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- Helgesson, Linda, 1973-
(author)
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Getting Ready for Life : Life Strategies of Town Youth in Mozambique and Tanzania
- 2006
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The aim of this dissertation is to explore how and under what conditions life strategies of young men and women unfold in the towns of Masasi in southern Tanzania and Montepuez in northern Mozambique. These towns are located in regions which in their national contexts are perceived as peripheral and rural. The thesis examines the life strategies of youth, with particular emphasis on livelihood, education and mobility. How the life strategies can be related to the representations of young people in national and local discourses, and how global processes are involved in young people’s daily lives are also examined. The fieldwork was conducted between 2002 and 2004 and the main part of the empirical material consists of structured and semi-structured interviews.Many young people are under substantial pressure to support themselves and their families, but a conflict exists between the expectations on youth to contribute to the household economy and their possibilities to do so. There is also a contradiction between being needed for labour and being trusted with responsibilities. Harsh economic conditions, combined with a weak position in terms of power, increase the vulnerability of young people in these places.Global processes influence young people’s lives, primarily expressed through changed patterns of consumption. However, there is a feeling of exclusion from globalisation in terms of work. Self-employment is promoted as a solution to poverty by the government and by various organisations, but young people contest this discourse and demand ‘real’ employment for themselves and for their children. Young people’s mobility experiences are mainly local due to a local social network and limited resources. Those with larger resources tend to be more mobile and the more privileged youth aspire to move to the larger cities or abroad. Agriculture is a complementary livelihood strategy, which implies that the rural economy still has an important function as a safety net within the urban landscape.
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| 2. |
- Fåhraeus, Cecilia, 1981-
(author)
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Drawing a Livelihoodscape from the Slum : Towards a spatial understanding of gendered livelihoods in Zambia
- 2020
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The overarching aim of the thesis was to draw a livelihoodscape from the slum. The questions guiding this endeavour were: Where do slum dwellers carry out their livelihood activities and how can these spatial livelihood patterns be understood? This involved outlining how livelihoods emerged from and interacted with the slum; following how they detached themselves and unfolded further in urban space; and finally, how they transcended the urban territory and migrated onwards to translocal destinations. Material was collected through surveys, semi-structured interviews and observations in three slum settlements in Lusaka, encompassing 459 research participants.Mapping slum dwellers’ livelihood spatialities generated insights with implications for livelihood theory, but also for Southern/subaltern urban theory and in particular the workings of African cities. First, it revealed that the residential settlement played a critical role in the execution of people’s livelihoods. Mobility constraints attributed to affordability and time poverty contributed to this outcome, but equally important were localised processes of information sharing, matching and learning. At the same time, livelihood activities connected the residential settlement to other key locations in the city, creating a complex system of flows and interactions. The importance of particular sites in the city for slum dwellers’ economic activities could be connected to colonial and post-colonial planning regimes, intermingling with global economic shifts and development policies. But to a limited degree, slum dwellers also carried out livelihood activities beyond the urban scope; such as engaging in agriculture on rural farmland and conducting interurban and cross-border trade. These translocal livelihoods were to a significant extent enabled by social capital. Gender constituted an evident axis of differentiation, with women’s economic activities being more spatially constrained than men’s. This was associated with patriarchal control, disproportional involvement in reproductive chores, limited access to assets, but also a colonial history of spatial marginalisation.By drawing on diverse sets of scholarship, this thesis was able to problematise notions of the African city as a site of contingency and crisis, and demonstrate how it can be characterised by flux as well as permanence; marginalisation as well as integration; alienation and fellowship, all at the same time.
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