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Urban Circulation and the Everyday Politics of African Urban Youth: The Case of Douala, Cameroon

by: Abdoumaliq Simone
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Vol. 29, No. 3. (September 2005), pp. 516-532.

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Institutions across many cities in Africa lack sufficient authority to instil any overarching matrix of definitions and spatial framework capable of holding residents in stable articulations with infrastructure, territory and urban resources of all kinds. The resultant dispersion of ways of operating in cities does not necessarily mean that regularities are impossible to attain. Rather, an increasingly generalized practice of converting bodies, infrastructure and urban objects into mutltiplex and unstable uses can give rise to particular forms of sociality which in turn cultivate a certain flexibility in how highly volatile urban situations are appropriated and lived. By examining various modalities of circulation — through disparate spatial and symbolic economies — engaged in by youth in various situations and quarters in Douala, Cameroon, this article attempts to explore the elaboration of specific urban political practices. These practices are aimed at countering marginalization and reappropriating the city as a platform for more diverse engagements with a larger world.

Dans de nombreuses grandes villes d'Afrique, les institutions manquent de l'autorité suffisante pour faire naître une enveloppe de définitions et un cadre spatial capables d'assurer aux habitants des articulations stables avec une infrastructure, un territoire et des ressources urbaines de toutes sortes. Il en résulte une dispersion des modes opératoires dans les villes, ce qui n'interdit pas forcément toute forme de régularité. Au contraire, la conversion généralisée d'organismes, infrastructures et objets urbains en usages composites et instables fait naître des formes spécifiques de socialité qui elles-mêmes nourrissent une certaine flexibilité dans la manière dont les habitants s'approprient et vivent des situations urbaines très volatiles. En étudiant plusieurs modalités de circulation-via des économies symboliques et spatiales disparates — adoptées par les jeunes dans des situations et des quartiers variés de Douala (Cameroun), cet article tente d'explorer l'élaboration de pratiques politiques urbaines spécifiques. Ces dernières visent à combattre la marginalisation et à se réapproprier la ville en tant que scène d'engagements plus diversifiés avec un monde plus vaste.

shangnan (public note) - 2006-11-30 13:48:19

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