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Boundary work: becoming middle class in suburban Dar es Salaam

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  • Mercer, Claire

Abstract

Suburban space provides a useful window onto contemporary class practices in Africa, where it is difficult to identify social classes on the basis of income or occupation. In this article I argue that the middle classes and the suburbs are mutually constitutive in the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam. Using interviews with residents and local government officials in the city's northern suburbs, I discuss the material and representational practices of middle-class boundary work in relation to land and landscape. If the middle classes do not presently constitute a coherent political-economic force, they are nevertheless transforming the city's former northern peri-urban zones into desirable suburban residential neighbourhoods.

Suggested Citation

  • Mercer, Claire, 2020. "Boundary work: becoming middle class in suburban Dar es Salaam," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 90199, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:90199
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    1. Goodfellow, Tom, 2017. "Urban Fortunes and Skeleton Cityscapes: Real Estate and Late Urbanization in Kigali and Addis Ababa," Working Papers 13889, Institute of Development Studies, International Centre for Tax and Development.
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    2. Paula Meth & Tom Goodfellow & Alison Todes & Sarah Charlton, 2021. "Conceptualizing African Urban Peripheries," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(6), pages 985-1007, November.
    3. J Miguel Kanai & Seth Schindler, 2022. "Infrastructure-led development and the peri-urban question: Furthering crossover comparisons," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(8), pages 1597-1617, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    suburbs; middle class; boundary work; land; landscape; Dar es Salaam;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q15 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Land Ownership and Tenure; Land Reform; Land Use; Irrigation; Agriculture and Environment

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