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Papers by Jesper Bjarnesen
Routledge eBooks, Jun 19, 2024
Routledge eBooks, Jun 19, 2024
Ethnos, Apr 24, 2024
Africa Spectrum, Nov 30, 2023
International Migration Review, Oct 18, 2023
How do migrants enact their mobilities in contexts where formalized labor migration is minimal, a... more How do migrants enact their mobilities in contexts where formalized labor migration is minimal, and where the European fight against irregular African migration is restricting the possibilities for informal border crossings? And which roles do cultural norms, social institutions, and individual agency play in facilitating migration? To answer these questions, this article offers a comparative reflection on the growing interest in the mediation of migration that emphasizes the actors and structures that shape and facilitate a migrant trajectory. Drawing on our own research in various West African contexts, and on a broader reading of research evoking the mediation of mobility, we engage primarily with the emerging scholarship on migration infrastructures. As a contribution to the study of how mobility is mediated by actors and structures external to the migrant, we suggest that it is important to move beyond the tendency to restrict analysis in a migrant-/institution-centric trade-off in which emphasis is either placed on migrant aspirations and capabilities or the institutionalized mediation of migration. We further propose to analytically distinguish between the mediation of migration-denoting the processes of facilitation and restriction of mobility through institutions, external interventions, and socio
BRILL eBooks, Sep 13, 2023
Nordic Journal of African Studies, 2014
Africa Spectrum
African youth became a central research theme in anthropology and related disciplines in the earl... more African youth became a central research theme in anthropology and related disciplines in the early 2000s, drawing renewed attention to the lives and aspirations of a segment of the continent's population that, since the independence era, has become increasingly demographically dominant but socially and politically marginalised. Reflecting on an extended case study of male ex-combatants in urban Burkina Faso, this paper offers a critical reading of the anthropological scholarship on African youth, emphasising, first, that much of this literature is most usefully read as studies of diverse (West) African masculinities and, second, that the literature has underplayed the extent to which achievements of social progression tend to be acutely reversible in contexts of precarity or radical social change, throwing the unfortunate, as it were, back in youth.
BRILL eBooks, Sep 21, 2020
Routledge eBooks, Jul 10, 2023
Africa Yearbook Volume 17, 2021
BRILL eBooks, Sep 19, 2022
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research
A comprehensive zoning plan has been under way for more than a decade for an urban informal settl... more A comprehensive zoning plan has been under way for more than a decade for an urban informal settlement in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso. In this article I explore the narratives and strategies of its residents in response to the impending restructuring, suggesting that the continual postponements of the zoning plan’s implementation may be understood as constituting an elusive form of urban governance that relegates strategies of both resistance and accommodation to formal governance to the sphere of micro-politics at the level of the neighbourhood. Urban governance is thus approached here neither as a set of formal policies nor through the day-to-day workings of the state bureaucracy, but as a much less tangible form of urban governance that is best studied through its perceivable effects instead of its stated intentions or institutionalized techniques. In the relative absence of the state in the everyday lives of urban residents, the main effects of the workings of the state bureaucracy in this context seem to be to discourage citizen involvement and to slow official procedures to a halt. I argue that the force with which impending evictions and yet-to-be-implemented urban zoning shape residents’ outlook and opportunities for negotiation and mobilization constitutes a form of governance through inaction.
IJURR, 2023
A comprehensive zoning plan has been under way for more than a decade for an urban informal settl... more A comprehensive zoning plan has been under way for more than a decade for an urban informal settlement in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso. In this article I explore the narratives and strategies of its residents in response to the impending restructuring, suggesting that the continual postponements of the zoning plan’s implementation may be understood as constituting an elusive form of urban governance that relegates strategies of both resistance and accommodation to formal governance to the sphere of micro-politics at the level of the neighbourhood. Urban governance is thus approached here neither as a set of formal policies nor through the day-to-day workings of the state bureaucracy, but as a much less tangible form of urban governance that is best studied through its perceivable effects instead of its stated intentions or institutionalized techniques. In the relative absence of the state in the everyday lives of urban residents, the main effects of the workings of the state bureaucracy in this context seem to be to discourage citizen involvement and to slow official procedures to a halt. I argue that the force with which impending evictions and yet-to-be-implemented urban zoning shape residents’ outlook and opportunities for negotiation and mobilization constitutes a form of governance through inaction.
Forum for Development Studies
Citizenship is a universal legal concept and norm. But its meaning and impact differ. Its codifi... more Citizenship is a universal legal concept and norm. But its meaning and
impact differ. Its codification and implementation are shaped by historical trajectories,
political systems and state/government relations with members of society.
State policy affects perceptions of citizenship and civic behaviour by those governed.
