Joël Noret | Université libre de Bruxelles (original) (raw)

blog posts by Joël Noret

The Conversation, 2024

Dans le sud du Bénin, des sommes considérables peuvent être dépensées par les familles des défunt... more Dans le sud du Bénin, des sommes considérables peuvent être dépensées par les familles des défunts afin de rendre un dernier hommage à leurs proches disparus. L’importance de ces funérailles révèle de multiples enjeux d’ordre affectif, social et économique.

Africa@lse, 2023

Since the election of president-entrepreneur Patrice Talon in 2016, #Benin has undergone a deepen... more Since the election of president-entrepreneur Patrice Talon in 2016, #Benin has undergone a deepening of neoliberal public policy and an authoritarian turn. The term #neoliberalism may seem overused, but Benin has undergone a reengineering of the state in the service of its business elite. Systematic attacks on #workersrights and the power of organised labour and small-scale informal trade, led to the emergence of a two-faced state; soft on the rich and hard on the poor. For many, faced with the lack of #inclusivegrowth , a form of indifference and resignation towards the political class has developed. A mounting social distance is now settling between a growing part of the citizens on the one hand and the country’s institutions on the other. This division could be the crucial political dynamic in the months and years to come.

The Conversation, 2023

Une brève analyse des élections législatives qui viennent de se tenir au #Bénin, les premières ré... more Une brève analyse des élections législatives qui viennent de se tenir au #Bénin, les premières réellement ouvertes à l'opposition depuis 2016. La coalition présidentielle conserve une majorité confortable au parlement, mais l’enseignement décisif de ce scrutin est sans doute ailleurs: une majorité d'électeurs ne s'est pas déplacée pour aller voter. Deux formes d'abstention semblent clairement en hausse. Celle tout d'abord des citoyens las d’une classe politique produisant au mieux une croissance non inclusive. Celle ensuite de tous ceux qui, au vu du tournant autoritaire du régime, n’ont plus qu’une confiance limitée en la voie des urnes. La distance qui semble s’être installée entre une partie croissante des citoyens et les institutions du pays pourrait ainsi s’avérer être l’une des dynamiques politiques cruciales des mois et des années à venir.

Developing Economics, 2023

Written by Joël Noret and Narcisse Yedji, this blog post assesses the multi-layered consequences ... more Written by Joël Noret and Narcisse Yedji, this blog post assesses the multi-layered consequences of the eviction campaigns that have taken place in Cotonou, the economic capital of Benin, since current president Patrice Talon came to power. Generating multiple and intertwined forms of pressures, such destructions have turned thousands of lives upside down, causing considerable psychic distress while durably affecting the life chances and economic prospects of already vulnerable city dwellers.

Africa@lse, 2021

Since the arrival of Benin’s President-entrepreneur Patrice Talon in 2016, urban development proj... more Since the arrival of Benin’s President-entrepreneur Patrice Talon in 2016, urban development projects have accelerated in Cotonou. Aimed at strengthening the international attractiveness of the city, this new urban planning has led to the destruction of several neighbourhoods and the increasing eviction of the poor from the city centre, emblematic of neoliberal urban policy.

The Conversation, 2021

Construite sur une bande de terre de quelques kilomètres de large s’étirant entre la lagune et la... more Construite sur une bande de terre de quelques kilomètres de large s’étirant entre la lagune et la mer, Cotonou, capitale économique du Bénin, est depuis longtemps un site d’implantation de pêcheurs issus des populations côtières de la région. Aujourd’hui devenues le substrat de certains quartiers de la ville, ces communautés ont vu au cours des dernières décennies leurs lieux de vie progressivement gagnés par l’avancée du front urbain.
Dans les dernières années, les plans de réaménagement du littoral portés par le président Patrice Talon (en poste depuis 2016) ont globalement fait peu de cas des gens de peu ayant construit là leur existence. Arguant d’une nécessaire planification urbaine pour déloger parfois des quartiers entiers, cette politique du mépris menée au nom du développement fragilise en fait des fractions parmi les plus vulnérables de la population urbaine.

