Patterns of Translocality: Migration, Livelihoods and Identities in Northwest Namibia
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Cite JOURNAL ARTICLE
Style
Format
Patterns of Translocality: Migration, Livelihoods and Identities in Northwest Namibia
Sociologus, Vol. 60(2010), Iss. 2 : pp. 131–161 | First published online: October 03, 2017
37 Citations (CrossRef)
Additional Information
Article Details
Pricing
Author Details
1Dr. Clemens Greiner, Institute of Social Anthropology, University of Cologne Albertus-Magnus-Platz, 50923 Köln, Germany.
Cited By
-
Translocal space across migrant generations: The case of a Greek Orthodox Church in the United Kingdom
Kallis, Gina | Yarwood, Richard | Tyrrell, NaomiPopulation, Space and Place, Vol. 25(2019), Iss. 5
https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.2206 [Citations: 5] -
MIGRATION, TRANSLOCAL NETWORKS AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC STRATIFICATION IN NAMIBIA
Greiner, Clemens
Africa, Vol. 81(2011), Iss. 4 P.606
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0001972011000477 [Citations: 50] -
Framing Modernization Interventions: Reassessing the Role of Migration and Translocality in Sustainable Mountain Development in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan
Benz, Andreas
Mountain Research and Development, Vol. 36(2016), Iss. 2 P.141
https://doi.org/10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-15-00055.1 [Citations: 20] -
Environmental Change, Adaptation and Migration
Climate Mobilities from a Human Geography Perspective: Considering the Spatial Dimensions of Climate Change
Herbeck, Johannes
2015
https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137538918_2 [Citations: 4] -
Africa on the Move
Translocal Livelihoods: New Perspectives in Livelihood Research
Steinbrink, Malte | Niedenführ, Hannah2020
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22841-5_3 [Citations: 9] -
Translocal social capital as a resource for community-based responses to coastal flooding – Evidence from urban and rural areas on Java, Indonesia
Bott, Lisa-Michéle | Pritchard, Bill | Braun, BorisGeoforum, Vol. 117(2020), Iss. P.1
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2020.08.012 [Citations: 18] -
Movement, Mobilities, and Journeys
Children in Transnational Family Migration
Tyrrell, Naomi | Kallis, Gina2016
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4585-93-4_9-2 [Citations: 2] -
Translocal livelihoods research and the household in the Global South – A gendered perspective
Andersson Djurfeldt, Agnes
Journal of Rural Studies, Vol. 86(2021), Iss. P.16
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2021.05.018 [Citations: 19] -
The translocal villagers. Mining, mobility and stratification in post-apartheid South Africa
Naumann, Christiane | Greiner, ClemensMobilities, Vol. 12(2017), Iss. 6 P.875
https://doi.org/10.1080/17450101.2016.1225862 [Citations: 21] -
Movement, Mobilities and Journeys
Children in Transnational Family Migration
Tyrrell, Naomi | Kallis, Gina2015
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4585-93-4_9-1 [Citations: 0] -
Movement, Mobilities, and Journeys
Children in Transnational Family Migration
Tyrrell, Naomi | Kallis, Gina2017
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-029-2_9 [Citations: 3] -
African Immigrants in Finland in Onward Translocal and Transnational Mobility and Migration, and the Political Implications
Ndukwe, Thaddeus Chijioke
Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 48(2017), Iss. 2 P.115
https://doi.org/10.1177/0021934716680323 [Citations: 4] -
Environmental Migration and Social Inequality
Migration, Environment and Inequality: Perspectives of a Political Ecology of Translocal Relations
Greiner, Clemens | Sakdapolrak, Patrick2016
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25796-9_10 [Citations: 15] -
The production of counter-space: Informal labour, social networks and the production of urban space in Dhaka
Lata, Lutfun Nahar
Current Sociology, Vol. 71(2023), Iss. 6 P.1159
https://doi.org/10.1177/00113921221078049 [Citations: 4] -
Food transfers and translocal livelihoods in rural Africa – Longitudinal perspectives from six countries
Djurfeldt, Agnes Andersson
