Family Prestige as Old-Age Security: Evidence from Rural Senegal

This paper aims at studying the self-enforcing family contract between a migrant son and his ageing father who remained in the village and expects to receive support. In 2004, a household survey conducted in the Senegal River Valley was especially designed to account for the complex socio-political structure of the local institutions. The empirical results suggest that the social rank of the family within the village is a key to the enforcement mechanisms at work. Indeed, while belonging to a prestigious family lowers the probability of migrating, it raises the probability of frequently remitting to the patriarch. Conversely, sons from historically disadvantaged groups are more likely to both migrate and cut ties with their village of origin, including their family. Additional qualitative evidence is rather suggestive that despite their economic success, low status migrants keep being stigmatized in their village of origin. Hence, inheriting his father's dominant position in the village represents a strong incentive for a migrant son from a high-ranked family to remit. Under such circumstances, patriarchs from prestigious families only, can actually rely on their migrating sons as old-age security.Migration, Old-Age Support, Caste, Senegal River Valley

Koranic Schools in Senegal: An actual barrier to formal education?

In Sahelian countries, non-religious public education systems prevent the inclusion of religious teaching in public schools, which is relegated to the informal sector. This article is a first attempt to quantitatively study how this dual educational system works and whether the potential competition between both systems is a key factor for low primary school enrollment in Senegal. The analysis is based on a unique national dataset with detailed information on formal and Koranic schooling of 5 to 21 year-old children covering 1800 households. In our sample, over half of the girls and 60% of the boys attend Koranic school, but the majority only for 2 or 3 years. After giving a brief background on Islam and Koranic schools in Senegal, to better grasp the complexity of the subject, we study the determinants of Koranic schooling before analyzing its compatibility with formal schooling. A descriptive analysis shows that children who attended for a few years Koranic school have a higher probability of attending formal primary school than those who haven't been to Koranic school at all and those who attended higher Koranic studies. However, this apparent complementarity vanishes and even in some cases turns into significant substitutability after duly instrumenting formal school attendance with school openings. This tends to prove that the coordination between the acquisition of formal human capital and religious knowledge is one of the challenges faced by Senegal in achieving Millennium Development Goals.Koranic Schools, School demand, Senegal

Education and Migration Choices in Hierarchical Societies: The Case of Matam, Senegal

The paper aims at studying determinants of schooling in traditional hierarchical societies confronted with an established history of outmigration. In the village, a ruling caste controls local political and religious institutions. For children who do not belong to the ruling caste, migration is a social mobility factor that is enhanced by formal schooling. Since formally educated children tend not to return, the ruling caste seeks to develop family loyalty by choosing religious education instead. The theory hence predicts that the social status of the family has a significant impact on educational choice. Children from the ruling caste who are sent abroad have a lower probability of being sent to formal school. They are more likely to be sent to Koranic schools that emphasize religious and family values. The theoretical predictions are tested on data from Matam region in Senegal, a region where roughly one of every two children have ever attended school.Schooling, Migration, Social Status, Haalpulaar

Education and Migration Choices in Hierarchical Societies: The Case of Matam, Senegal

The paper aims at studying determinants of schooling in traditional hierarchical societies\ud confronted with an established history of outmigration. In the village, a ruling caste\ud controls local political and religious institutions. For children who do not belong to the\ud ruling caste, migration is a social mobility factor that is enhanced by formal schooling.\ud Since formally educated children tend not to return, the ruling caste seeks to develop\ud family loyalty by choosing religious education instead. The theory hence predicts that\ud the social status of the family has a significant impact on educational choice. Children\ud from the ruling caste who are sent abroad have a lower probability of being sent to formal\ud school. They are more likely to be sent to Koranic schools that emphasize religious\ud and family values. The theoretical predictions are tested on data from Matam region in\ud Senegal, a region where roughly one of every two children have ever attended school

Koranic Schools in Senegal : A real barrier to formal education?

This paper studies the substitution between secular formal education and informal religious education for Senegalese households. We use the timing of the opening of formal schools to estimate whether Koranic and formal education systems compete for the children's time. Adapting the diff-in-diff strategy in Duflo (2001), we assess the effect of school openings on Koranic and formal schooling. Our estimates show that formal school openings increase formal education attainment, especially in rural areas. We then estimate that an additional formal school decreases the time spent in Koranic schools for boys. In rural areas, it decreases the likelihood of pursuing long Koranic schooling by 20 percentage points (p.p.). In urban areas, it decreases the probability to go to Koranic school by 5 p.p. This proves that, while both school systems are independent in terms of organization and pedagogical content, they still compete for the children's time. This might increase the opportunity cost of formal primary school, and can narrow the political consensus around universal primary education

Semaine Data SHS 2022 – Toulouse

La 4ème édition toulousaine de la Semaine Data SHS aura lieu du 5 au 10 décembre 2022. Organisée par la Plateforme Universitaire de Données de Toulouse de la MSHS-T, une série de formations et d’échanges autour de la collecte, du traitement et de l’analyse de données quantitatives en Sciences Humaines et Sociales aura lieu à l’Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès (et en partie en ligne). Programme détaillé et inscription gratuite (mais nécessaire) ici. Lundi 5 décembre 2022 10h-12h : P..

Comment le Prestige Familial peut Influencer les Transferts Intergénérationnels: Emigrations, Envois de Fonds et Scolarisation à Matam (Sénégal).

