Overview

This ethnographic study explores how diverse individuals encounter, interact, and share urban public space in the Cape Town CBD, specifically focusing on St. George's Mall. Using decolonial anthropological methods - including participant observation as a ""flexible shop assistant"" - the research investigates the complex relationships between people, products, and place. Nakamura characterises the street as a site of ""constant circulation"", where transnational and transregional mobility is a normal way of being. At the heart of this vibrant ecosystem is the concept of ""flexible kinship"", a practice where traders from various backgrounds form a ""family"" to survive economic precarity and navigate the daily anxieties of xenophobia. By embracing their ""incompleteness"", these street dwellers foster conviviality - an attitude of living together by balancing tensions rather than denying them. Ultimately, this work presents the urban street as a powerful metaphor for ""open-ended belonging"", offering a hopeful alternative to the exclusionary fortification often found in modern globalised cities. ""Grounded in the concepts of circulation and conviviality, Nakamura's ethnography offers a profound look at how we share space in a complex world. By treating the urban street as both a physical site and a powerful metaphor, this work illuminates how the fundamental relations of identity and security are shaped on the ground."" - Ignasio Malizani Jimu, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Malawi University of Science and Technology ""Nakamura's keen attention to the unfolding sociality of the street provides a vital map of compassion, hope, and care. In urban environments too often dismissed as postcolonial necropolises - defined by extraction and predation - this book offers a hopeful, open-ended vision of conviviality. For its celebration of these paradoxes and the vibrant promise of life on the street, this work deserves a wide readership."" - Bjørn Enge Bertelsen, Professor, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Bergen, Norway

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9789956004379

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