Anne Lewinson

I have done ethnographic field research in Dar es Salaam, the largest city in Tanzania (on the coast of the eastern Africa). My research looks at how Tanzanians' expectations of city life and urban culture have transformed over the past 20 years as their society moved from African socialism to a liberalized, more globally-interwoven economy. I work with low-level professionals (white- and pink-collar workers). My publications have used the areas of life cycle events, popular culture, domestic architecture, neighborhoods, and gender relations as windows for understanding life in contemporary African cities. I am currently continuing research into how schooling and geographical mobility creates a professional urban class with a distinctive identity as Tanzanians.