This paper engages with current challenges relating to citizenship in
Africa South of the Sahara. It centres on academic and policy discussions on citizenship
but also draws on media reports and secondary literature to explore
whether promoting and embracing a positive notion of citizenship can be an opportunity
for states and governments as well as citizens. Could civic education be considered
a worthwhile investment in social stability and a shared identification with
the common good? We conclude by making a case for a social contract, which
reconciles particularistic identities (such as ethnicity) with citizenship and governance
under the rule of law as an investment into enhanced trust in a citizen-state
relationship.
Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 2020
In many African countries, citizenship offers civil rights to those who are included. At the same... more In many African countries, citizenship offers civil rights to those who are included. At the same time, many – especially youth, migrants and other marginalised groups – often do not receive equal recognition in the social contract between state and citizen. They do not have the same access to justice, social protection and welfare services. This policy note addresses the challenges facing inclusive citizenship
Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 2021
The ruling RHDP’s victory in legislative elections in March 2021 has tightened incumbent Presiden... more The ruling RHDP’s victory in legislative elections in March 2021 has tightened incumbent President Alassane Ouattara’s grip on political power in Côte d’Ivoire. Though Ouattara has taken a conciliatory stance towards the opposition since his re-election, his control of political institutions, low voter turnout, electoral violence and the president’s international status heighten the risk of further democratic backsliding in Côte d’Ivoire.
Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 2020
The overall message of this policy note is that negative public opinion in Europe is a major obst... more The overall message of this policy note is that negative public opinion in Europe is a major obstacle to holistic and sustainable policies relating to African migration. It argues for a shift in wording and perspective away from politicised opinions about immigration, or misplaced ideas of humanitarian responsibilities, towards a more constructive and pragmatic focus on labour migration management
African migrants have become increasingly demonised in public debate and political rhetoric. Ther... more African migrants have become increasingly demonised in public debate and political rhetoric. There is much speculation about the incentives and trajectories of Africans on the move, and often these speculations are implicitly or overtly geared towards discouraging and policing their movements. What is rarely understood or scrutinised however, are the intricate ways in which African migrants are marginalised and excluded from public discourse; not only in Europe but in migrant-receiving contexts across the globe. Invisibility in African Displacements offers a series of case studies that explore these dynamics. What tends to be either ignored or demonised in public debates on African migration are the deliberate strategies of avoidance or assimilation that migrants make use of to gain access to the destinations or opportunities they seek, or to remain below the radar of restrictive governance regimes. This books offers fine-grained analysis of the ways in which African migrants negotiate structural and strategic invisibilities, adding innovative approaches to our understanding of both migrant vulnerabilities and resilience.CONTENTS: Introduction: The production of invisibility in African displacements / Jesper Bjarnesen and Simon Turner -- SECTION 1: Humanitarian in/visibilities -- 1. Renegotiating humanitarian governance: challenging invisibility in the Chad–Sudan borderlands / Andrea Behrends -- 2. Encamped within a camp: transgender refugees and Kakuma Refugee Camp (Kenya) / B Camminga -- 3. An unsettling peace: displacement and strategies of invisibility in post-war Burundi / Andrea Purdeková -- 4. Sufficiently visible/invisibly self-sufficient: recognition in displacement agriculture in north-western Tanzania / Clayton Boeyink -- SECTION 2: State in/visibilities -- 5. War refugees in Northern Cameroon: visibility and invisibility in adapting to the informal economy and the ‘tolerant’ state / Trond Waage -- 6. Entangled hypervisibility: Senegalese migrants’ everyday struggles for a place in the city / Ida Marie Savio Vammen -- 7. Paths to Paris: hodological space and invisibility among Malian migrants without papers in the French capital / Line Richter -- 8. Invisibility as a livelihood strategy: Zimbabwean migrant domestic workers in Botswana / Joyce Takaindisa and Ingrid Palmary -- 9. The Nigerien migrants in Kaddafi’s Libya: between visibility and invisibility / Oriol Puig Cepero -- 10. Violence, displacement and the in/visibility of bodies, papers and images in Burundi / Simon Turner -- SECTION 3: Social in/visibilities -- 11. (Dis)Connectivity and the invisibility of mobile Fulani in West Africa / Roos Keja, Adamou Amadou and Mirjam de Bruijn -- 12. Fugitive emplacements: mobility as discontent for wahaya concubine women with slave status in the transnational borderlands of Niger–Nigeria, 1960–2016 / Lotte Pelckmans -- 13. The paradoxes of migrant in/visibility: understanding displacement intersectionalities in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso / Jesper Bjarnesen -- Afterword: the times of invisibility / Loren B. Landau -- Index</p
Routledge eBooks, Jun 19, 2024
Routledge eBooks, Jun 19, 2024
Ethnos, Apr 24, 2024
Africa Spectrum, Nov 30, 2023
International Migration Review, Oct 18, 2023
