Fulfilling basic needs in cities depends in many ways on various kinds of infrastructure, such as buildings, roads, or water and electricity networks. The project studies the ways in which the residents of the precarious fringes of Windhoek, Namibia's capital, seek to sustain their lives and improve their conditions, what kinds of social relationships this involves, and how their efforts are connected with and influence official administration and the city form. The project explores this interplay by focusing on what kinds of social networks and do-it-yourself arrangements the residents resort to in order to complement the defects of formal infrastructure, as well as how they seek to improve their opportunities to use formal infrastructures. The materials used in the project will be collected during fieldwork in Namibia and include observations, interviews and official documents.

2022

2027