This paper explores how circulations of cheap objects imported from China affect Mwanjelwa, the main commercial quarter of Mbeya, Tanzania, and its relations with its rural hinterland. The main argument is that the commercial circulation of objects imported from Asia produces specific urban-rural relations and original urban commercial forms. The objective is therefore to shed light on the renewed modalities of integration of urban-rural relations and of a peripheral Tanzanian metropolis into globalization via the trade route of cheap made-in-China. The empirical material is drawn from semi-structured interviews conducted with market actors. First, the paper situates the approach by placing urban-rural relations at the intersection of the field of inconspicuous globalization and urbanization through the flow of goods. It then sheds light on Mwanjelwa’s position from the network perspective, examining the transformations of commercial spaces before analyzing the interrelations between circulations and market spaces. The paper concludes by noting that the original globalization of urban-rural relations, i.e., their integration into more global logics, is the product of network logics, spaces of opportunity appropriated by inconspicuous actors of globalization.

Sylvain Racaud
Université Bordeaux-Montaigne, Les Afriques dans le Monde

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ID Abstract: 684