IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ijurrs/v49y2025i1p5-20.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

‘MAN MUST CHOP!’: Agency of Potholes, Informal Road Menders and Socioeconomic Survival on a Sub‐Urban Road in Nigeria

Author

Listed:
  • Ọmọ́máyọ̀wá Ọláwálé Àbàtì

Abstract

Owing to Nigeria's poor road maintenance culture, informal road menders (IRMs) have emerged who fill potholes on urban and sub‐urban roads in exchange for money from road users. This article interrogates the micropolitics of this phenomenon as a relatively new means of informal livelihood within the context of the ethnography of road infrastructure, informal agency and the everyday struggle for socioeconomic survival. Conceiving informal road mending as a livelihood offers a promising lens for discussing how IRMs gain and retain access to space, navigate risks, and harness relationships with other road users and state institutions along the road. Drawing on conversations with drivers and commuters during ‘go‐alongs’ in public transport and on interviews with IRMs, private car owners and state regulatory agents, the article shows how IRMs and other road users appropriate the risks and opportunities associated with potholes as socioeconomic resources through which they leverage the precarious road transport experience in the country. This contributes to the literature on the ethnography of road infrastructures and the micropolitics of informal work in urban Africa.

Suggested Citation

  • Ọmọ́máyọ̀wá Ọláwálé Àbàtì, 2025. "‘MAN MUST CHOP!’: Agency of Potholes, Informal Road Menders and Socioeconomic Survival on a Sub‐Urban Road in Nigeria," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(1), pages 5-20, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ijurrs:v:49:y:2025:i:1:p:5-20
    DOI: 10.1111/1468-2427.13287
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.13287
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1468-2427.13287?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ijurrs:v:49:y:2025:i:1:p:5-20. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0309-1317 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.