étude ethnographique minutieuse explore le processus de formation de l’État au carrefour de l’anthropologie politique, de l’anthropologie juridique et de l’anthropologie du développement. Le forage apparaît ici comme un lieu de l’État et pour l’État. À ce dernier, le forage permet de se construire et de se reproduire sur son territoire. Aux sciences sociales, de répondre aux questions suivantes : comment penser l’État ? Comment fonctionne-t-il en Afrique ? Since the 1980s, water has become an issue of concern for the international community. This vital resource has now reached a market value which dictates the conditions for development aid in the countries of the Global South.Hydraulic drilling is at the heart of the privatisation reform which is taking place in Senegal. To understand this infrastructure, the author revisits an ethnographic posture popularised by the Manchester School: entry into the field through conflict. By highlighting the various problems experienced with regard to drilling wells, it questions the processes through which public authority and political legitimacy are negotiated and built in contemporary Senegal.This painstaking ethnographic study explores the process of state formation at the point of… |