"That's the way it is.": urban land governance in Bouaké, Côte d'Ivoire

The gray zone that symbolises urban land governance in Bouaké is perceptible through the analysis of tensions and conflicts emerging from various land tenure processes used by different social actors. Engaging in these processes involves the mastering of several practices which evolve over time and vary from one type of social actor to another: The state administration, the propriétaires terriens and the ʽordinaryʼ dwellers. These practices are partly represented by vocabularies that can be specific to a profession (like the technical terms employed by state administration officers), or to a service (like the distinction established by applicants between a ʽtip’ considered as a gift, and a ʽbribe’ considered as a constraint).