Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan

Anthropologie et développement : essai en socio-anthropologie du changement social

Que se passe t-il lorsque des développeurs induisen t un opération de développement chez des développés ? Quels processus sociaux sont mis en br anle, chez les multiples acteurs et groupes d’acteurs concernés directement ou indirect ement ? Comment repérer, décrire, interpréter les divers effets in-intentionnels qu’e ntraînent ces interventions multiformes et quotidiennes dans les campagnes et les villes afric aines que recouvre le terme de développement ?

Le « je » méthodologique. Implication et explicitation dans l'enquête de terrain

Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan: Das methodologische « ich ». Implikation und Klarstellung in der Feldforschung. ; ; Hier werden vier Argumentationen verwendet, die oft miteinander verstrickt sind, um das exponentielle Wachstum bei der Verwendung der ersten Person in den Sozialwissenschaften zu begrunden : die Modernitat in der Schrift, die Erstellung einer alternativen Epistemologie, die Suche nach einer mehr moralischen Stellung und die methodologische Bestatigung. Das letztere Problem ist Hauptgegenstand dieser Untersuchung. Ist die radikale Implikation der Anthropologie in ihrem Feld eine methodologische Notwendigkeit ? Inwiefern muss der Forscher seine eigene Stellung klarer darlegen im Verlauf des Forschungsprozesses ? Wenn die Nichtimplikation und die Nichtklarstellung heute mit Sicherheit nicht mehr verteidigt werden konnen, so erlaubt nichtsdestoweniger die Untersuchung einiger typischen Falle von starken Implikationen, auf einen klaren methodologischen Vorteil zu schliessen bei der Strategie des maximalen personlichen Einsatzes in Vergleich zu haufigeren Formen von Empathie oder Impragnierung, die der Untersuchung von langer Dauer eigen sind. Die Argumente zugunsten einer systematischen Klarstellung uber die massige Verwendung der Reflexivitat hinaus sind jedoch ebensowenig uberzeugend. Wahrend das Feld oft einen bevorzugten Ort fur einen affektiven Einsatz des Forschers darstellt, so ist jedoch das, was er uber seine personliche Beziehung mit den ortlichen Aktoren sagt, nicht so methodologisch wissenswert wie Manche das aussagen.

A mixed methods contribution to the study of health public policies: complementarities and difficulties

The use of mixed methods (combining quantitative and qualitative data) is developing in a variety of forms, especially in the health field. Our own research has adopted this perspective from the outset. We have sought all along to innovate in various ways and especially to develop an equal partnership, in the sense of not allowing any single approach to dominate. After briefly describing mixed methods, in this article we explain and illustrate how we have exploited both qualitative and quantitative methods to answer our research questions, ending with a reflective analysis of our experiment.

Health fee exemptions: controversies and misunderstandings around a research programme. Researchers and the public debate.

Our research programme on fee exemption policies in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger involved sensitive topics with strong ideological and political connotations for the decision-makers, for health-workers, and for users. Thus we were confronted with reluctance, criticism, pressures and accusations. Our frank description of the shortcomings of these policies, based on rigorous research, and never polemical or accusatory, surprises political leaders and health managers, who are accustomed to official data, censored evaluations and discourse of justification.

Embeddedness and informal norms: Institutionalisms and anthropology

Institutionalisms, old and new, are multifaceted and heterogeneous but they share a desire to unshackle the economy to some extent, and open it out to an inclusive society. This gives room for a dialogue with anthropology. Two concepts are discussed here: (1) the embeddedness paradigm has been influential according two very different perspectives:economic anthropology (focusing on unequal relations) and culturalist approaches (focusing on common social values and norms), both being too unilateral and too general. (2) The informal institutions (or informal norms) issue has been promisingly raised by new-institutional economists, but the questions they posed are more interesting and stimulating than their too often formal and stereotyped answers. It is in fact between sociology of institutions on one side, anthropology of public action on the other, that the dialogue is the most fruitful, based on both sides on a strong empirical commitment, a combination of the norm-based approach and the power based approach, and an historical perspective.

