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.