[en] Gridding, separating, dividing the continuous space of societies: according to which dotted lines, which contours, which thresholds? The questioning is open and geography has not finished questioning the divisions. In contexts where the material delimitation and cartography of local territories are as yet unfinished, or even impracticable, for various reasons, the operations of division remain part of the discourse, but not without effects in local spaces. In West Africa, the immateriality of territorial delimitations was revealed in the light of the decentralization reforms undertaken by several countries at the turn of the 1990s. This discrepancy, between the effectiveness of the division on paper and the absence of delimitation, raises the question of the nature of the West African social space, particularly in the Sahel. Consequently, the analysis of the political division of local space draws on the analyses of Achille Mbembé on "itinerant territoriality" and those of Denis Retaillé on "mobile space" in the Sahel. The territory of Senegal, which is a product of "colonial manufacture" is struggling to free itself from the weight of this heritage. The most recent reshuffles of the local division since 2014 within the framework of Act 3 of Decentralization provide an opportunity to reconsider the interference of these reticular configurations in the territorialization of local authorities, while the Senegalese state is attempting, in a final episode, to build a coherent map of the national territory, which is still in touch with centrifugal dynamics. This article therefore sets out to explore the hypothesis that the local division of power in this country, particularly through the promotion of full communalization since 2014, reflects a territorialization of power in which the role of social networks, from village territories to the multisituated territories of migrants, proves to be decisive. This permanent tension between the division of local space, territorialization of power and reticular dynamics is observed from a study carried out in the regions of the river valley. Based on a corpus of about a hundred interviews and in situ observation times, the field gives the impression of intense movements and multiple connections, as well as the observation of a continuum of mobility for individuals seeking a balance in the dispersion of their living and working places. In short, the analysis focuses on the strength of mobility networks and multisite political alliances that contribute to the fragmentation of local spaces. The prospect of producing "territorial coalitions", to use Kevin Cox's expression is an uncertain prospect, since the Senegalese state is constantly making its presence felt in the territories. Despite a discourse focused on the promotion of local authorities and the territorialization of public policies, the actions taken since 2014 are the responsibility of a centralizing State that is being deployed in the regions thanks to a battery of emergency and emergency programs and with the support of structures that are in direct competition with the authorities. The results thus relate to the observation of a "mobile" division, worthy of a "territorial postmodernity", which it is not so much a question of inventing as of recognizing as such, since it is already at work.

[fr] Découper l'espace continu des sociétés : selon quels pointillés, quels contours, quels seuils ? Le questionnement est ouvert et la géographie n'en a pas fini d'interroger les découpages. Dans des contextes où la délimitation matérielle et la cartographie des territoires locaux sont à ce jour inachevées, les opérations de découpage restent de l'ordre du discours, mais non sans effets dans les espaces. En Afrique de l'Ouest, l'immatérialité des délimitations territoriales s'est révélée à l'aune des réformes de décentralisation dans lesquelles se sont lancés plusieurs pays au tournant des années 1990. Ce décalage, entre effectivité du découpage sur le papier et absence de bornage dans le sol, rencontre la question de la nature de l'espace social ouest-africain, et rejoint les analyses d'Achille Mbembé sur la " territorialité itinérante " (2005) ou celles de Denis Retaillé sur " l'espace mobile " (2009, 2011). Issu de la " fabrication coloniale " (Mbow, 2017), le territoire du Sénégal peine à se dégager du poids de cet héritage. Les derniers remaniements du maillage local depuis 2014 offrent l'occasion de revenir sur l'immixtion de ces configurations réticulaires dans la territorialisation des pouvoirs locaux. Il s'agit d'explorer l'hypothèse selon laquelle le découpage local témoigne d'une territorialisation du pouvoir dans laquelle le rôle des réseaux sociaux, depuis les terroirs villageois jusqu'aux territoires multisitués des émigrés, s'avère déterminant. Cette tension est observée à partir d'un terrain effectué dans la vallée du fleuve Sénégal. Se fondant sur un corpus d'entretiens et des temps d'observations, il ressort une impression de mouvements intenses et de connexions multiples. En définitive l'analyse porte sur la force des réseaux mobilitaires et des alliances politiques multisituées participant d'une fragmentation des espaces locaux. Il en résulte le constat d'un découpage " mobile ", digne d'une " postmodernité territoriale " (Giraut, 2013) déjà à l'œuvre.