Paper short abstract:

Maputo’s (in)formal transformation in the current neoliberal context relates to its inhabitants’ residential mobility, observable between pericentral and peripheral neighbourhoods. This paper explores these dynamics and their spatial configuration according to the socio-economic groups on the move.

Paper long abstract:

Maputo's urban transformation is marked by a dynamic interrelation between more informal and formal practices of urban planning and development, increasingly influenced by a market logic of space production in the current neoliberal context (Jorge, 2017; Melo, 2015). Space availability, land value, different ways of living and different perceptions about the city are some of the aspects which play an important role in the inhabitants' residential mobility, according to their socio-economic background and origins.

The pericentral self-produced neighbourhoods and the more peripheral ones, some of which were object of official land demarcations, exemplify different urban spaces marked by this residential mobility. The strategically located pericentral neighbourhoods are attractive to capital investments and new residents and, simultaneously, spaces of population outflow, due to gentrification processes, under the market logic or not. In turn, the most peripheral ones are mainly reception areas for population coming from various locations, including the pericentral neighbourhoods. The paper explores the processes that promote the residential mobility between these two large areas of the Mozambican capital, as well as how they are materialized in the urban space, taking into account the different socio-economic groups who move between them.

Bibliographical references

MELO, Vanessa (2015). The recent production of urban African peripheries. Discourses, practices and spatial configuration: Maputo versus Luanda and Johannesburg. PhD thesis on urbanism, Faculty of Architecture, University of Lisbon.

Jorge, Sílvia (2017). Interdicted Places. The pericentral selfproduced neighbourhoods of Maputo. PhD thesis on urbanism, Faculty of Architecture, University of Lisbon [submited and waiting for examination].