How Does Water Behave? Unstable Milieu and Stable Agencements in Dakar's Flooded Suburbs

Abstract

In the suburbs of Dakar, matter as a flux is not a metaphor anymore, but a concrete process of city fluidification, disintegration, or solidification. Indeed, the city has been concerned for more than 30 years by regular floods that were established permanently in some districts. Drawing from an assemblage perspective, this article aims to understand how people deal with untamed waters in flooded neighbourhoods and at the city scale. It also raises questions about how we can capture the processes of production, maintenance, and disintegration of cities by identifying stable forms of assemblages and by comparing them according to the specific action that they support.