Books by Joël Noret

Berghahn, 2020

Grounded in both theory and ethnography, this volume insists on taking social positionality serio... more Grounded in both theory and ethnography, this volume insists on taking social positionality seriously when accounting for Africa’s current age of polarizing wealth. To this end, the book advocates a multidimensional view of African societies, in which social positions consist of a variety of intersecting social powers - or ‘capitals’ – including wealth, education, social relationships, religion, ethnicity, and others. Accordingly, the notion of social im/mobilities emphasizes the complexities of current changes, taking us beyond the prism of a one-dimensional social ladder, for social moves cannot always be apprehended through the binaries of ‘gains’ and ‘losses’.

REVIEWS

“This is a very important and timely contribution to the study of mobilities and immobilities in Africa. The volume advances our understanding of social positionalities as these intertwine and mediate with wider political and moral economies in contemporary Africa.” • Mattia Fumanti, University of St Andrews

“Addresses thorny, contemporary realities and draws on a really thought-provoking theoretical palette in opening up debate. Moving beyond social inequality and linear ideas of social mobility is a sort of manifesto that others will take up.” • David Pratten, University of Oxford

Berghahn, 2011

Across Africa, funerals and events remembering the dead have become larger and even more numerous... more Across Africa, funerals and events remembering the dead have become larger and even more numerous over the years. Whereas in the West death is normally a private and family affair, in Africa funerals are often the central life cycle event, unparalleled in cost and importance, for which families harness vast amounts of resources to host lavish events for multitudes of people with ramifications well beyond the event. Though officials may try to regulate them, the popularity of these events often makes such efforts fruitless, and the elites themselves spend tremendously on funerals. This volume brings together scholars who have conducted research on funerary events across sub-Saharan Africa. The contributions offer an in-depth understanding of the broad changes and underlying causes in African societies over the years, such as changes in religious beliefs, social structure, urbanization, and technological changes and health.

Michael Jindra is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology and a visiting research scholar in the Center for the Study of Religion and Society at the University of Notre Dame. He has published in journals such as Africa, Sociology of Religion, Anthropological Forum, and Society and has also contributed chapters to a number of books. His current research focuses on the connection between lifestyle diversity, culture, and inequality in the US.

Joël Noret is Assistant Professor of anthropology at the Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium. He has been conducting fieldwork in southern Benin since the beginning of the 2000s. His publications include the co-edited special issue of Gradhiva, Mémoire de l'esclavage au Bénin (with Gaetano Ciarcia, 2008), his monograph, Deuil et funérailles dans le Bénin méridional. Enterrer à tout prix (Brussels, 2010), and Mort et dynamiques sociales au Katanga (with Pierre Petit, Tervuren-Paris, 2011).

“This collection is of great benefit to scholars and students across a wide range of disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, development studies, economics, history, religious studies.”
Rebekah Lee, Goldsmiths, University of London

"Funerals in Africa is an excellent volume. Based on outstanding original research the collection shows how social and economic changes in Africa are illuminated through the analysis of burials, mortuary rites, mourning and remembrance. In this collection encounters with world religions emerge as the key theme. Death and burial are therefore employed to illuminate classic debates on conversion, reformism and local-global religious tensions. Highly recommended for anthropologists and historians and a major contribution to African studies."
David Pratten, Director, African Studies Centre, Oxford University

MRAC/L'Harmattan (Cahiers Africains), 2011

Cet ouvrage organise la comparaison entre les pratiques funéraires des Luba du nord du Katanga te... more Cet ouvrage organise la comparaison entre les pratiques funéraires des Luba du nord du Katanga telles qu’elles se déployaient jusqu’il y a quelques décennies et les funérailles lushoises d’aujourd’hui. Au fil des chapitres, ruptures et continuités entre manières de faire rurales d’autrefois et façons de procéder urbaines du Katanga contemporain apparaissent clairement. À travers l’évolution des pratiques funéraires et de l’organisation du deuil, ce sont des dynamiques sociales, générationnelles, familiales et religieuses qui sont mises en évidence. Les funérailles urbaines d’aujourd’hui apparaissent ainsi comme moins saturées par l’univers de la parenté, même si celle-ci continue à y jouer un rôle fondamental, tandis que les groupes d’affiliation religieuse prennent une part croissante dans la gestion sociale de la mort. Au final, le livre offre au lecteur une image nuancée des reconfigurations contemporaines de la prise en charge de la mort au Congo, et une perspective originale sur le changement social au prisme des funérailles.

