Mélanie Rateau: Electrical configurations, inequalities of access, and urban practices in Ibadan (Nigeria) and Cotonou (Benin)

In cities in sub-Saharan Africa, electricity networks are unreliable, insufficient, and sometimes non-existent, while demand is increasing. To meet their needs, city dwellers are putting a variety of technologies into practice, giving rise to diverse socio-technical assemblages. At the level of each city, this results in an urban electrical configuration. Comparing a selection of neighborhoods reflecting urban diversity in Ibadan (Nigeria) and Cotonou (Benin), the research shows that urban practices of access to electricity fuel hybridization processes in which improving the quality and continuity of service depends on ambivalent market and social logics that do not allow the most vulnerable city dwellers to escape the poverty trap. Ultimately, the urban electricity transition requires going beyond the single, uniform conventional network model to consider the contours of a socio-technically heterogeneous urban service that is tailored to the diversity of urban living conditions.
Keywords

: access to electricity; urban and infrastructural heterogeneity; intra- and inter-urban inequalities; access regimes; Ibadan; Cotonou; Nigeria; Benin.

Abstract

: In the cities of sub-Saharan Africa, electricity networks are deficient, insufficient, and sometimes absent, while demand is increasing. To meet their needs, city dwellers use a variety of technologies that give rise to different socio-technical assemblages. At the scale of each city, this results in an urban electrical configuration. Comparing a selection of neighborhoods reflecting urban diversity in Ibadan (Nigeria) and Cotonou (Benin), the research shows that urban practices of access to electricity fuel processes of hybridization in which the improvement of the quality and continuity of the service depends on ambivalent market and social logics that do not allow the most vulnerable city dwellers to escape from the traps of poverty. Finally, the urban electricity transition requires going beyond the reference of the single, uniform conventional network to consider the contours of a socio-technically heterogeneous urban service, linked to the diversity of urban living conditions.
Keywords

: access to electricity; urban and infrastructural heterogeneity; intra- and inter-urban inequalities; regimes of access; Ibadan; Cotonou; Nigeria; Benin

Composition of the jury
Armelle Choplin, Associate Professor at the University of Geneva (co-director)
Sylvy Jaglin, Professor at Gustave Eiffel University (director)
Franck Scherrer, Professor at the University of Montreal (rapporteur)
Éric Verdeil, Professor at Sciences Po Paris (examiner)
Marie-Hélène Zérah, Director of Research at IRD (rapporteur)
Guest member of the jury: Olivier Coutard, Director of Research at CNRS at Latts (guest)