Dynamics of Everyday Life within Municipal Administrations in Francophone and Anglophone Africa

Title data

Sabbi, Matthew ; Doumbia, Lamine ; Neubert, Dieter:
Dynamics of Everyday Life within Municipal Administrations in Francophone and Anglophone Africa.
In: Africa Spectrum. Vol. 55 (April 2020) Issue 1 . - pp. 73-85.
ISSN 0002-0397
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0002039720914630

Project information

Abstract in another language

Decentralisation in sub-Saharan
Africa promises to build responsive institutions, hold officials
to account and promote popular participation. Still, existent studies ignore the everyday
interface between decentralised structures and citizens, as well as how decentralised institutions
function in relation to their local contexts and other “authorities” on the margins. These
contexts shape service provision and the impact of local power structures on local communities.
Against this backdrop, our conference in Dakar, Senegal, on “Dynamics of Everyday Life
within Municipal Administrations in Francophone and Anglophone Africa,” which took place
in May 2019, demonstrated three key points of interest: namely, how actors within local
bureaucracies interface with those who are outside; how ordinary citizens appropriate the
bureaucratic techniques of the state and how these actors negotiate and adapt to the daily
practices of municipal administrations. In general, decentralisation is not simply implemented,
rather, it creates new frameworks and spaces for both formal and informal public action.