Towards a Critical Peri-urban Turn in Climate-related Mobility in Southern Africa

This article offers a theoretical intervention on emerging patterns of climate-related mobility and peri-urban transformation in Southern Africa. While it is not an empirically representative study, the analytical intervention is informed by a sustained field engagement with the dynamics of climate change adaptation in peri-urban settlements in South Africa, as well as recent engagements in Mozambique and Malawi. First, the article argues that climate change is reshaping urbanisation processes not only through direct climate-induced displacement but also through indirect pressures that reorganise livelihoods, living costs and spatial inequalities. Second, it illustrates that these dynamics are producing a distinct peri-urban turn, in which urban peripheries function as secondary climate margins. They are adaptive yet uneven spaces shaped by historical legacies, infrastructural differentiation and emerging diversities. Ultimately, by reframing climate-related adaptations as a significant driver of urban and peri-urban reconfiguration, the article provides a critical lens for understanding urban futures in Southern Africa and the global South more broadly.