Claims have recently been made for a mobilities paradigm which is challenging the relative 'a-moblie' focus of much of the social sciences. The agenda drawn up for this mobilities paradigm is clcarly based on Northern trends with little considelation of the South. African populations have always been mobile but little is known about the mobility of urban populaltions and in particular of the youth, who constitute a large proportion of the Population. This paper explores file daily and residential niobilitv of young, people in Lusaka building upon interviews field with low- and middle-income youth. The aim is to contribute to discussions of: how mobility varies by endcrand class: the links between spatial mobility and social and economic mobility: the nature of the relationship between patterns of mobility and residential Structure: and how examining, mobility can illuminate many other aspects of "young people's lives. Overall the picture emerging from Lusaka is rather bleak. a context of spiralling ecollonfic decline and rising HIV/AIDS rates the social mobility, of youth is prechnninantly downwards which is reflected in the recidential and daily mobility patterns of the young pople. There is a strong, link between young people's mobility and their livelihoods. an aspect of wobility that is widespread in the South but largely overlooked by the cinerging, mobilities paradigm.