This thesis aiming at studying intergenerational solidarities is based on a survey I conducted in six Haalpulaar villages around Matam, Senegal. Remittances sent by migrant children to their parents in the village provide a valuable support. In the first chapter I present the sociopolitical context of the area. It appears that belonging to a caste (noble/artisan/slave) still determines the social position of an individual in the village. In chapter 2, I suggest that the family prestige represents an old-age security. As a result, while belonging to a prestigious family lowers the probability of migrating, it raises the probability of frequently remitting to the patriarch. Chapter 3 focuses on the schooling of the children who remained in the village. The patriarch’s migration experience raises the probability of attending school, while the children from noble families have a lower probability of being sent to school.Cette thèse visant à analyser les solidarités intergénérationnelles est basée sur une enquête que j’ai dirigée dans six villages haalpulaar autour de Matam au Sénégal. Les transferts envoyés par les enfants migrants assurent un soutien essentiel aux parents au village. Le premier chapitre expose le contexte sociopolitique de la zone. L’appartenance à une « caste » (noble/artisan/esclave) détermine toujours le rang de l’individu au village. Le deuxième chapitre propose un mécanisme de soutien aux personnes âgées basé sur le prestige de la famille. Si les castes de statut inférieur ont une propension plus grande à migrer, les migrants notables semblent plus enclins à soutenir régulièrement la famille restée au village. Enfin le troisième chapitre s’intéresse aux déterminants de la scolarisation des enfants restés au village. L’expérience migratoire des patriarches a un effet positif sur la scolarisation, tandis que les enfants de notables ont une probabilité plus faible d’être scolarisés. Ceci tend donc à renforcer les résultats du chapitre précédent : l’école est le seul moyen d’ascension sociale pour les castes plus défavorisées, tandis que les réseaux migratoires des nobles leur permettent de négliger l’école (formelle) tout en consolidant leur domination au village. Plus généralement cette thèse est une illustration que les aspects culturels et anthropologiques trop souvent absent des analyses économiques peuvent éclairer les mécanismes de décisions ayant trait aux choix microéconomiques : migration, transferts, scolarisation

Education and Migration Choices in Hierarchical Societies: The Case of Matam, Senegal

The paper aims at studying determinants of schooling in traditional hierarchical societies confronted with an established history of outmigration. In the village, a ruling caste controls local political and religious institutions. For children who do not belong to the ruling caste, migration is a social mobility factor that is enhanced by formal schooling. Since formally educated children tend not to return, the ruling caste seeks to develop family loyalty by choosing religious education instead. The theory hence predicts that the social status of the family has a significant impact on educational choice. Children from the ruling caste who are sent abroad have a lower probability of being sent to formal school. They are more likely to be sent to Koranic schools that emphasize religious and family values. The theoretical predictions are tested on data from Matam region in Senegal, a region where roughly one of every two children have ever attended school.Haalpulaar Senegal; Migration; Schooling; Social Status

Comment les étudiant·es ont-ils et elles vécu le confinement ?

Le plus compliqué à gérer pour moi est l’isolement associé au confinement, et à l’inconfort de mes conditions de vie. En tant qu’étudiante, je vis dans un 9 m2, qui consiste donc en mon espace de vie ET mon espace de travail. Cela rend particulièrement difficile le fait de se concentrer sur mon travail, en particulier sur la rédaction de mon mémoire. Je me sens également isolée, voire déprimée, du fait de l’absence de contacts en face à face avec mes proches, notamment ceux qui résident à l’é..

Plan de gestion de données du projet ANR ObARDI

L’objectif d’ObARDI est d’améliorer notre compréhension des dynamiques de pouvoir qui sous-tendent la construction d’un État moderne en France. En effet, l’histoire des institutions d'Ancien Régime a été fortement marquée par un métarécit de la construction de l’État qui freine encore notre compréhension des mécanismes sous-tendant son développement (Blockmans et Genet, 1995 ; Blockmans et al., 2009). Malgré une ressemblance illusoire du vocabulaire, les catégories de l’État et de la société civile qui nous sont naturelles étaient sans doute étrangères aux sujets d’il y a trois siècles. De plus, nos représentations cognitives de ce qu’est un territoire politique restent limitées par un référentiel géographique qui ne s’est construit que progressivement au cours des dix-huitième et dix-neuvième siècles.Pour dépasser ces difficultés, nous proposons un système innovant de représentation de la connaissance des dynamiques des institutions d’Ancien Régime à travers l’application d’ontologies aux données historiques : l’Infrastructure de Données d’Ancien Régime basée sur des Ontologies ["Ontology-based Ancien Régime Data Infrastructure" (ObARDI)]. Nous construisons cette infrastructure en quatre temps. Tout d’abord, nous assemblons une vaste base de données sur l’environnement local institutionnel, économique, et social de la France du dix-septième et dix-huitième siècles—une structure qui servira de matrice interopérable pour l’histoire d’Ancien Régime. Ensuite, nous intégrons ces données dans un système d’information pleinement structuré grâce à l’application d’ontologies formelles englobantes qui décrivent les liens entre les différentes entités de la base ainsi que les sources qui sous-tendent ce matériau. Après ce travail effectué, nous rendrons notre infrastructure conforme avec les principes de gestion des données FAIR dans la perspective des Données ouvertes liées : elle sera interopérable et accessible à travers une plateforme web ergonomique qui constituera un outil pour diffuser l’usage des humanités numériques envers différents publics. Enfin, cet environnement nous permettra de créer des outils cartographiques innovants afin de représenter les territoires d’Ancien Régime comme un feuilleté mouvant d’institutions dont les frontières furent structurées par des relations de pouvoir internes