Paper short abstract:

In Senegal, official and practical norms are daily interconnected throughout the repression of a road breach: the inappropriate car parking. Although the repression of this infraction is partly illegally assumed by drivers' associations, they pay a great attention in preserving a legal aspect in doing so.

Paper long abstract:

In Senegal, the "maraudage" or the "maraude" design, for the public transportation drivers, the action of boarding passengers outside bus stations. The maraude has thus been officially identified as a breach in the highway code as well as in ministerial decrees. It is called "inappropriat car parking" or "unfair competition". Nevertheless, the repression of the maraudage is not assumed by the Police officers but by the representatives of drivers' associations. In this case, the respect of official norms is in fact illegaly assumed by a non-official organization. Hence, how do the representatives of these drivers' associations legitimate themselves on the roadside among administrative representatives in order to tax the drivers? My hypothesis is that, however illegal their practice can be, the action of the drivers' association is allowed thanks to the close relationships they maintain with the official norm and with the practices of its representatives (Police officer, municipal collector, etc...). The representatives of the drivers' associations are playing on this ambiguity to legitimate themselves on the roadside. The struggle against maraudage happens on the margin of the cities, in spaces saturated with administration (I). In these spaces, a solidarity that transcends professionnal cultures appears between the drivers' associations and administrative representatives (II). These two entities develop a similar relationship to the user (III).