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Paper short abstract:

Urban spaces in Bamako are undergoing rapid changes. By drawing on my empirical research, this paper argues that these transformations can be described as a process of “Entraeumlichung” (de-spatialization), i.e. a spatial displacement of subjects from their immediate surroundings.

Paper long abstract:

Urban space in Bamako is in a constant state of change, through which new urban spaces, forms, and lifestyles are continuously being produced. This paper, based on my master's thesis, aims to describe and understand the process through which the transformation of urban space in Bamako has occurred in the decade before the country's coup d'état on 21 March 2012.

Drawing on the experience of a field research from January to March 2012, the dominant logic of the production of space in Bamako will be analysed empirically and in relation to two of its dimensions: "fixed spaces" and "fluid spaces". "Fixed spaces" refer to the structural-material dimension of the built environment, especially housing, whereas "fluid spaces" are discussed from a perspective focusing on the phenomenological-bodily experience of urban spaces in the context of the everyday mobility of the city's inhabitants.

These analyses lead to a discussion of "Entraeumlichung" (de-spatialization), a concept which signifies an ever-increasing detachment of subjects from their immediate surroundings. This process of disintegration includes bodily-physical displacements like air-condition, social displacements such as those which occur through spatially more distanced and more contingent social network, and structural displacements such as investments into two-room apartment blocks designed for singles. By combining Lefebvre's conceptual paradigm with the empirical results of my fieldwork, I argue that the concept of "Entraeumlichung" offers a means to better understand the transformation of urban spaces in contemporary Bamako.