The Politics of Urban Resettlement: Spatial Governmentality, “Soft Constraints”, and Everyday Life in Lomé, Togo

Abstract

This chapter analyses a pilot resettlement program in Lomé, capital of Togo, that embodies a new approach to urban renewal in this small West African country. Instead of a traditional approach to resettlement based on the violent physical eviction of city dwellers from so-called strategic areas for urban modernisation, this program entailed a resettlement process centred on negotiations between city dwellers and the state based on forms of compensation and “soft constraints”. These included the delivery of a plot of land on the outskirts of Lomé with water and electricity infrastructure on which city dwellers could build new houses, as well as financial compensation for resettlement. We argue that governmentality is visible in this resettlement process and functions through the reordering of urban space and the reshaping of power relations not only through domination, but also through the promotion of self-control, discipline, and responsibility. This chapter contributes to wider debates on the governing of everyday life and its political dimensions.