The Suburban Frontier
Middle-Class Construction in Dar es Salaam
1st Edition
Published on 30. July 2024
Book
Paperback/Softback
220 pages
978-0-520-40238-6 (ISBN)
Description
A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more.
African cities are under construction. Beyond the urban redevelopment schemes and large-scale infrastructure projects reconfiguring central city skylines, urban residents are putting their resources into finding land and building homes on city edges. The Suburban Frontier examines how self-built housing on the urban periphery has become central to middle-class formation and urban transformation in contemporary Tanzania. Drawing on original research in the city of Dar es Salaam, Claire Mercer details how the "suburban frontier" has become the place where Africa's middle classes are shaped. As the first book-length analysis of Africa's suburban middle class, The Suburban Frontier offers significant contributions to the study of urban social change in Africa and urbanization in the Global South.
African cities are under construction. Beyond the urban redevelopment schemes and large-scale infrastructure projects reconfiguring central city skylines, urban residents are putting their resources into finding land and building homes on city edges. The Suburban Frontier examines how self-built housing on the urban periphery has become central to middle-class formation and urban transformation in contemporary Tanzania. Drawing on original research in the city of Dar es Salaam, Claire Mercer details how the "suburban frontier" has become the place where Africa's middle classes are shaped. As the first book-length analysis of Africa's suburban middle class, The Suburban Frontier offers significant contributions to the study of urban social change in Africa and urbanization in the Global South.
Reviews / Votes
"The book makes a significant contribution to expanding this growing field of urban study by focusing on the African suburb, offering a wealth of new information and resources. . . .TheSuburban Frontier is an essential read for anyone seeking to understand the complexities of suburban life beyond Western norms - shattering the confines of Euro-American urban theory and redefining what it means to belong to middle class on the African frontier." * LSE Review of Books * "Mercer introduces the middle classes as the 'natural' occupants of a certain single-family-home- dominated landscape at the margins of expanding urban regions. But the middle classes don't just occupy, they create their homes and socio-spatial environments themselves . . . through steady and cash-based investments into a built environment that is taking shape in and through emerging markets that are themselves embedded in both traditional land governance and modern legal and institutional constructs."* Journal of Urban Affairs *
More details
Edition
First Edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Berkerley
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
10 color photos, 8 maps, 2 tables
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
408 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-520-40238-6 (9780520402386)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
07/2024
1st Edition
Naval Institute Press
€12.49
Available for download
Person
Claire Mercer is Professor of Human Geography in the Department of Geography and Environment at the London School of Economics. She is coauthor of Development and the African Diaspora: Place and the Politics of Home.