Thesis: Dialectic Dumping: Re-thinking infrastructure flows and disruptions in post-colonial Dakar
Key Topics: critical infrastructure theory, African cities, everyday urbanism, urban political ecology, discourse, waste
Profile:
Jonas is an urbanist and an emerging expert in East and West African infrastructure studies. His PhD challenges conventional notions of infrastructure flows. He proposes to newly theorise infrastructure flows as dialectically configured by mainstream infrastructure discourse and everyday infrastructure practices. Thereby his aim is to re-think infrastructure disruptions as generative moments of infrastructure (re-)configuration. Jonas hypothesises that openly anticipating disruptions (rather than planning without them) will make infrastructures more resilient to the rapidly evolving circumstances in distinct African contexts. His project explores domestic solid waste flows in Dakar, Senegal, where he works with mixed qualitative methods and an urban political ecology approach. This PhD is fully funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).
Jonas has a background in sociology. He holds an MSc Urban Development Planning (UDP) from UCL and a BA Global Challenges: Human Diversity from Leiden University Honours College and Universidad de Chile. He has several years of international experience working at the intersection of urban development and communications in the private, public and third sector.
In his spare time he is first and foremost an athlete; you’ll usually find him biking through London, chasing a football or catching some waves.
Primary supervisors: Prof. Adriana Allen & Colin Marx
Other:
- Member of Chatham House’s “Common Futures Conversations”.
- Languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Dutch. Learning Wolof & Swahili.
- Please feel free to reach out at jonas.ennequin.19@ucl.ac.uk