Paper short abstract:

The paper examines the part concrete plays in the mediation of aspirations among young adults in southern Mozambique and shows how decay can be understood as a productive force, albeit one that tends to inspire cynicism rather than hope.

Paper long abstract:

There is something about concrete that captures the imagination. The thing of modernist dreams, concrete is particularly suited to the materialisation of aspirations. In the suburbs of southern Mozambique, piles of neatly stacked concrete blocks vividly convey a sense of the momentous transformations underway in a place where building is now described as being "in fashion". Oozing with promises of a better future, this fresh concrete is emerging from the ruins of another era, amidst the decaying concrete that stands as a reminder of the country's violent past and of its place in wider configurations of power. Mozambicans are, in fact, strikingly literate in the politics of decay. If ruins evoke what once was, what could have been, how does decay operate in a context of growing prosperity? In this paper I examine the part concrete plays in the mediation of aspirations and show how decay can be understood as a productive force, albeit one that tends to inspire cynicism rather than hope.