Resumen
African cities are nodes of encounters, a choreography of historical networks, transitory associations and unexpected alliances. At a time when cracks are showing in the hegemonic dominance of developmental regimes across the continent, this panel contends that digging into the messiness of everyday urban life might provide new keys to understand how alternative political subjectivities can emerge. However, despite the high visibility of overt political protest surrounding presidential mandates (Burkina Faso, Burundi), influence peddling (South Africa) or suppressed justice (Angola), we hold that it is by looking at the production of the political not in institutions but in the ?timeless banality of daily life? (Trouillot 2001) that we can understand how people?s actions and discourses can at the same time be subversive and participate in existing power structures. Rather than trumpeting grand narratives of a wave of ?Arab Springs? spreading through Sub-Saharan Africa, this panel is then interested in the interstitial spaces between domination and the cultivation of consent that can be carved in the materiality of everyday urban life. When the space for politics is circumscribed, what kind of spaces does the city offer for struggles over freedom and dignity? Could derelict urban landscapes and infrastructures constitute sites of resistance? When do acts as mundane as accessing clean water, caring for one?s health or walking a waste-invaded pavement become subversive? We invite papers (in English or Portuguese) exploring invisible repertoires of discourse and action anchored in the daily practices of city-dwellers.
Palabras clave
Africa. Urban. Politics. Activism.