Abstract
AbstractDrawing on 20 years of anthropological research in Dakar, this study aims at bringing to light some ways of being-in-town that organize towards desires for being-in-the-world. It relies on a simple and yet substantial premise: a very large number of urban Senegalese youths express a strong willingness to move North, or West, while only a small minority is able to achieve such an expectation. The questioning focuses on those who actually stay, but whose modes of sticking here are deeply influenced by their longings for a larger world. Such configurations can be understood through the concrete urban cosmopolitan experiences they convey, which rely on inherently relational terms, that is: being cosmopolitan ‘rather than…’, citizen of the world ‘rather than…’, and so on. This relative, relational and contrastive cosmopolitanism emerges in the wake of constant non-travelers’ paths into the city, as compared to “frequent travelers” moving around the world. Empirically, these issues are addressed from the standpoint of the contrasted uses of urban temporalities, the nocturnal one in particular. The Dakar-by-night is thus engaged as a scene revealing the cosmopolitical dynamics that inhabit, cross or impregnate the metropolis.
Publisher
Springer International Publishing
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