Yoann ROUILLAC NEW Research Proposal

After further reflection and the feedback from Anthony, I decided to change my research project. It could seem as a major shift for people who don’t know my working path. In fact it is more an actualisation of my priorities. I first described my proposal about bathing because I didn’t have time to think about it therefore took a regular studies topic.

The following proposal is very much related to my actual work, which is coming from the pleasurable experience of bathing. This topic is also related to a research I did during the first semester: UNLOADING. It is about the pleasure from the embodiment of the working task in the personal life.

After watching the video I was fascinated and very intrigued by the ‘OKADA’, the moped-taxi that drive through the traffic jam. So my proposal is to study the self-entrepreneurship motivation of the OKADA drivers. What did they do before? How does it change their lives? To do so I want to follow one driver from in his everyday working life to his home intimacy (of course with his agreement and participation) of his bathing environment.

I assume that being a self-entrepreneur is embodying the task, and this embodiment enhances the pleasure at work. Of course I will look up and relate this to a more social and urban regulation levels. My main focus and observational path will remains the individual worker on his moped and how he experiences the life in Lagos through his body perception. I think starting from an individual worker that his work is to move throughout the city I can have a good overview and understanding of a macro-scale model as well as an atomic-scale.

My method will be to jump on the OKADA’s seat and shoot the city through the eyes of the drivers. Of course it will be my analysis but it will be his experience. I’m going to shoot some video ‘on the ride’, interview him sometimes in a very informal way. I wish to create a peculiar bound with the driver during my stay in Lagos; therefore I need a reliable and stable driver. I wish student in Lagos or people from Buka’s office could help me (in advance) to find a good trustable driver.

Draft Proposal Dieuwer Duijf

What most intrigues me so far in the preparation, fed by videos, readings, lectures and discussion is the growth of Lagos without any form of industrialization. It appears to me that instead of a direct change in lifestyle it seems that the rural background of most inhabitants is still present in there behavior and way of life. In order to coop with the high density, processes change and intensify, but in many cases keep a rural character.

What are the rural aspects of people’s life that remain and in what way the character of these aspects change in order to coop with a dense city environment? (How do the rural characters mutate into urban characters?)

The onsite investigation does not allow to investigate rural area’s of Lagos’ inhabitants origin, but does give the opportunity to search into three different zones of Lagos, three zones with manifold density, activity and level of ‘rurality’ or ‘urbanity’.
In order to get a grip on the terms of ‘urbanity’ versus ‘rurality’ I propose to focus on certain aspects of life (social structure, dwelling, transport (movement), economy and behavior) which are possible to research on a personal level in the three different research zones. By focusing on a personal level the complexity of the different aspects and rhythm of life, which interlink with each other, stays on a tangible level. To create a comparable situation on both three sites, the focus should be on three persons with the same or comparable profession/way of life.

My personal interest for food, leads me to a premature proposal to focus on chefs (food suppliers). The three personages could be: A chef in a restaurant, a food street-seller, and a home-cooking housewife. Besides their own life aspects and rhythm, the food economy and the social element of eating could provide extra information on the rural vs. urban question.

Research proposal Aurora Rapalino

How do we define a city?

By the People who live in it. Wherever you go what is always changing are the people. How we live, move and interact with each other shape the dynamic core of a city.
Whilst remaining as objective as possible, the main goal of my study in Lagos would be the analysis of the community behaviours through the inhabitants themselves. Additionally, in order to describe the city from the inhabitant point of view and emphasise the cultural differences, an ordinary day of a Lagos local would be compared with one in Rotterdam as parallel lives in parallel worlds.

How well do we know our city?

Beyond people, a cityscape is dependant on the viewers perspective. The same streets change according to the position of the viewer, the same roof changes its shape depending on the height it is viewed from.
Collecting different life stories of the inhabitants of Lagos (a student, a house wife, a taxi driver or a business man) as a piece of a puzzle, I would like to describe the different perspectives that belong to Lagos.

Aurora

Lagos online documentaries

Dear all,

herewith several links to online video's that give insights in social and urban realities of Lagos, Nigeria.

ZDF: Lagos, Das Tägliche Wunder:

45mins, 2009, german spoken.

High quality introductory documentary from ZDF. Good general introduction into the struggles of daily life in Lagos and the difficulties that this fast growing metroplis has to cope with.

CNN: Inside Africa, Improving the image of Lagos (2 parts):

21min, 2009, english spoken.

TV documentary about the urban development agenda of Lagos, Nigeria. Interviews with officials, planners and citizens.

CNN: Inside Africa, Eko Atlantis New Lagos

6min, 2009, english spoken

BBC world news: Hot Cities, Immigration Congestion (3 parts):

30 min, 2010, english spoken.

TV documentary on immigration to Lagos.

Lagos from a plane: Landing at Lagos Airport:

Live in Lagos Part 1: Magodo Estate

Live in Lagos Part 2: Ikeja:

Live in Lagos Part 3: Lagos Island:

8 mins, 2009

Live in Lagos Part 4: Ipaja AKA "The Hood"

The New face of Oshodi:

5 mins, 2010, english spoken

Video on the transformation of Oshodi.

Sky1: Ross Kemp in search of Pirates (5 parts:

50 mins, 2009, english spoken

Ross Kemp investigating pirates and their links to the oil sector in Nigeria. His search in parts 1, 2 and 3 of this video sequence show interesting parts of the city of Lagos.

CNN, Nigeria Rising, Brain Drain & Eko Atlantic City Project

6 mins, 2009, english spoken

Nigeria's growing middle class

4mins, 2009, unknown publisher

Video about the development of life and infrastructure for middle class life in Lagos.

Nigerian Investment Promo video

2mins, 2009, unknown publisher

Eye on Lagos, Bus Rapid Transport System:

4mins, english spoken

See also the other 'Eye on Lagos' videos on YouTube for more short videos on various topics.

Lagos: urban growth and traffic congestion