The rural fringes of Bamako, Dakar, and Nairobi are undergoing massive land-use changes at the crossroads of ambitious state projects, private economic real-estate investments, and individual purchases of land plots. Despite wide demographic pressure and growing property investments, the understanding of these land transfer processes and the associated socio-spatial reconfigurations remains partial in the urbanisation fronts.
The Metropolitan Transition
Beyond established cores, a new layer of habitation is forming. Urban sprawl feeds multiple speculations, anticipations, and varied strategies of real-estate profit-sharing — this forms the core hypothesis of our project. The metropolitan transition gives rise to competition and sometimes violent conflicts for the control of land rents. Our project takes into account the wide range of actors, sectors, and dynamics that participate in these changes and their diverse impacts on urban forms and social inequalities.
“Urban sprawl feeds multiple speculations, anticipations, and varied strategies of real-estate profit-sharing.” — METROLAND Project Hypothesis
We combine an empirical approach with qualitative data production, quantitative data collection, and spatial analysis to question (i) the transactions carried out on land and the capital resources of differentiated actors; (ii) the socio-spatial reconfigurations of territories in terms of use and users; and (iii) the conflicts and social mobilisations generated by these transformations.
