Les études urbaines en Afrique utilisent le plus souvent les catégories conceptuelles créées à partir de l'observation des villes européennes : famille, logement, quartier. Ces catégories sont inadaptées à un contexte marqué par la polygamie et par une urbanisation fondée sur les relations internationales, non sur l'industrialisation locale.
Les catégories de réseau de parenté, d'unité résidentielle regroupant les logements d'un réseau de parenté, de trajectoires résidentielles apparaissent plus adaptées.
«Governance» : a Weak Concept, a Strong Policy
At the end of the 1980s, the Anglo-Saxon concept of «governance» was adopted by the World Bank to enable public policies in debt-ridden countries to adapt to market demands. For this purpose, «good local governance» must not only be driven by tight budgetary policies and economic deregulation, but must also display transparency in its decisions. Nevertheless, the contract between local public authorities and the population, which is one of democracy, does not conform to a model used primarily to make indebted countries fit criteria of global liberalism.
A. Osmont—Strategies of Kinship and Residence in an Urban Context.
A number of previous studies have advanced the hypothesis that the European-type nuclear family forming a single residential group is becoming or has become the rule in African cities. Starting from the study in depth of a Senegalese family urbanized for nve generations, A. Osmont establishes that the descent group, the extended family with several residential units, remains the main basis of social and economie relationships in today's urban milieu.
A. Osmont -The Formation of a Local Community in Dakar. Story of the development of a local community in a co-operative housing estate. The first stage is marked by the appearance of a sense of common, solidary interest, based at first upon objective institutions (the rules and by-laws governing co-operative building societies) ; then cornes the passage from a onepurpose to a multi-purpose association. In a third stage the experience of communal action leads to the assumption of localitybased power.
Les coûts locaux de la main d'œuvre déterminent les choix d'implantation des activités industrielles marchandes. A la mobilité territoriale des grands marchés répond l'ancrage urbain de l'économie informelle dans les pays pauvres. Les initiatives locales de développement économique courent le risque d'être détournées de l'objectif social que lui assignent officiellement les bailleurs de fonds internationaux par l'appel à l'initiative privée qu'ils développent sur le terrain.
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