Actor-network, conflict and the commodification of planning: Role of traditional food markets in shaping the built environment

Abstract

This paper examines the processes of transformation of the architecture and spatial character of a Nigerian city, in the planning and delivery of a sustainable built environment. It examines the inter-dependency or relationship between the traditional market space and the city which is constantly being challenged, adapted and simultaneously undermined by the city's rapid growth and modernisation. Therefore, the meanings attached to the market and its built environment has not only changed on several levels from the symbolic, sacred, religious use to commercial and mundane one but also has taken on new spatial forms in sustaining the life of the city due to the activities of the various actors which is predicated on their worldview. The paper provides a detailed examination of the geographical location of the old market built environment, in relation to the expansion of the city over time. It traces historical changes in the surrounding urban-scape of the market, in particular, the location of developments, many originating from the colonial period, and their impact on the life of the market over time. It relates, how these historical relationships are registered both topographically and spatially providing supporting visual material such as maps and developmental plans. This paper further expatiates on the understanding of negotiation and conflict that ensued during the interaction within the material environment of the city through the prism of the role of actors (government officials, users, planners, politicians) involved with the built marketplace in the study area. Analyses provided through interpretive anthropology which is synchronic in nature (focus at events in a slice of time) and those provided by Actor-Network Theory (ANT) that is diachronic (focus on dynamic events through time), i.e. anthropology focuses more on the “static” past whereas ANT focuses on the activities of the actants in “dynamic” or “real-time”. The paper concludes that theoretical and cultural interpretation impacts the physical marketplace, its form, character, and spatiality; this must itself be understood as an agent or actant in the struggle, in as much as it both enables and constrains human activities.