From environmental to security 'crises': the Sahelian 'crises' as a political and social critique of development - Archive ouverte HAL
Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2022

From environmental to security 'crises': the Sahelian 'crises' as a political and social critique of development

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Résumé

In the last forty years Sahel has been depicted as a region in permanent 'crisis', environmental in the following of the 1970-80's droughts and security-driven with reference to the widespread insurgencies of the last decade. Within these frameworks, the notion of 'crisis' has been mobilized in a poorly analytical but highly performative way. Along with all-encompassing explanations like 'farmer-herder' conflict for scarce resources as well as religious radicalization driven by international jihadism, it has been used to justify a revival of problematic approaches and solutions. These dominant narratives depoliticise Sahelian societies and the historical and contemporary effects of development intervention on the society-environment relations. Building on a systemic approach (Morin), this communication proposes to consider the current situation in the light of a 'crisis' of development, here intended as a specific form of public action 'under aid-regime' characterised by high levels of extraversion and complexity. 'Crisis' takes here the meaning of a turning-point where political and social critiques leading to multiple forms of active contestation become major trends that affect the whole system and produce significant changes. Drawing from a scientific literature review and an empirical research on vernacular perceptions of 'security crisis' in Burkina Faso (2019-20), the communication shall highlight through several examples how insurgencies embody contestation of agricultural and environmental development and of its effects on peasant and pastoral moral economies (i.e. long-term ill-adaptation of conceptual models and policy, extraversion and local power relationships…). The case of Burkina Faso is illustrative of the scarce visibility in public debates of heterodox analysis and political solutions based on social equality, entitlements and rebalancing of power relationships. In conclusion, different potentially 'regressive' or 'progressive' scenarios of change at the interplay of international, national and local scales will be discussed.
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hal-04105083 , version 1 (24-05-2023)

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  • HAL Id : hal-04105083 , version 1

Citer

Sergio Dario Magnani. From environmental to security 'crises': the Sahelian 'crises' as a political and social critique of development. VI Conferenza biennale ASAI - ‘Third millennium Africas in the global world. Challenges, reconfigurations, and opportunities’. Panel 23 – ‘On the notion of crisis: what the Saharan-Sahelian case can teach us’., Associazione per gli Studi Africani, Jul 2022, Urbino, Italy. ⟨hal-04105083⟩
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