How do migrants enact their mobilities in contexts where formalized labor migration is minimal, a... more How do migrants enact their mobilities in contexts where formalized labor migration is minimal, and where the European fight against irregular African migration is restricting the possibilities for informal border crossings? And which roles do cultural norms, social institutions, and individual agency play in facilitating migration? To answer these questions, this article offers a comparative reflection on the growing interest in the mediation of migration that emphasizes the actors and structures that shape and facilitate a migrant trajectory. Drawing on our own research in various West African contexts, and on a broader reading of research evoking the mediation of mobility, we engage primarily with the emerging scholarship on migration infrastructures. As a contribution to the study of how mobility is mediated by actors and structures external to the migrant, we suggest that it is important to move beyond the tendency to restrict analysis in a migrant-/institution-centric trade-off in which emphasis is either placed on migrant aspirations and capabilities or the institutionalized mediation of migration. We further propose to analytically distinguish between the mediation of migration-denoting the processes of facilitation and restriction of mobility through institutions, external interventions, and socio
BRILL eBooks, Sep 13, 2023
Nordic Journal of African Studies, 2014
Africa Spectrum
African youth became a central research theme in anthropology and related disciplines in the earl... more African youth became a central research theme in anthropology and related disciplines in the early 2000s, drawing renewed attention to the lives and aspirations of a segment of the continent's population that, since the independence era, has become increasingly demographically dominant but socially and politically marginalised. Reflecting on an extended case study of male ex-combatants in urban Burkina Faso, this paper offers a critical reading of the anthropological scholarship on African youth, emphasising, first, that much of this literature is most usefully read as studies of diverse (West) African masculinities and, second, that the literature has underplayed the extent to which achievements of social progression tend to be acutely reversible in contexts of precarity or radical social change, throwing the unfortunate, as it were, back in youth.
BRILL eBooks, Sep 21, 2020
Routledge eBooks, Jul 10, 2023
Africa Yearbook Volume 17, 2021
BRILL eBooks, Sep 19, 2022
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research
A comprehensive zoning plan has been under way for more than a decade for an urban informal settl... more A comprehensive zoning plan has been under way for more than a decade for an urban informal settlement in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso. In this article I explore the narratives and strategies of its residents in response to the impending restructuring, suggesting that the continual postponements of the zoning plan’s implementation may be understood as constituting an elusive form of urban governance that relegates strategies of both resistance and accommodation to formal governance to the sphere of micro-politics at the level of the neighbourhood. Urban governance is thus approached here neither as a set of formal policies nor through the day-to-day workings of the state bureaucracy, but as a much less tangible form of urban governance that is best studied through its perceivable effects instead of its stated intentions or institutionalized techniques. In the relative absence of the state in the everyday lives of urban residents, the main effects of the workings of the state bureaucracy in this context seem to be to discourage citizen involvement and to slow official procedures to a halt. I argue that the force with which impending evictions and yet-to-be-implemented urban zoning shape residents’ outlook and opportunities for negotiation and mobilization constitutes a form of governance through inaction.
IJURR, 2023
A comprehensive zoning plan has been under way for more than a decade for an urban informal settl... more A comprehensive zoning plan has been under way for more than a decade for an urban informal settlement in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso. In this article I explore the narratives and strategies of its residents in response to the impending restructuring, suggesting that the continual postponements of the zoning plan’s implementation may be understood as constituting an elusive form of urban governance that relegates strategies of both resistance and accommodation to formal governance to the sphere of micro-politics at the level of the neighbourhood. Urban governance is thus approached here neither as a set of formal policies nor through the day-to-day workings of the state bureaucracy, but as a much less tangible form of urban governance that is best studied through its perceivable effects instead of its stated intentions or institutionalized techniques. In the relative absence of the state in the everyday lives of urban residents, the main effects of the workings of the state bureaucracy in this context seem to be to discourage citizen involvement and to slow official procedures to a halt. I argue that the force with which impending evictions and yet-to-be-implemented urban zoning shape residents’ outlook and opportunities for negotiation and mobilization constitutes a form of governance through inaction.
Forum for Development Studies
Citizenship is a universal legal concept and norm. But its meaning and impact differ. Its codifi... more Citizenship is a universal legal concept and norm. But its meaning and
impact differ. Its codification and implementation are shaped by historical trajectories,
political systems and state/government relations with members of society.
State policy affects perceptions of citizenship and civic behaviour by those governed.
