fail to adapt, over time. It identifies a central paradox: while infrastructural incompletion and informality can catalyse improvisation, they can also trap actors in unsustainable practices, co-opting their agency to sustain flawed systems. The findings highlight the need for flexible, inclusive urban policies that blend local knowledge with formal planning to build genuine resilience in cities of the Global South.
We warmly congratulate Phillip Garjay Innis on his successful defence!
