9. The Rising “Floating Class” in Sub-Saharan Africa and Its Impact on Local Governance: Insights From Mozambique

The renewed interest in sub-Saharan Africa urbanities is due, in part, to the entrance of a rising middle class into them. Affected by dysfunctional real estate markets, this class seeks alternative ways to obtain a decent dwelling, maintaining or diverting from culturally embedded continuums of urban behaviours. This chapter contributes to such a debate, analysing some challenges to the governance of cities in Africa that are highly likely to be raised by the new class. Maputo’s outskirts provide the case study areas and the “floating” class is the segment taken into consideration. The analysis of the nexus between urban informality and the new urban actor is pivotal for transformation of existent urban policies or the emergence of new forms of urban governance.