Travelling models and the challenge of pragmatic contexts and practical norms: the case of maternal health

As in other areas of international development, we are witnessing the proliferation of ‘traveling models’ developed by international experts and introduced in an almost identical format across numerous countries to improve some aspect of maternal health systems in low- and middle-income countries. These policies and protocols are based on ‘miracle mechanisms’ that have been taken out of their original context but are believed to be intrinsically effective in light of their operational devices.In reality, standardised interventions are, in Africa and elsewhere, confronted with pragmatic implementation contexts that are always varied and specific, and which lead to drifts, distortions, dismemberments and bypasses. The partogram, focused antenatal care, the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV or performance-based payment all illustrate these implementation gaps, often caused by the routine behaviour of health personnel who follow practical norms (and a professional culture) that are often distinct from official norms – as is the case with midwives.Experiences in maternal and child health in Africa suggest that an alternative approach would be to start with the daily reality of social and practical norms instead of relying on models, and to promote innovations that emerge from within local health systems.

Rivalries of proximity beyond the household in Niger: political elites and the 'baab-izey' pattern

Abstract:In Niger, there is an increasing rejection of politik (a term with highly pejorative connotations): that is, party politics and the politics of democracy, characterized by personal rivalries and power struggles between clans and factions. But there is a direct link (albeit not a causal one) between the social perceptions of intra-familial rivalries and the social perceptions of political rivalries. The archetypical relationship among the baab-izey (children of one father but different mothers) is characterized by competition and jealousy. This is a product of the latent rivalry that pits co-wives against each other. Polygamy is clearly at odds with a number of received ideas and cliches about ‘the African family’ as primarily a locus of support and solidarity. Such formal social norms may reign in public situations, but in private de facto practical norms give rise to subtle discriminations and the omnipresence of more or less hidden conflicts within the family. The same is true for the political microcosm of Niger. While the public norm of the concern for the public good is supposed to regulate political behaviours, rivalry and jealousy are structural components of the political world. The baab-izey pattern is frequently used in reference to politicians. Political conflicts are above all personal/factional conflicts in which friends and supporters are implicated, and are rivalries of proximity. In the familial space as in the political space, ‘magico-religious entrepreneurs’ (i.e. experts in the occult) are merely an ‘accelerator’ of these conflicts: they reinforce suspicions about the familial or political entourage, which, in turn, intensify rivalries.Résumé:Au Niger, “politik” est devenu dans les langues locales un terme très péjoratif, associé à la démocratie, qui connote les conflits de personnes et de factions associés aux partis politiques. Mais il y a un lien (qui n’est pas causal) entre la perception des conflits au sein de la famille et la perception des conflits au sein de la classe politique. La relation archétypale entre « baab-izey », enfants d’un même père et de mère différentes, est caractérisée par la jalousie et la compétition. C’est une conséquence de la rivalité entre co-épouses. La polygamie contredit les clichés sur la famille africaine comme étant essentiellement un espace de solidarité. Ces clichés peuvent correspondre aux normes officielles en situation publique, mais, dans les comportements privés, les normes pratiques introduisent des discriminations subtiles et une omniprésence de conflits plus ou moins cachés au sein de la famille. Il en est de même au sein du microcosme politique nigérien. Alors que les normes officielles du souci du bien public sont censées régner, l’ambition personnelle, la rivalité et la jalousie sont des composantes structurelles de la vie politique. Le modèle du baab-izey est très souvent utilisé pour décrire les comportements des politiciens. Les conflits politiques sont surtout des conflits de personnes et de factions, impliquant amis et clients. Ce sont des rivalités de proximité. Dans l’espace familial comme dans l’espace politique, des « entrepreneurs magico-religieux » (spécialistes de l’occulte) jouent un rôle d’accélérateur de ces conflits. Ils renforcent les soupçons à l’égard de l’entourage, ce qui, en retour, intensifie les rivalités de proximité.

Partenariat et interdisciplinarité

This chapter provides reflections on the scientific and interdisciplinary partnership in the field of African studies highlighting the example of Gerti Hesseling, former director of the African Studies Centre (Leiden), and shows how it exercises its functions as Chair of the scientific Council of the research center LASDEL Niger, in a practical scientific collaboration and commitment. The role it has played marked the researchers of LASDEL - as evidenced particularly by the positive responses of younger generation - and its open design confident, and warm contrast partnership with many practical partners, was often marked by mistrust and institutional paternalism. The two points of view - open partnership and constructive and scientific interdisciplinary - were a model and inspiration which left a very positive legacy. Keywords:Gerti Hesseling; LASDEL