Paper short abstract:

This paper looks at how Liberia’s capital Monrovia is used, lived and imagined in multiple ways. Whereas the city mayor aims at implementing one vision of the city, it is contested by a range of social actors that depend on informal activities.

Paper long abstract:

Liberia's capital Monrovia has been vastly affected by the violent conflict and is still undergoing a range of challenges such as overpopulation or scarcity of public goods and services. Since the present city mayor was appointed in 2009, a 'clean and green Monrovia' is envisaged, and realized with contested means: informal constructions are broken down, squatters and street sellers get removed. Multiple imaginaries of Monrovia compete with each other; some of its inhabitants dream of window shopping and sauntering downtown, while others need and appropriate the public space for a range of informal practices in order to make a living. The changing order increases the uncertainties of their everyday life, and their demand for urgently needed sanitary facilities, security and a range of other goods and services remain unaddressed.

This paper, based on ethnographic fieldwork, looks at the multiple ways in which Monrovians use, live and imagine the city in the midst of transformation. How is the good use of the city imagined, and by whom? This paper focuses on post-conflict imaginaries of a better future, in which the capital city plays a central role: the urban space hosts a range of employment and educational opportunities, affordable living possibilities, and propels hopes for upward social mobility. Though the daily reality for a range of social actors is determined by informal economic activities, they nevertheless actively participate in shaping and shifting processes of the city in transformation.