Transecting Security and Space in Maputo

Till F Paasche and James D Sidaway
Additional contact information
Till F Paasche: School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Plymouth, Plymouth PL4 8AA, England
James D Sidaway: Department of Geography, Planning and International Development Studies, University of Amsterdam, Nieuwe Prinsengracht 130, 1018 VZ Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Environment and Planning A, 2010, vol. 42, issue 7, 1555-1576

Abstract: Over the past four decades, the Mozambican capital city of Maputo has undergone rapid changes. Although still governed by the (formerly socialist) party that inherited the city from a collapsing Portuguese colonial state in 1975, postsocialist Maputo recasts disparities in class and power. This paper negotiates these fractures, based on two walking transects through the central areas of the city conducted by the coauthors. Initially informed by ‘psychogeography’ literatures on negotiating and representing cities, these were supplemented by and enacted through a focus on security and policing. While the state uses police to secure vital interests, other sites and spaces experience limited policing. To bridge this security gap, commercial and ad hoc security providers are contracted to secure private homes and enterprises. We describe an increased and uneven commoditisation of security. The security landscape of central Maputo thus comprises a complex patchwork of privately secured micro enclaves that relay and rework enclaving on larger scales.

Date: 2010
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/a43122 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envira:v:42:y:2010:i:7:p:1555-1576

DOI: 10.1068/a43122

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Environment and Planning A
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().