Description
Book SynopsisHow 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, 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.
Trade Review"This very well-written book [...] addresses a number of critical questions to both urban studies and anthropology in doing so. This capacity and willingness to engage conventions within the two disciplines makes the book important, highly readable, and valuable to scholars well beyond those interested in the cities of Maputo and Johannesburg." -- Bjorn Enge Bertelsen, Anthropos, 115 (2020)
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements; Introduction; Navigating Belonging?; Intimate Encounters?; A Politics of Loss?; A Politics of Proximity?; Building Communities?; Spaces of Freedom?; Closing Remarks; Postscript: Entangled Comparers; Bibliography.
