Cities of Entanglements: Social Life in Johannesburg and Maputo Through Ethnographic Comparison

Barbara Heer

Open Access Published by transcript Verlag 2019

Cities of Entanglements

Social Life in Johannesburg and Maputo Through Ethnographic Comparison

Barbara Heer
Funded by: Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)

In the series Urban Studies

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783839447970

Overview
Contents

About this book

How do people live together in cities shaped by inequality? This comparative ethnography of two African cities, Maputo and Johannesburg, presents a new narrative about social life in cities often described as sharply divided. Based on the ethnography of entangled lives unfolding in a township and in a suburb in Johannesburg, and in a bairro and in an elite neighborhood in Maputo, the book includes case studies of relations between domestic workers and their employers, failed attempts by urban elites to close off their neighborhoods, and entanglements emerging in religious spaces and in shopping malls. Systematizing comparison as an experience-based method, the book makes an important contribution to urban anthropology, comparative urbanism and urban studies.

Author / Editor information

Barbara Heer, born in 1982, is an anthropologist living in Basel. She holds a PhD from the University of Basel. Her work focuses on urban diversity in Southern Africa and Switzerland. She is engaged in practice and politics.

Reviews

Besprochen in:
ORLIS, 1 (2020)
www.kommunalweb.de, 1 (2020)

Supplementary Materials

Leseprobe

Topics

Frontmatter Open Access Download PDF	1
Content Open Access Download PDF	5
Acknowledgements Open Access Download PDF	7
Introduction Cities of Entanglements Open Access Download PDF	9
Navigating Belonging? Entangled Spaces, Entangled Lives in Alexandra Township Open Access Download PDF	45
Intimate Encounters? Domestic Work in Home Spaces Open Access Download PDF	81
A Politics of Loss? The Threat of Public Housing in a Johannesburg Suburb Open Access Download PDF	119
A Politics of Proximity? City Building, Enclosure and Expansion in Maputo Open Access Download PDF	147
Building Communities? Paternalistic Bonds and Religious Spaces Open Access Download PDF	191
Spaces of Freedom? Shopping Together, Living Apart Open Access Download PDF	221
Closing Remarks Urban Entanglements as Blind Fields Open Access Download PDF	271
Postscript: Entangled Comparers Experiencing Cities through Comparative Ethnography Open Access Download PDF	277
Bibliography Open Access Download PDF	303

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: transcript Verlag
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 340
Keywords: Urban Studies; Ethnology; Africa; Sociology

eBook

Published: September 27, 2019
ISBN: 9783839447970