The world is currently experiencing a surge of investment in, and development of, large-scale infrastructural building projects, frequently captured by the term 'megaprojects'. Distinguished by the bulk of their envisioned materiality, the volume of financial capital required to build them, and the complexity of technical, legal, administrative, and political tools needed to bring them into operation, megaprojects do not easily lend themselves to ethnographic inquiry. While in recent years, ethnographic attention to infrastructure has given rise to a burgeoning theoretical apparatus and a growing anthropological subfield in which the various aspects of megaprojects have been analysed, scale as a concept has remained under-theorised. Exploring scale-making ethnographically and unpacking the work that scale does for various actors and publics, the contributions collected in this issue make a theoretical contribution to the anthropology of infrastructure by showing how scale connects the everyday making and the spectacular politics of megaprojects.

In this article I explore the ways in which material things—bricks, documents, pipes, and utility poles—mediate everyday life and politics in informal neighborhoods in Niamey, the capital of Niger. I argue that informal neighborhoods are key sites where the material becomes political. Created “from below,” these neighborhoods are literally constructed brick by brick through the gradual division of land plots, the incremental construction and improvement of houses, the negotiation of connections to the water and electricity networks, and attempts at securing public service provision. These material transformations are central to residents’ quest for legitimation in a context of insecure land tenure (rights). I pay particular attention to the ways in which these material transformations are mediated by social and political relations involving both state and non‐state actors (including the traditional chieftaincy, NGOs, public and private companies, and the municipality). In sum, the analysis of material transformations and interventions in informal neighborhoods elucidates the important role of infrastructure and other material things in shaping urban landscapes and in mediating political subjectivities in Niamey.

In and around Niamey, land has emerged as a central source of economic and political capital and as the object of intense competition. Land speculation has accelerated with the decentralisation of land management including zoning or land subdivision operations (lotissement) whereby rural land such as agricultural fields are transformed into land plots mainly for housing. The multiplication of actors involved in zoning has led to an unprecedented competition over land on the urban fringe, involving a multitude of actors including municipalities, private and public enterprises, private entrepreneurs and individual land speculators, national politicians, customary landowners and other brokers and intermediaries. With the rapid proliferation of public and private zoning operations, zoning and land management have also quickly become central question in local and municipal politics, engendering conflicts, competition and contestation. In this paper we analyse the economic, political and spatial stakes of land management in the periphery of Niamey. We show that land speculation is part of a wider struggle for political and economic influence that is reshaping local political arenas and rapidly transforming the urban periphery.

Cet ouvrage collectif engage une analyse ethnographique des communes sahéliennes, notamment celles du Burkina Faso, du Mali et du Niger. A travers des études de cas, l"idée est de décrire la démocratie locale telle qu"elle est pratiquée au niveau municipal. La commune est au coeur de la réflexion pour plusieurs raisons. C"est dans la commune que les plans de développement sont mis en oeuvre. La commune est aussi le lieu où les politiques publiques prennent corps dans la vie quotidienne des citoyens. Elle est également l"espace local où la réalisation d"infrastructures et d"actions de développement se concrétise. La commune abrite le conseil municipal, cette nouvelle institution locale. C"est dans la commune que « la forme » et « la substance » de la démocratie se confrontent.

La commune sahélienne est une arène, un espace public, une représentation culturelle, une institution nouvelle et un enjeu. Elle est « le retour à la maison » en même temps qu"elle est une nouvelle création de l"État. La commune et ses représentants sont traités de tous les noms ; elle est la cible des ragots et des revendications, des mobilisations et des manquements, des développements et des détournements.

L"ouvrage est le résultat de plusieurs projets de recherche entre le Département d"anthropologie culturelle et d"ethnologie / Forum for Africa Studies de l"université d"Uppsala (Suède), l"Institut des sciences des sociétés du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique et Technologique (Burkina Faso) et le centre de recherche Point Sud (Mali). La plupart de chapitres ont été écrits en tandem entre chercheurs seniors et juniors dans un esprit collaboratif engagé.