Paper short abstract:

New dynamics in the rural areas gradually attract urban dwellers and rural migrants to new forms of settlement. The paper aims at identifying and discussing the features of these trends, particularly in a setting of economic crisis and new opportunities in Angola and Mozambique.

Paper long abstract:

African mobility is an important aspect of urbanisation patterns and conditions (Potts, 2010; Simone, 2011). While the outstanding urbanisation and the growth of main cities is worldwide a central concern today, in many contemporary African cases new dynamics involving both the private and government enterprises in the rural areas gradually attract, voluntarily and involuntarily, urban dwellers and rural migrants to new forms of settlement (Agergaard, Fold, & Gough, 2009; D. F. Bryceson, 2011; D. Bryceson & MacKinnon, 2012; Dobler, 2009). Through migration, the new residents of these new towns become not just mere demographic figures producing urban growth but, more importantly, act as active creators of new urbanism. The paper aims at identifying and discussing the features of these trends in African contexts, particularly in a setting of economic crisis and new opportunities beyond the major cities in Angola and Mozambique. It focuses on new opportunities in agriculture, extractive industries, border trade or tourism projects that concur to the creation of new towns and cities or the expansion of smaller agglomerates. Based on data collected in both countries, the analysis aims to provide insight on the role and agency of urban dwellers in creating these new types of urbanism. Moreover, it brings to the discussion questions about the main issues this type of urbanism raises regarding planning, governing and management of cities and towns and the challenges that both planners and dwellers have to face.