Ethiopia’s Integrated Housing Development Program builds and distributes subsidized condos to supposedly lower and middle-income residents. Since 2004, about half a million households have moved into condos in Addis Ababa alone. Their vertical density, lottery distribution of houses, formal neighborhood bylaws, and neighborhood gates makes these new condominium neighborhoods different from other neighborhoods in Addis Ababa. Drawing on six months of doctoral ethnographic fieldwork in a condominium neighborhood in Addis Ababa that was established 11 years ago, this talk discusses the change and continuities in everyday neighboring practices in condominiums. New and recreated neighbor relationship dynamics have emerged as residents strived to adapt to the socio-physical environment of condominium housing. Nostalgia is deployed as a framework to make sense of the past and the present.
The talk concludes by discussing what these neighboring practices in the condominiums tell us about residents’ sense of belongingness and their relationship with the city.
About the Speaker
Hone Mandefro is a doctoral candidate at Concordia University. Hone’s research examines the change and continuity in relationships among neighbors as their living space in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, changes from single-story houses to high-rise condominiums. His research is supported by a Vanier Scholarship from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and Wadsworth International Fellowship from the Wenner-Gren Foundation.