Now available online (Open Access): ‘Across the Copperbelt: Urban & Social Change in Central Africa’s Borderland Communities’

The Copperbelt town of Chingola. (Stephanie Lämmert)
The Copperbelt town of Chingola. (Stephanie Lämmert)

We’re very pleased to be able to share the full PDF of the Comparing the Copperbelt project’s edited volume Across the Copperbelt: Urban & Social Change in Central Africa’s Borderland Communities which has now been published online by James Currey – download PDF file. The physical version of the book will be published in June 2021.

The volume, which will be available Open Access in perpetuity, includes chapters by the project’s own researchers as well as a range of colleagues who have participated in the project’s workshops and seminars – for a full list of contributors and Table of Contents see link to publisher’s website.  We’re very proud of this achievement and would like to thank all of the contributors who made the volume possible. We hope you enjoy reading it!

The Central African Copperbelt has been central to the study of modernisation and rapid social and political change in Africa. This volume expands on earlier studies by examining the mining communities of Katanga (DR Congo) and Zambia, on both sides of the border, from pre-colonial history to the present and encompassing diverse economic, social and cultural identities and activities. Bringing together scholars from a range of disciplines, the contributors explore the Copperbelt’s sense of identity – expressed in comic strips, football matches and religious teaching, the communities’ precarious and inventive ways of living, and the processes and impact of urbanisation and development, environmental degradation and changing gender relations.