"Making a Life is a rich and innovative exploration of young black men's life-making strategies in Zandspruit at a time of pervasive precarity. Here young men struggle daily for dignity, for recognition as insiders and belonging to the city. They are hustlers, friends and political brokers who desire recognition to make claims to resources and to share the place. By shedding light on Johannesburg's periphery, the book brings into sharp relief defining characteristics of the contemporary city." Noor Nieftagodien, Head of History Workshop, University of the Witwatersrand