Circular Migration in Zimbabwe and Contemporary Sub-Saharan Africa
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6025031 |
|---|---|
| Authors | A O''Connor, Anthony O’connor (University College London, corresponding author), A O'Connor |
| Year | 2011 |
| Volume | 110 |
| Issue | 440 |
| Pages | 510-512 |
| Publication date | 2011-07-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | African Affairs (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0001-9909 • E-ISSN: 1468-2621 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/afraf/adr037 |
| OpenAlex | W2331681711 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 10 |
Deborah Potts has set herself several ambitious tasks, and has succeeded to a remarkable degree. The book under review combines a masterly overview and re-interpretation of past writing on rural–urban migration in Africa with a rigorous scholarly research study of Zimbabwe, 1980–2010. John Caldwell's classic pioneering study exclusively on Ghana was naughtily titled African Rural–Urban Migration: in contrast this properly titled book ranges from the macro-level of sub-Saharan Africa to the micro-level of individual neighbourhoods of Harare. Similarly in terms of topic, much of this book is presenting a broad overview of both internal migration and contemporary urbanization, especially issues of urban employment (60 index entries), but is providing this as a framework for sharply focused investigation of circularity and return migration. The author shows very clearly that circular migration, often thought to be in terminal decline in Southern Africa, is very much alive – if not entirely well. The book offers much healthy scepticism about all-too-common over-generalizations and false dichotomies regarding migration in Africa. Widespread ambivalence as to whether to move either to or from the city, and very mixed motives for moving are both acknowledged. A recurring theme is ‘the range of intersecting and often conflicting factors at play’ (p. 256) in the migration dynamics of Africa.
Ambivalence · Development economics · Dichotomy · Economic growth · Epistemology · Geography · Internal migration · Interpretation (philosophy) · Political science · Population · Skepticism · Sociology · Theme (computing) · Urbanization · Demography · Gender Studies · History · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy · Psychology · Urban and Rural Development Challenges
Finance, Development, and Remittances
Hesitant migration to emergent cities
Migrant destinations in an era of environmental change
Conflict and Collisions in Sub-Saharan African Urban Definitions
Young people and land in Zimbabwe
Peripheries, suburbanisms and change in sub-Saharan African cities
Child fostering and maternal migration in sub-Saharan Africa
Wage labor in historical perspective
Landscapes of extended ruralisation
Shallow Solidarities
| Unique citing works | 10 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0.67 |
| Citation span | 2011 - 2025 (15) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |