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Middle class construction: domestic architecture, aesthetics and anxieties in Tanzania

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 April 2014

Claire Mercer
Claire Mercer*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography and Environment, London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE, United Kingdom
*
Email: c.c.mercer@lse.ac.uk
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Abstract

This paper examines the new styles of houses under construction in contemporary Tanzania and suggests that they can be understood as the material manifestation of middle class growth. Through an examination of the architecture, interior decor and compound space in a sample of these new houses in urban Dar es Salaam and rural Kilimanjaro, the paper identifies four domestic aesthetics: the respectable house, the locally aspirant house, the globally aspirant house and the minimalist house, each of which map on to ideas about ujamaa, liberalisation and the consumption of global consumer goods in distinct ways. The paper argues that these different domestic aesthetics demonstrate intra-class differences, and in particular the emergence of a new middle class.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 52 , Issue 2 , June 2014 , pp. 227 - 250
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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