Palermo is a city characterised by illegality, criminal or otherwise, and by significant institutional mismanagement: clientelism on the part of local government and weak and inefficient public services. This essay, which addresses planning and management in the city of Palermo reveals the complexities of the mechanisms at work in the urban area

Using surveys and analyses in France and the Sahel region of Africa, this book provides the keys to understanding organisational dynamics, the emergence of a highly structured associative movement in both African and Western countries, and introduces the new spatial and social hierarchies.