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Cited by 139Urban Planning and GovernanceUrban and Rural Development ChallengesAfrican Studies and Ethnography

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 80 of the 81 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Lagos, Koolhaas and Partisan Politics in Nigeria

Open access
FOURCHARD, LAURENT·2011·International Journal of Urban and Regional Research
DOI 10.1111/j.1468-2427.2010.00938.x
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Abstract

Architect Rem Koolhaas and his team from Harvard regard Lagos as an extreme and pathological form of the city in Africa and as a paradigmatic case of a modern avant-garde city. In rehabilitating the informality at work in Lagos, they put forward a romanticized vision of a self-regulatory system working outside state regulation and political influence. In this article I consider that the crisis of urban infrastructure in Lagos is less the result of the weakness of the Nigerian state than of a historical opposition between the Federal government and Lagos State leaders, especially concerning the allocation of resources to the city. I also suggest that informality and state decline analysis are inadequate theoretical frameworks for detailing the way Lagos has been planned or governed since the end of the colonial period. Instead, this article, based on empirical research covering local government, motor parks and markets, considers that the city's resources have been used to build political networks between state officials and a number of ‘civil society’ leaders. This process and the reinforcement of taxation in the last 30 years are not so much a manifestation of informality and state decline as part and parcel of the historical state formation in Nigeria and in Lagos. Résumé L’architecte Rem Koolhass et son équipe de Harvard voient en Lagos une forme extrême et pathologique de grande ville africaine et un cas typique de ville à l’avant-garde de la modernité. En réhabilitant l’informalité qui opère à Lagos, ils proposent une vision enjolivée d’un système autorégulateur fonctionnant hors de l’influence politique et réglementaire de l’État. Cet article considère qu’à Lagos, la crise de l’infrastructure urbaine résulte moins de la faiblesse de l’État nigérian que de l’opposition traditionnelle entre le gouvernement fédéral et les dirigeants de l’État de Lagos, notamment en matière de dotation de ressources à la ville. De plus, l’informalité et l’analyse du déclin de l’État se révèlent des cadres théoriques inappropriés si l’on veut préciser la manière dont Lagos a été aménagée ou administrée depuis la fin de l’ère coloniale. En revanche, à partir d’une étude empirique englobant gouvernement local, parcs de stationnement et marchés, cet article montre que les ressources municipales ont servi à tisser des réseaux politiques entre responsables de l’État et plusieurs personnalités de la ‘société civile’. Cette démarche et l’accentuation des taxes au cours des trente dernières années ne sont pas tant la manifestation de l’informalité et du déclin de l’État qu’une composante de la formation de l’État au Nigéria et à Lagos.

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Citations

Cites

Research works printed but not linked: 16

  1. Abumere, 1989, Nigeria since independence. The first 25 years
  2. Adebayo, 1987, History of the peoples of Lagos State
  3. Benna, 1989, Nigeria since independence. The first 25 Years
  4. Clapham, 2006, Big African states
  5. Fourchard, 2002, Les transports et la ville en Afrique au sud du Sahara
  6. Fourchard, 2007, Gouverner les villes d'Afrique
  7. Hansen, 2004, Reconsidering informality: perspectives from urban Africa
  8. Koolhaas, 2000, Mutations, événement culturel sur la ville contemporaine
  9. Koolhaas, 2002, Under siege: four African cities. Freetown, Johannesburg, Kinshasa, Lagos
  10. Lagos State, 1981, Fourth National Development Plan, 1981-1985: Lagos State Programmes
  11. Lagos State, 2006, Lagos Island central business district revitalisation
  12. Mba, 1987, History of the peoples of Lagos State
  13. Olowu, 1990, Lagos State, governance, society and economy
  14. Sindzingre, 2006, Linking the formal and informal economy. Concepts and policies
  15. Udo, 2000, Population census in Nigeria: depoliticization
  16. Vagale, 1974, Anatomy of traditional markets in Nigeria: focus on Ibadan city

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Metadata

Authors
FOURCHARD, L.
Affiliations
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
Corresponding author
FOURCHARD, LAURENT
ORCID
FOURCHARD, LAURENT
Venue
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2010-12-16
Volume
35
Issue
1
Pages
40-56
ISSN
0309-1317 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1111/j.1468-2427.2010.00938.x
OpenAlex
W1588591565
Cited by
131
References
81
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 2
FWCI
17.06
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
doi.wiley.com/10.1002/tdm_license_1.1 (tdm, 1720 d)
Locations
  • International Journal of Urban and Regional Research (publishedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • HAL (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • SPIRE (Sciences Po) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Urban Studies › Urban Planning and Governance
  • Social Sciences › Urban Studies › Urban and Rural Development Challenges
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › African Studies and Ethnography
Keywords
Lagos, Rem Koolhaas, urban informality, decline of the state, federal-state relations, Lagos State, political networks, taxation, motor parks, markets, local government, state formation, urban planning, Nigeria, colonial urban history, urban governance, political economy of cities

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