Democratic Culture and Local Development in the West African Municipalities - Department of Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology

Professor Sten Hagberg leads a number of ongoing projects funded by Swedish Research Council, Sida and Uppsala University carrying out comparative research on democratic culture and local development in West African municipalities.

With comparative ethnographic studies of political practice in municipalities in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, we study how the local political actors - city council members, mayors, club members, leaders of development projects and traditional authorities – are involved in municipal and local politics.

Methodologically, the research is based on long-term fieldwork in a number of municipalities. Case studies concern municipal elections (Niger, 2011: Burkina Faso, 2016), presidential and parliamentary elections (Mali 2013; Burkina Faso in 2012; 2015), local development and municipal public services provision, political protests, and political transition (2014-16 Burkina, Mali 2012-13).

Project Participants are: Professor Sten Hagberg (Uppsala University); Dr. Gabriella Körling (Stockholm University); Dr. Ludovic Kibora (Institut des Sciences des Sociétés, Burkina Faso); Jocelyne Vokuoma (Institut des Sciences des Sociétés, Burkina Faso, Dr. Moussa Sissoko (Point Sud, Mali); Yaouaga Félix Koné (Point Sud and Institut des sciences humaines, Mali); N'gna Traoré (Institut des sciences humaines, Mali); Bintou Koné (ARGA, Mali); Sidi Barry (INSS; Burkina Faso); Siaka Gnessi (INSS, Burkina Faso); Adjara Konkobo (IRD, Burkina Faso); and Moussa Mohamed (Niger).