Journal of Rural Studies, Vol. 93(2022), Iss. P.18
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2022.04.009 [Citations: 5] -
Translocal mobility systems: Social inequalities and flows in the wild berry industry
Carmo, Renato Miguel | Hedberg, CharlottaGeoforum, Vol. 99(2019), Iss. P.102
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2018.12.002 [Citations: 18] -
Mobility and Social Change: Understanding the European Neolithic Period after the Archaeogenetic Revolution
Furholt, Martin
Journal of Archaeological Research, Vol. 29(2021), Iss. 4 P.481
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-020-09153-x [Citations: 48] -
Transportation–Translocality Nexus in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Implications for Sustainable Livelihoods and Development: A Systematic Review
Amponsah, Emmanuel | Poku-Boansi, Michael | Amoako, Clifford | Asibey, Michael OseiTransportation in Developing Economies, Vol. 9(2023), Iss. 2
https://doi.org/10.1007/s40890-023-00182-x [Citations: 3] -
Africa on the Move
Translocal Livelihoods in Sub-Saharan Africa
Steinbrink, Malte | Niedenführ, Hannah2020
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22841-5_5 [Citations: 2] -
Locked down and locked out: Repurposing social assistance as emergency relief to informal workers
Bassier, Ihsaan | Budlender, Joshua | Zizzamia, Rocco | Leibbrandt, Murray | Ranchhod, VimalWorld Development, Vol. 139(2021), Iss. P.105271
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105271 [Citations: 29] -
Africa on the Move
Time for a Rethink
Steinbrink, Malte | Niedenführ, Hannah2020
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22841-5_2 [Citations: 1] -
Collective Loneliness
Schnegg, Michael
Current Anthropology, Vol. 66(2025), Iss. 2 P.206
https://doi.org/10.1086/734796 [Citations: 2] -
Mobility dynamics of transmigrants and their implications on socioeconomic development: insights from the Nkoranza South municipality of Ghana
Amponsah, Emmanuel | Kwame Blija, Daniel | Asibey, Michael Osei | Poku-Boansi, Michael | Amoako, CliffordAfrican Geographical Review, Vol. (2025), Iss. P.1
https://doi.org/10.1080/19376812.2025.2555851 [Citations: 1] -
‘They just move in with relatives’: translocal labour migrants and transient spaces in Naivasha, Kenya
Kuiper, Gerda
Journal of Eastern African Studies, Vol. 14(2020), Iss. 2 P.227
https://doi.org/10.1080/17531055.2020.1730562 [Citations: 3] -
“Never at ease”: cellphones, multilocational households, and the metabolic rift in western Kenya
Ramisch, Joshua J.
Agriculture and Human Values, Vol. 33(2016), Iss. 4 P.979
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-015-9654-3 [Citations: 14] -
Placing Migration: Towards More‐Than‐Relational Geographical Migration Studies
Axelsson, Linn | Hedberg, CharlottaPopulation, Space and Place, Vol. 31(2025), Iss. 2
https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.2872 [Citations: 4] -
Translocality: Concepts, Applications and Emerging Research Perspectives
Greiner, Clemens | Sakdapolrak, PatrickGeography Compass, Vol. 7(2013), Iss. 5 P.373
https://doi.org/10.1111/gec3.12048 [Citations: 324] -
Normalizing necessity? Support networks and racial inequality in Namibia
Oppel, Annalena
World Development, Vol. 147(2021), Iss. P.105649
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2021.105649 [Citations: 3] -
Putting Fairness into the Gig Economy: Delivery Cooperatives as Alternatives to Corporate Platforms
Cañada, Ernest | Izcara, Carla | Zapata Campos, María JoséSocieties, Vol. 13(2023), Iss. 3 P.68
https://doi.org/10.3390/soc13030068 [Citations: 11] -
An Exploratory Study of Part-Time Minorities: Finding Home as a Minority Member
Mark, Lauren
Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, Vol. 48(2019), Iss. 3 P.221
https://doi.org/10.1080/17475759.2019.1602071 [Citations: 2] -
Family houses – building an intergenerational space in post-apartheid Namibia
Nord, Catharina
Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue canadienne des études africaines, Vol. 56(2022), Iss. 2 P.427
https://doi.org/10.1080/00083968.2021.1938618 [Citations: 4] -
Matoy jirofo, masaka lavany: Rural–urban migrants' livelihood strategies through the lens of the clove commodity cycle in Madagascar
Tilghman, Laura M.
