Boundary Work: Becoming Middle Class in Suburban Dar es Salaam

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.

Preserving the (right kind of) city: The urban politics of the middle classes in Belo Horizonte, Brazil

“…In this paper, I explored the politics of middle-class citizens in their attempts to make the "right kind of city" (Centner, 2012). Middle-class citizens' political practices were analysed as part of their strategies to reproduce their social class status (Mercer, 2018;Zhang, 2012). These citizens are not struggling against displacement or for basic needs; they want to be part of local urban governance regimes, affecting the rules of the environment in which they live.…”

“…Common in both cases, however, is the wish to preserve middle-class ways of belonging to the city as the driving force of residents' political actions. Preserving middle-class spaces, in this regard, also contributes to the reproduction of (re)produce middle-class distinction (Zhang, 2012), revealing the interrelation between the making of middle-class spaces and class boundary-work (Mercer, 2018). Although in these cases residents are not effectively "building" urban space, they struggle to shape it in accordance with their own notions of spatial order (Roy, 2012).…”

“…Moreover, class is approached not as a category, but rather as a social process (Thompson, 1978): class distinction is hence achieved through a set of practices in which social actors continually reaffirm their membership to a group by distinguishing themselves from others (Bourdieu, 1984). Therefore, considering that society and space are co-produced (Lefebvre, 1991;Massey, 2005), one must acknowledge the need to incorporate spatial practices into the analysis of such repertoire of boundary-work (Mercer, 2018). As argued by Heiman et al (2012, p.26): "Spaces are critical for subject making not simply in terms of marking the physical spatialisation of class" but also because classed subjects are made in those same spaces.…”

Urban property as security: examining the intersections between Africa’s growing middle classes and urban transformations

“…Amidst the wealth of quantitative studies and measurements of the African middle classes, an emerging literature, informed by perspectives from urban geography, urban planning, and anthropology, seek to shift focus away from defining and measuring the middle classes and toward examining their everyday practices and aspirations (Behrends & Lentz, 2012;Lentz, 2016;Mercer, 2018;Spronk, 2014). As part of this emerging agenda, the spatial practices of the new middle classes have received growing academic interest.…”

“…A striking feature of contemporary urban transformations in Africa is the continuous expansion of urban built-up areas, as sprawling new residential developments incessantly spread into surrounding peri-urban and rural areas (Mercer, 2018). Urban areas now cover an estimated surface area of approximately 140,000 square kilometers (Africapolis, urban growth is positively associated with the high economic growth rates of recent decades and the concomitant rise of the African middle classes (Deloitte&Touche, 2013;McKinsey, 2010McKinsey, , 2016.…”