Droit à la ville et replacement dans les contextes autoritaires d’Addis-Abeba (Éthiopie) et de Lomé (Togo)

Abstract

This paper aims to connect forced eviction with the construction of urban political space, the former sustaining the latter in order to reshape urban order. Here the resettlement process is considered beyond its sole function of exclusion for city dwellers. It is considered as a particular methodological situation used to analyse the concrete adjustment of practices and behaviours in constraint situations. This process is understood through major urban transformations leading to new socio-spatial layouts. It aims at working out the right to the city as the result of a new relationship between authorities and city dwellers, which is scanned by ordinary practices. Drawing up this study in the period following the displacement, the paper will discuss the right to the city, and the government issues tied to it, beyond open and visible political conflicts.To that end, the research is anchored in two different capital cities characterized by authoritarian political context: Addis Ababa and Lome. It is based on a survey conducted within two resettlement sites following either the restructuration of housing stock (Addis Ababa) or the building of a new bypass (Lome). In both cases the city dwellers recreate everyday practices. But do they shake up previous orders? Does the resettlement manifest a normalisation process or a shift of urban behaviours?

Keywords

• resettlement
• eviction
• right to the city
• urban practice
• Lome
• Addis Ababa