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The rise of Africa's suburban middle classes

Hosted by the Department of Geography and Environment and Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa

In-person and online public event (Auditorium, Centre Building)

Speakers

Professor Deborah James

Professor Deborah James

Professor Claire Mercer

Professor Claire Mercer

Professor Susan Parnell

Professor Susan Parnell

Professor Ola Uduku

Professor Ola Uduku

Chair

Professor Gareth Jones

Professor Gareth Jones

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. Claire Mercer’s research shows how the ‘suburban frontier’ has become the place where Africa’s middle classes are shaped.

This panel will discuss Claire Mercer’s new book, The Suburban Frontier: Middle Class Construction in Dar es Salaam. It examines how self-built housing on the urban periphery has become central to middle-class formation and urban transformation in contemporary Tanzania and beyond. The Suburban Frontier offers significant contributions to the study of urban social change in Africa and urbanization in the Global South.

Meet our speakers and chair

Claire Mercer (@clairecmercer) is a human geographer working at the intersection of human geography and African studies. Her early work developed a critique of the NGO-ization of development, and subsequent work developed postcolonial approaches to civil society and diaspora. She is currently working on new research on peripheral urbanization in African cities. She has conducted research in Tanzania, Cameroon and the UK.

Deborah James (@djameslse) is a specialist in the anthropology of South and Southern Africa, and have recently begun research at some sites in the UK. Her work is broadly political and economic in focus. I have just completed work on an ESRC-funded project entitled An ethnography of advice: between market, society and the declining welfare state.  

Susan Parnell is a Global Challenges Research Professor in the School of Geography at the University of Bristol and Emeritus Professor at the African Centre for Cities (ACC) at the University of Cape Town.

Ola Uduku is a British African architect who is Head of School at the Liverpool School of Architecture.

Gareth Jones is Professor of Urban Geography and Director of the MSc Urbanisation & Development programme at LSE.

More about this event

This event will be available to watch on LSE Live. LSE Live is the new home for our live streams, allowing you to tune in and join the global debate at LSE, wherever you are in the world. If you can't attend live, a video will be made available shortly afterwards on LSE's YouTube channel.

The Department of Geography and Environment (@LSEGeography) is a centre of international academic excellence in economic, urban and development geography, environmental social science and climate change.

The Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa (@AfricaAtLSE) focuses on engagement with Africa through cutting-edge research, teaching, and public events to pursue LSE’s long-term commitment to place Africa at the heart of understanding and debates on global issues.

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This public event is free and open to all. This event will be a hybrid event, with an in-person audience and an online audience. 

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