Economic Anthropology, Vol. 6(2019), Iss. 1 P.48
https://doi.org/10.1002/sea2.12130 [Citations: 8] -
Migration and Translocal Livelihoods of Coastal Small-scale Fishers in Bangladesh
Islam, Mohammad Mahmudul | Herbeck, JohannesJournal of Development Studies, Vol. 49(2013), Iss. 6 P.832
https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2013.766719 [Citations: 37] -
Structuring the emotional landscape of climate change migration: Towards climate mobilities in geography
Parsons, Laurie
Progress in Human Geography, Vol. 43(2019), Iss. 4 P.670
https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132518781011 [Citations: 56] -
Mobility, multilocality and translocal development: changing livelihoods in the Karakoram
Benz, A.
Geographica Helvetica, Vol. 69(2014), Iss. 4 P.259
https://doi.org/10.5194/gh-69-259-2014 [Citations: 14] -
Somewhere In-Between
Daskalaki, Maria | Butler, Christina L. | Petrovic, JelenaJournal of Management Inquiry, Vol. 25(2016), Iss. 2 P.184
https://doi.org/10.1177/1056492615592181 [Citations: 45] -
Rural–urban migration, agrarian change, and the environment in Kenya: a critical review of the literature
Greiner, Clemens | Sakdapolrak, PatrickPopulation and Environment, Vol. 34(2013), Iss. 4 P.524
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11111-012-0178-0 [Citations: 78]
Abstract
Social relations in Namibia's southern Kunene region are shaped by translocal patterns of migration, exchange and identity. Young people move to urban areas for schooling and work, older family members return to the countryside upon retirement to take care of the livestock and the rural homesteads. These movements are accompanied by remittances and resource transfers, critical for securing livelihoods in rural as well as in urban contexts. People experience movement between households from childhood on, and many migrants develop identities that combine rural and urban lifestyles. Still, the rural homes remain the symbolic, social and economic center for most migrants. Based on data from multi-sited fieldwork, this article examines the emergence and current patterns of migration, exchange and identity formation. The author outlines a translocal perspective and argues that, in order to deepen our understanding of these dynamics, it might be productive to borrow insights from recent studies of transnationalism.
Soziale Beziehungen in Namibias südlicher Kunene-Region sind durch Muster translokaler Migration, Austausch und Identität geprägt. Für die Schulausbildung und zur Erwerbstätigkeit ziehen die Jungen in die städtischen Gebiete, die Alten kehren zurück aufs Land, wo sie sich um die Viehzucht und die Höfe kümmern. Diese Bewegungen werden von Ressourcentransfers begleitet, die einen wichtigen Beitrag zum Haushaltsbudget in Land und Stadt darstellen. Mobilität wird von Kindesbeinen auf erlernt, und viele Migranten entwickeln Identitäten, die ländliche und urbane Lebensstile vereinen. Dennoch stellt die ländliche Heimat das symbolische, soziale und ökonomische Zentrum für viele Migranten dar. Auf Grundlage ethnographischer Daten aus Stadt und Land analysiert dieser Beitrag Entstehung und gegenwärtige Muster von Migration, Austausch und Identitätskonstruktion. Der Autor entwickelt eine translokale Perspektive und argumentiert, dass es hilfreich ist, auf Erkenntnisse der jüngeren Transnationalismus-Forschung zurück zu greifen, um diese Dynamiken besser verstehen zu können.