Chapter 13 The Porous Infrastructures of Somali Malls in Cape Town

This chapter takes as its subject a series of contingent mixed-use urban markets that have been established in Cape Town, South Africa, by migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers from various parts of the African continent. Known colloquially as ‘Somali malls,’ these markets typically occupy once-vac...

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Päätekijä: Tayob, Huda
Aineistotyyppi: Online
Kieli:englanti
Julkaistu: Taylor & Francis 2022
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Linkit:https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/58515
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author Tayob, Huda
author_browse Tayob, Huda
author_facet Tayob, Huda
author_sort Tayob, Huda
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description This chapter takes as its subject a series of contingent mixed-use urban markets that have been established in Cape Town, South Africa, by migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers from various parts of the African continent. Known colloquially as ‘Somali malls,’ these markets typically occupy once-vacant or underused office blocks, filling them with multiple small shops, services, and residences. Read through the lens of infrastructure, these spaces of flows tie Somali diasporic communities into transnational networks of sociality and exchange. Through novel forms of organization, procurement, display, and hospitality, proprietors optimize the spaces internally within buildings while at the same time constructing networks that exceed the building envelope, creating a flexible, multiscalar set of practices. Women comprise the large majority of traders in the Somali malls, carving out spaces not only for merchandising and earning a living, but also for the construction of migrant sociality in a new and unfamiliar world. This research approach is grounded in broader anthropological approaches and architectural fieldwork methods. The resultant multiscalar reading of informal migrant markets, not usually found in spatial archives, questions dominant readings of infrastructures in post-colonial contexts.
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-925282025-08-13T13:42:39Z Chapter 13 The Porous Infrastructures of Somali Malls in Cape Town Tayob, Huda Infrastructure, cape town, somali malls, architecture, global perspectives thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AM Architecture thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AM Architecture This chapter takes as its subject a series of contingent mixed-use urban markets that have been established in Cape Town, South Africa, by migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers from various parts of the African continent. Known colloquially as ‘Somali malls,’ these markets typically occupy once-vacant or underused office blocks, filling them with multiple small shops, services, and residences. Read through the lens of infrastructure, these spaces of flows tie Somali diasporic communities into transnational networks of sociality and exchange. Through novel forms of organization, procurement, display, and hospitality, proprietors optimize the spaces internally within buildings while at the same time constructing networks that exceed the building envelope, creating a flexible, multiscalar set of practices. Women comprise the large majority of traders in the Somali malls, carving out spaces not only for merchandising and earning a living, but also for the construction of migrant sociality in a new and unfamiliar world. This research approach is grounded in broader anthropological approaches and architectural fieldwork methods. The resultant multiscalar reading of informal migrant markets, not usually found in spatial archives, questions dominant readings of infrastructures in post-colonial contexts. 2022-09-24T04:02:00Z 2022-09-24T04:02:00Z 2022-09-23T08:59:56Z 2022 chapter https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/58515 9780367554910 9781032188393 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/92528 eng open access image/jpeg image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/58515/1/9781003093756_10.4324_9781003093756-18.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/58515/1/9781003093756_10.4324_9781003093756-18.pdf Taylor & Francis Routledge 10.4324/9781003093756-18 10.4324/9781003093756-18 fa69b019-f4ee-4979-8d42-c6b6c476b5f0 The Routledge Handbook of Infrastructure Design University of Manchester a897f645-c917-4be8-a0db-e8b3f64cac47 9780367554910 9781032188393 Routledge 11 open access
spellingShingle Infrastructure, cape town, somali malls, architecture, global perspectives
thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AM Architecture
thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AM Architecture
Tayob, Huda
Chapter 13 The Porous Infrastructures of Somali Malls in Cape Town
title Chapter 13 The Porous Infrastructures of Somali Malls in Cape Town
title_full Chapter 13 The Porous Infrastructures of Somali Malls in Cape Town
title_fullStr Chapter 13 The Porous Infrastructures of Somali Malls in Cape Town
title_full_unstemmed Chapter 13 The Porous Infrastructures of Somali Malls in Cape Town
title_short Chapter 13 The Porous Infrastructures of Somali Malls in Cape Town
title_sort chapter 13 the porous infrastructures of somali malls in cape town
topic Infrastructure, cape town, somali malls, architecture, global perspectives
thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AM Architecture
thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AM Architecture
topic_facet Infrastructure, cape town, somali malls, architecture, global perspectives
thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AM Architecture
thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AM Architecture
url https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/58515
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