Editions de l'Université de Bruxelles, 2010

Dans le Bénin méridional comme dans bien d’autres régions d’Afrique, les funérailles sont des évé... more Dans le Bénin méridional comme dans bien d’autres régions d’Afrique, les funérailles sont des événements majeurs de la vie sociale. Emmenant le lecteur dans les méandres et les complexités de ces moments cruciaux, ce livre montre comment la mort et sa prise en charge constituent des sites de recherche privilégiés pour comprendre des dynamiques essentielles de la société béninoise d’aujourd’hui. En effet, massivement investies dans l’ensemble de la société, les funérailles sont aussi des lieux où différents groupes sociaux doivent régulièrement trouver un compromis sur la façon dont il convient de prendre la mort en charge, à l’interface notamment des mondes rural et urbain, et des identités religieuses et familiales du défunt et de son entourage.
Ensuite, parallèlement à cet intérêt pour le changement social tel qu’il se donne à voir au prisme des funérailles, cet ouvrage revient sur la vieille question anthropologique de l’articulation entre deuil psychique et funérailles, en proposant de repenser celle-ci principalement à partir de la question du don, et de la façon dont faire le deuil implique bien souvent de donner de soi. Ainsi, ce livre cherche également à contribuer à une anthropologie du deuil à une échelle plus individuelle, en s’intéressant aux contextes, rituels comme non rituels, dans lesquels celui-ci prend place, aux dispositions et aux habitudes de pensée qui l’informent et façonnent socialement l’expérience de la perte.

Disponible sur amazon.fr et amazon.co.uk

Gradhiva, 2008

Depuis les travaux de Maurice Halbwachs, nous savons que la mémoire collective doit être considér... more Depuis les travaux de Maurice Halbwachs, nous savons que la mémoire collective doit être considérée comme le produit d’une sélection et d’un oubli. Aujourd’hui, au Bénin, la mémoire de l’esclavage passe par les discours de commémoration officielle, par les narrations orales et les pratiques rituelles populaires. Si, d’un côté, le ton semble consensuel, de l’autre, on assiste à un travail sur la mémoire fluctuant et sélectif. Les cultes et cultures populaires contribuent ainsi à la construction sociale d’un passé politiquement « sensible » et à l’émergence de nouvelles formes de relation à l’Histoire. Ce dossier aborde les aspects ambivalents de l’héritage de l’esclavage au Bénin, de ses traces matérielles, symboliques et religieuses.

Papers by Joël Noret

Africa, 2023

Drawing on research conducted in southern Benin since 2000, this article explores the entanglemen... more Drawing on research conducted in southern Benin since 2000, this article explores the entanglements between grief, social status and funerals, and accounts for the conditions and the motives of the massive and multifarious investments – inextricably psychic, social and economic – in funerals that can be witnessed locally. I argue that, far from being mere ‘conspicuous consumption’, funeral expenses should be understood as the product of a number of intersecting dynamics, as the lavishness of these events cannot conceal the burden they represent and the anxieties they feed. In fact, filial duties and politics of reputation often entwine to give an existential dimension to these occasions, reinforcing one another to lead social subjects to engage important economic means and to bury their dead ‘at all costs’. In fact, as internalized norms and social pressures finally convince most mourners to organize obsequies beyond their means, the psychic and social tensions of funerals regularly constitute the all too common hidden face of the more commonly reported lavishness.

Social Im/mobilities in Africa, 2019

This is the conclusion of the edited volume Social Im/mobilities in Africa.

