Researcher(s):
Rachelle Hanson
ENVS course(s): 220 Initiated: September 2015 Completed: Go to project site
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This project aims to explore urban development in a non-Western context. My research is situated within the city of Dakar, Senegal, where I lived for three and a half months last spring. During that time, I came to better understand how life works in this particular city. Even so, I left Dakar with plenty of questions that have inspired further research. My project is based principally around examining how the urban space of Dakar has developed both within and outside of the standard Western ideals of development. I will focus on various factors including community ties and social relations, the informal economic sector, transportation and existing infrastructures such as the seaport and airport. Methodologically, I utilize previous scholarly work on urbanization and development, interviews with Senegalese acquaintances and finally my own perceptions of the space to point out the non-Western characteristics of this city, while recognizing the powerful and evident influence of both globalization and former colonization. In doing so I aim to reconcile the urbanity of Dakar as it engages both consistently and inconsistently with Western notions of development.