Marges de Ia yule en marge du politique? Exclusion, dépendance et quête d'autonomie à Nouakchott (Mauritanie).

This article examines the urban fringes in terms of both the social and spatial dimensions. Taking Nouakchott as an example, the study aims to unravel how these fringes crystallize the various fractures that exist in Mauritanian society, its economic inequalities, identity-related discriminations and disparities with regard to political participation. Examination of the different systems of logic which govern the way they set in - attraction and repulsion, control and abandonment, speculation and development project, legally regulated spaces and informal practices, social exclusion and political mobilization, dependence and autonomy - is made with the objective of seeing how these fringes bear witness more generally to the different dynamics which give structure to city, society and State. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]