Joël Noret is Professor of Anthropology at the Université libre de Bruxelles. He has conducted most of his fieldwork in Southern Benin, where he works on urban transformation and the production of social inequality.

“Readers will be impressed by the diverse range of case studies and detailed evidence from people’s personal lives. Overall, the chapters emphasize the importance of taking a multidimensional and interdisciplinary approach to understanding social mobility. Although this is a highly specialized field of study, the topics and chapters are well written and accessible enough to be of value to a wide range of readers…Recommended” • Choice“Whereas many edited books appear fragmented, this book comes across as consistent and well edited…This book fills empirical gaps and provides theoretical nuances, not only to simplistic notions of the current African narratives, but also to our conceptual understanding of social mobility.” • African Studies Review“This is a very important and timely contribution to the study of mobilities and immobilities in Africa. The volume advances our understanding of social positionalities as these intertwine and mediate with wider political and moral economies in contemporary Africa.” • Mattia Fumanti, University of St Andrews“Addresses thorny, contemporary realities and draws on a really thought-provoking theoretical palette in opening up debate. Moving beyond social inequality and linear ideas of social mobility is a sort of manifesto that others will take up.” • David Pratten, University of Oxford

• Introduction: Theorizing Social Im/mobilities in AfricaJoël NoretChapter 1. Inequality from up Close: Qur’anic Students in Northern Nigeria Working as DomesticsHannah HoechnerChapter 2. 'Born Free to Aspire?' An Ethnographic Study of Rural Youths’ Aspirations in Post-Apartheid South AfricaFawzia MazanderaniChapter 3. Great Expectations and Uncertain Futures: Education and Social Im/mobility in Niamey, NigerGabriella KörlingChapter 4. ‘Precarious Prosperity?’ Social Im/mobilities Among Young Entrepreneurs in KampalaLaura Camfield and William MonteithChapter 5. ‘Here Men Are Becoming Women and Women Men’: Gender, Class, and Space in Maputo, MozambiqueInge Tvedten, Arlindo Uate and Lizete ManguelezeChapter 6. The Dynamics of Inequality in the Congolese Copperbelt: A Discussion of Bourdieu’s Theory of Social SpaceBenjamin RubbersChapter 7. Crisis, Work and the Meanings of Mobility on the Zimbabwean-South African BorderMaxim BoltChapter 8. Domestic Dramas: Class, Taste and Home Decoration in Buea, CameroonBen PageConclusion: A Multidimensional Approach to Social Positionality in AfricaJoël NoretAppendix I: Sample characteristicsAppendix II: Summary of entrepreneurs’ directions of social mobilityIndex