“Based on years of ethnographic research, Under Construction is a magnificent and thorough exposition that describes the ambivalence and hope invested in construction projects in Ethiopia. Construction, Daniel Mains demonstrates, is a vital location at which relationships between states and citizens are grounded. While they are powerful gatherings of technology and finance, construction projects are also precarious and full of danger. In exploring the tensions that are intrinsic to construction projects, Mains effortlessly brings together theorizations of historical materialism, vital materialism, and affect theory to produce a dazzling and clear account of how construction is incrementally and yet fundamentally transforming the political landscape of cities of the global South.” — Nikhil Anand, author of Hydraulic City: Water and the Infrastructures of Citizenship in Mumbai
“Under Construction stages urgent interventions into development and governance, citizen and state, Afro-optimism and neoliberal pessimism in order to depict the complexities of infrastructure in Africa. Daniel Mains's work makes clear that the relationships between infrastructure, state, labor, and modernity are variable and contingent—sometimes smooth, often sticky and fraught—while making a compelling case for Ethiopia as a rich site for theoretical and ethnographic attention.” — Charles Piot, author of The Fixer: Visa Lottery Chronicles
“[This] book offers an interesting account of the potential tensions between material infrastructure and human infrastructure and gives insight into processes of economic and urban development in Ethiopia.”
— Paulo Rui Anciaes, LSE Review of Books
"This study by Mains should be accepted with gratitude, and welcomed as a huge contribution to Ethiopian studies of urban development." — Fasika Gedif, African Studies Quarterly
"Under Construction''s strength is in its historical depth and social political contextualization presented in clear language. Theoretical arguments are well-presented and empirically supported, linking well with topical development literature. The book is valuable to both development practitioners and students of anthropology of development." — Elias Madzudzo, International Social Science Review