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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The body, health, and urbanization process in Nigeria: a study in figurational sociology
Author:Asakitipi, Alex E.ISNI
Year:2010
Periodical:Journal of environment and culture (ISSN 1597-2755)
Volume:7
Issue:1
Pages:41-56
Language:English
Geographic term:Nigeria
Subjects:urban environment
environmental degradation
health
attitudes
urbanization
Abstract:This paper examines the perception and attitude of urbanites in Lagos State on the twin issues of environment and health with the aim of answering the question of how urbanites participate in the urbanization process in Nigeria. The discussion is guided by the premise that the organization of social systems in urban centres in Nigeria reflects how the body is perceived and observed. Contrary to the Durkheimian tradition, urban centres in Nigeria do not have a clear dichotomy between the sacred and the profane in the strict sense of these words. Even where they do, they are fused together to form one functional whole, a practice that is in consonance with the traditional concept of the body as both corporeal and spiritual yet as a unified system that functions as one indivisible entity. For this reason, urban dwellers in the country do not respond to the environmental chaos but rather live with, and in it. Because this fundamental demarcation is lacking in the urbanization process, there is a dysfunction of social systems both in human relationships on the one hand and between humans and the environment on the other. Bibliogr., sum. [Journal abstract]
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