This paper engages with current challenges relating to citizenship in
Africa South of the Sahara. It centres on academic and policy discussions on citizenship
but also draws on media reports and secondary literature to explore
whether promoting and embracing a positive notion of citizenship can be an opportunity
for states and governments as well as citizens. Could civic education be considered
a worthwhile investment in social stability and a shared identification with
the common good? We conclude by making a case for a social contract, which
reconciles particularistic identities (such as ethnicity) with citizenship and governance
under the rule of law as an investment into enhanced trust in a citizen-state
relationship.
Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 2020
In many African countries, citizenship offers civil rights to those who are included. At the same... more In many African countries, citizenship offers civil rights to those who are included. At the same time, many – especially youth, migrants and other marginalised groups – often do not receive equal recognition in the social contract between state and citizen. They do not have the same access to justice, social protection and welfare services. This policy note addresses the challenges facing inclusive citizenship
Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 2021
The ruling RHDP’s victory in legislative elections in March 2021 has tightened incumbent Presiden... more The ruling RHDP’s victory in legislative elections in March 2021 has tightened incumbent President Alassane Ouattara’s grip on political power in Côte d’Ivoire. Though Ouattara has taken a conciliatory stance towards the opposition since his re-election, his control of political institutions, low voter turnout, electoral violence and the president’s international status heighten the risk of further democratic backsliding in Côte d’Ivoire.
Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 2020
The overall message of this policy note is that negative public opinion in Europe is a major obst... more The overall message of this policy note is that negative public opinion in Europe is a major obstacle to holistic and sustainable policies relating to African migration. It argues for a shift in wording and perspective away from politicised opinions about immigration, or misplaced ideas of humanitarian responsibilities, towards a more constructive and pragmatic focus on labour migration management
African migrants have become increasingly demonised in public debate and political rhetoric. Ther... more African migrants have become increasingly demonised in public debate and political rhetoric. There is much speculation about the incentives and trajectories of Africans on the move, and often these speculations are implicitly or overtly geared towards discouraging and policing their movements. What is rarely understood or scrutinised however, are the intricate ways in which African migrants are marginalised and excluded from public discourse; not only in Europe but in migrant-receiving contexts across the globe. Invisibility in African Displacements offers a series of case studies that explore these dynamics. What tends to be either ignored or demonised in public debates on African migration are the deliberate strategies of avoidance or assimilation that migrants make use of to gain access to the destinations or opportunities they seek, or to remain below the radar of restrictive governance regimes. This books offers fine-grained analysis of the ways in which African migrants negotiate structural and strategic invisibilities, adding innovative approaches to our understanding of both migrant vulnerabilities and resilience.CONTENTS: Introduction: The production of invisibility in African displacements / Jesper Bjarnesen and Simon Turner -- SECTION 1: Humanitarian in/visibilities -- 1. Renegotiating humanitarian governance: challenging invisibility in the Chad–Sudan borderlands / Andrea Behrends -- 2. Encamped within a camp: transgender refugees and Kakuma Refugee Camp (Kenya) / B Camminga -- 3. An unsettling peace: displacement and strategies of invisibility in post-war Burundi / Andrea Purdeková -- 4. Sufficiently visible/invisibly self-sufficient: recognition in displacement agriculture in north-western Tanzania / Clayton Boeyink -- SECTION 2: State in/visibilities -- 5. War refugees in Northern Cameroon: visibility and invisibility in adapting to the informal economy and the ‘tolerant’ state / Trond Waage -- 6. Entangled hypervisibility: Senegalese migrants’ everyday struggles for a place in the city / Ida Marie Savio Vammen -- 7. Paths to Paris: hodological space and invisibility among Malian migrants without papers in the French capital / Line Richter -- 8. Invisibility as a livelihood strategy: Zimbabwean migrant domestic workers in Botswana / Joyce Takaindisa and Ingrid Palmary -- 9. The Nigerien migrants in Kaddafi’s Libya: between visibility and invisibility / Oriol Puig Cepero -- 10. Violence, displacement and the in/visibility of bodies, papers and images in Burundi / Simon Turner -- SECTION 3: Social in/visibilities -- 11. (Dis)Connectivity and the invisibility of mobile Fulani in West Africa / Roos Keja, Adamou Amadou and Mirjam de Bruijn -- 12. Fugitive emplacements: mobility as discontent for wahaya concubine women with slave status in the transnational borderlands of Niger–Nigeria, 1960–2016 / Lotte Pelckmans -- 13. The paradoxes of migrant in/visibility: understanding displacement intersectionalities in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso / Jesper Bjarnesen -- Afterword: the times of invisibility / Loren B. Landau -- Index</p
