Research project
'Sea-ing Africa: Tracing Legacies and Engaging Future Promises of 'Big' Infrastructure Projects in Port City Regions in Ghana and Morocco'
With a focus on Ghana and Morocco, the project Sea-ing Africa investigates the prominent place of infrastructure in the thinking about development in Africa. Infrastructure projects such as ports, highways and railways are intertwined with geopolitics, economic systems, political interests and cultural values that affect citizens. What are the relationships between large-scale processes of project planning and the local circumstances in which infrastructures are put in place? What is the societal impact of infrastructure as physical structure, design intervention and future making project?
- Duration
- 2024 - 2027
- Contact
- Sabine Luning
- Funding
-
LUF-funding
Return of ‘Big’ infrastructure
In the colonial era, infrastructure was built mainly to exploit natural resources such as bauxite and gold. Later, much of this infrastructure fell into disrepair, partly due to a lack of maintenance and a shift in development thinking from macro-projects by the state to small-scale projects, that are more directly targeted at citizens and local communities (think e.g. of microcredit). Today, we are witnessing a resurgence of interest in large infrastructure projects in Africa, particularly in regions with ports and mining activities. There is a so-called re-enchantentment with infrastructure, almost in line with the earlier colonial approach. The project is trying to understand these developments by looking at Africa in innovative ways.
Studying Africa from the sea and without the sub-Saharan divide
The research programme foregrounds two innovative approaches to studying the African continent. First, it aims to move away from the traditional scholarly division between the Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa. When studying large-scale infrastructure projects drawing such boundaries do not make sense and a focus on Ghana and Morocco allows to break away from this divide. In addition, the project is not confined to looking at Africa as just land, but it also integrates a maritime perspective. It looks at infrastructure networks in territories from the sea. Ports are not haphazerdly located in specific places. They need to be understood within broader geopolitical processes and their spatial setting. This perspective is expressed in the project name Sea-ing Africa.
MA students will be part of the research
Infrastructures are often studied as part of macroeconomic processes, which remain quite abstract. Sea-ing Africa aims to provide an alternative, focusing on the relationship between macro processes and micro terrain. Together with Masters students in Anthropology and students from the MA African Studies, we will carry out research projects along railway tracks and in ports. This will give us a deeper understanding of what such large-scale processes mean for the people directly affected.
