DEBORAH FAHY BRYCESON an economic geographer by discipline, is a senior research fellow at the Afrika-studiecentrum, Leiden University, the Netherlands and Research Associate at the African Studies Centre, Oxford University, UK. Her current research encompasses the interaction of livelihood, settlement and mobility patterns as well as the impact of HIV/AIDS on local communities. Specializing in East African studies, she has authored and edited a number of books including Food Insecurity and the Social Division of Labour in Tanzania, Liberalizing Tanzania's Food Trade, Women Wielding the Hoe

• PART 1: INTRODUCTION Fragile Cities: Fundamentals of Urban Life in East and Southern Africa; D.F.Bryceson African Urban Economies: Searching for Sources of Sustenance; D.F.Bryceson Urban Growth and Urban Economies in Eastern and Southern Africa: Trends and Prospects; D.Potts PART 2: CITY ECONOMIES IN THE MAKING Image of the City in Mozambique: Civilization, Parasite, Engine of Growth or Place of Opportunity?; P.Jenkins Mombasa's Missing Link: Marginalization or Mismanagement?; C.Rakodi Dualism in Kampala: Squalid Slums in a Royal Realm; A.Nuwagaba PART 3: URBAN LIVELIHOODS AND SOCIAL DYNAMICS Urban Poverty in East Africa: Comparing the Trajectories of Nairobi and Kampala; P.Amis Gikuyu Families in Nairobi at the End of the Millennium; Changing Economic and Social Patterns of Family Life; N.Nelson Resilience of a City in Civil War: Territoriality, Civil Order and Economic Exchange in Mogadishu; R.Marchal PART 4: URBAN WELFARE, HOUSING AND INFRASTRUCTURE A Matter of Timing: Migration and Housing Access in Metropolitan Johannesburg; J.Beall Esther's House: One Woman's 'Home Economics' in Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe; A.Schlyter From Infrastructural Development to Privatization: Employment Creation and Poverty Reduction in Gaborone; O.Selowane Welfare through Civic Participation: Tabata Development Fund, Dar es Salaam; S.Ngware PART 5: CONCLUSION Vulnerability and Viability of East and Southern Africa's Apex Cities; D.Bryceson

'The volume offers a good introduction to urban, and especially urban dvelopment, themes in Africa'. - Bill Freund, Journal of Southern African Studies '...the editors of this volume should be complimented for bringing together a number of concise case studies, which cover substantial geographical ground. As such, it offers an analysis of statistical and recent census data, which will certainly be of interest to readers with a general interest in Africa.' - J. Joost Beuving, Modern African Studies 'It is an important book for those concerend with urbanization on a global scale and especially in Africa, providing new insights into the fast-chaning reality of urbanization in Africa today.' - Adrian Atkinson, Development and Change 'This thorough and well-composed volume provides a comprehensive introduction to the key issues of urban development in contemporary eastern and southern Africa.' - Garth A. Myers African Affairs