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.
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Dear Dieuwer,
ReplyDeleteYou raise a lot of interesting issues bearing plenty of possibilities to carry out a challenging fieldwork. What would be need is to closer link research project with the other ideas.
The alienation of the city dweller has preoccupied the scientific community for quite some time (from Marx, Simmel, and Benjamin onwards) and has been approached from different angles and context (e.g. concept of rurbanity). The explosive urbanization in the developing countries offers a gentle possibility to compare nowadays situation with the Industrial revolution of the West. Their communalities and differences can be essential to better our understanding what is going on in Lagos. If you like reading you should have a look at J.C. Turner’s (Housing Priorities, Settlement Patterns and Urban Development in Modernizing Countries, 1968) who describes the move of the city and the changes it implies. I can send you the reference but think you should have access with e-journals of the TU Delft. In his work Turner describes the slums of the 60s as rural lifestyles in an urban setting and gives glimpses on the alienation process. In your case the chosen food economy is surely an industry that possesses strong and also traceable links to the rural hinterlands, which can be unraveled during the on-site workshop. I am curious to read more about your exact workflow and tools you want to apply. I can see that interviews will play a major role, but how will you then process the information?
A minor thing, due to the time constraints any research attempt will be a fragmented anyway, you might consider to focus only on one chosen area to make your scope more feasible.
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