The Translocal Geography of Lodging in Urban Zimbabwe

This book will argue that lodging is a hugely ignored, largely invisible but critical sector of housing provision and economic contributor of burgeoning African cities. Lodgers create micro, local and translocal communities and the lodging system offers livelihood strategies. This book will argue that lodging is a hugely ignored, largely invisible but critical sector of housing provision and economic contributor of burgeoning African cities. It further connects the rural and the urban, challenging traditional definitions of locationally-bound communities. Lodgers create micro, local and translocal communities and the lodging system offers livelihood strategies. Rather than engage in the dominant portrayal of rural-urban as binary, dichotomous space, we maintain that lodging represents and supports the translocal community and relational networks of the extended family as it seeks to maximize access to resources.