Narrating Development: Economic Change, Urban Transformation, and Everyday Life in Luanshya, Zambia

This thesis explores how Luanshya’s residents interpret economic change, urban transformation, and daily life in a mining town that has been shaped by repeated cycles of mine closures, decline, and renewed investment. The research was conducted remotely using a qualitative approach based on semi-structured interviews. It examines what residents of Luanshya think about mining, employment opportunities, ways of making a living, social support systems, understandings of development, and visions for the future of the city. Since the early 1930s, mining has been at the heart of Luanshya’s economy and collective memory, yet its meaning is deeply ambivalent. Interviewees describe new projects such as Shaft 28 as a possible source of jobs and urban revival, but they also emphasize low salaries, risky working conditions, and unequal access to employment. At the same time, many residents rely on farming, small businesses, informal work, and family-based coping strategies, indicating that livelihoods in Luanshya are sustained by a combination of wage labor, self-employment, and subsistence activities rather than by mining alone. The findings also show that urban change is experienced through both material and social dimensions. Participants mention improvements in roads, schools, hospitals, and housing, but they also highlight persistent challenges such as inadequate infrastructure, rising living costs, youth unemployment, crime, and fragile public services. Support networks provided by NGOs, churches, and community initiatives are generally valued, although they are not perceived as substitutes for stable employment or reliable state welfare. Overall, Luanshya emerges as a city in transition, where hopes for renewed development coexist with inequality, insecurity, and memories of a more stable past.