Contentious Territorial Alliances: Coalition Politics and Struggles over Urban Development in Pikine, Senegal

Contentious territorial struggles over how to manage and develop city spaces figure centrally in research on urban governance in the global South. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork in Pikine, a rapidly urbanizing city in Senegal’s Dakar Region, this article examines how Dakar's political geog...

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Main Author: Nicole C. List
Format: Article
Language:fra
Published: Pôle de Recherche pour l'Organisation et la diffusion de l'Information Géographique 2014-11-01
Series:EchoGéo
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/echogeo/13938
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author Nicole C. List
author_facet Nicole C. List
author_sort Nicole C. List
collection DOAJ
description Contentious territorial struggles over how to manage and develop city spaces figure centrally in research on urban governance in the global South. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork in Pikine, a rapidly urbanizing city in Senegal’s Dakar Region, this article examines how Dakar's political geography is being transformed by the configuration of multiple, overlapping territorial strategies for the development of urban farmland in one of the region’s few remaining pockets of green spaces. Through analysis of two spatially distinct –albeit interlinked– episodes of conflict over the development of middle-class and elite housing projects on Pikine farmland, I argue that various public and private actors –including farmers, traditional authorities, housing developers, and local/central government officials– are breaking with older forms of urban governance and forming what I call “territorial alliances” to stake land claims and advance urban development projects. These territorial alliances are producing new political relations between local/central government actors and associational life while also dramatically transforming the cadastre, property rights, and landscapes of public infrastructure in urban Senegal.
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institution Kabale University
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spelling doaj-art-e89e20b2444042958929b1539b8f5cfd2025-01-30T12:44:16ZfraPôle de Recherche pour l'Organisation et la diffusion de l'Information GéographiqueEchoGéo1963-11972014-11-012910.4000/echogeo.13938Contentious Territorial Alliances: Coalition Politics and Struggles over Urban Development in Pikine, SenegalNicole C. ListContentious territorial struggles over how to manage and develop city spaces figure centrally in research on urban governance in the global South. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork in Pikine, a rapidly urbanizing city in Senegal’s Dakar Region, this article examines how Dakar's political geography is being transformed by the configuration of multiple, overlapping territorial strategies for the development of urban farmland in one of the region’s few remaining pockets of green spaces. Through analysis of two spatially distinct –albeit interlinked– episodes of conflict over the development of middle-class and elite housing projects on Pikine farmland, I argue that various public and private actors –including farmers, traditional authorities, housing developers, and local/central government officials– are breaking with older forms of urban governance and forming what I call “territorial alliances” to stake land claims and advance urban development projects. These territorial alliances are producing new political relations between local/central government actors and associational life while also dramatically transforming the cadastre, property rights, and landscapes of public infrastructure in urban Senegal.https://journals.openedition.org/echogeo/13938Senegalurbanizationterritoryhousingurban agricultureproperty
spellingShingle Nicole C. List
Contentious Territorial Alliances: Coalition Politics and Struggles over Urban Development in Pikine, Senegal
EchoGéo
Senegal
urbanization
territory
housing
urban agriculture
property
title Contentious Territorial Alliances: Coalition Politics and Struggles over Urban Development in Pikine, Senegal
title_full Contentious Territorial Alliances: Coalition Politics and Struggles over Urban Development in Pikine, Senegal
title_fullStr Contentious Territorial Alliances: Coalition Politics and Struggles over Urban Development in Pikine, Senegal
title_full_unstemmed Contentious Territorial Alliances: Coalition Politics and Struggles over Urban Development in Pikine, Senegal
title_short Contentious Territorial Alliances: Coalition Politics and Struggles over Urban Development in Pikine, Senegal
title_sort contentious territorial alliances coalition politics and struggles over urban development in pikine senegal
topic Senegal
urbanization
territory
housing
urban agriculture
property
url https://journals.openedition.org/echogeo/13938
work_keys_str_mv AT nicoleclist contentiousterritorialalliancescoalitionpoliticsandstrugglesoverurbandevelopmentinpikinesenegal