Tjirera, Ellison2022-05-092022-05-092022Tjirera, E. (2022). Cities of entanglements: social life in Johannesburg and Maputo through ethnographic comparison. Anthropology Southern Africa, 45:1, 56-58, DOI: 10.1080/23323256.2022.2059534http://hdl.handle.net/11070/3160Cities invite attention because of the multiplicity of lifeworlds and encounters they engender. Whether approached from an anthropological, sociological or political vantage point, the “urban question” renders itself to a miniature of various encounters. Since Castells’ ([1972] 1977) classic work, “the urban question” — a reformulation of urbanisation as a capitalist project that emphasises the centrality of the city — has attracted significant attention by critical urban scholars. Scholars who expanded on Castells’ classical argument (for example, Brenner 2019; Merrifield 2014; Wacquant 2008) suggest that urban life is replete with unending pathways that leave us with more questions than answers.enSocial lifeEthnographic comparisonArticle