Social Im/mobilities in Africa. Ethnographic Approaches, 2020

This volume engages with the complex issue of social mobilities and immobilities in Africa at a t... more This volume engages with the complex issue of social mobilities and immobilities in Africa at a time when the public debate about the continent is passionate but dichotomized – either portraying ‘Africa Rising’ or attending to huge levels of inequality epitomized by the poverty of shantytowns. As this book demonstrates, both of these realities are true simultaneously, depending on which segments of African societies are scrutinized. What is more, they intersect. In fact, broad stroke depictions of the continent are only made possible by the neglect of social positionality, and how it mediates and intertwines with political and economic dynamics. A central argument of this book thus resides in a plea for a more consequential and critical attention to the ways in which social positions matter when accounting for current changes, as some groups and individuals are always better positioned than others to appropriate opportunities, in Weber’s famous terms.
Against this backdrop, the notion of social im/mobilities refers to the multifaceted dynamics of social structure in Africa today, and to the complex and sometimes paradoxical social trajectories they frame. These dynamics feature both social possibilities and social reproduction, social opportunities and social obstructions, in societies that are themselves subjected to rapid change – that is, in which the forces at play in the making of social positions are also in motion. Therefore, the idea of social im/mobilities emphasizes the limits, uncertainties and complexities of current social mobilities, since social trajectories can be marked by change without significant alterations of ‘life chances’, to refer once again to Weber. Considering a variety of situations, the chapters in this volume investigate the complex intersection of important social qualities – including levels of wealth and education, gender, autochthony or ethnicity – in the production and the distribution of social positions, and the correlative making of social divisions. Advocating a multifaceted view of African societies, they investigate the nature of the social powers that constitute the texture of societies, and that individuals confront or mobilize in the course of their existences.

Hau: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 2019

In her notable 2018 Lévi-Strauss Lecture, Vinciane Despret reflects on the modes of presence of t... more In her notable 2018 Lévi-Strauss Lecture, Vinciane Despret reflects on the modes of presence of the dead in social life, on what they make the living do, and on what the living do to the dead. In the lecture, she further pursues an enterprise that had already led to a book, published a few years earlier (Despret 2015). An accomplished writer, Despret delivers a carefully crafted text, in elegant, though sometimes sinuous, prose. Yet the perspectives she advocates also leave some important questions unanswered; in what follows, I will pick out a few, especially regarding the epistemology of descriptions, as well as issues of power, institutions, and socialization.

Review of African Political Economy, 2017

How can we analyse the dynamics of social structure in Africa today? This Debate piece argues tha... more How can we analyse the dynamics of social structure in Africa today? This Debate piece argues that a Bourdieu-inspired, multidimensional class analysis opens promising perspectives for understanding class dynamics in Africa. This implies notably bridging objectivist and subjectivist approaches to class analysis, and working with a multidimensional idea of the social space.

Cahiers d'Etudes africaines, 2017

Ce texte est organisé en deux parties. La première partie remet en perspective historique la renc... more Ce texte est organisé en deux parties. La première partie remet en perspective historique la rencontre manquée entre les travaux portant sur le changement social africain, dans lesquels va s’inscrire Balandier à partir des années 1950, et la dynamique historique des funérailles africaines de la même période. La seconde partie revient sur l’actualité de l’héritage de Balandier pour penser les dynamiques contemporaines des funérailles africaines, lesquelles sont considérées ici comme des points d’entrée féconds à partir desquels il est possible d’explorer avec profit des dynamiques plus générales du champ social.

Terrain, 2014

Qui organise aujourd'hui des funérailles catholiques à Abomey, dans le sud du Bénin? Comment, pou... more Qui organise aujourd'hui des funérailles catholiques à Abomey, dans le sud du Bénin? Comment, pourquoi, et dans quelles conditions? Voici quelques-unes des questions auxquelles ce texte s'efforce de répondre, en replaçant ce cas dans la problématique plus générale de l'articulation entre identités religieuses et divisions sociales dans l'Afrique contemporaine.

La dynamique des masques en Afrique occidentale, ed. by A-M Bouttiaux, Tervuren, MRAC, 2013

Journal of African Economies, 2013

Drawing on data we collected in Cotonou (southern Benin), we highlight the importance of magico-r... more Drawing on data we collected in Cotonou (southern Benin), we highlight the importance of magico-religious expenditures within Beninese households. We focus on magico-religious powers used to cure and protect one-self or relatives against negative health shocks and other misfortunes. Our questionnaire elicits information on expenditures on magico-religious diagnosis, prevention and treatment in the 12 months prior to our survey. Far from being anecdotal, our data show that out of the 178 households in our sample, 48% have declared some magico-religious expenditures. For these household heads, these expenditures represented on average 5.6% of all expenditures. Using an econometric analysis, we test several conjectures that can be found in the relevant literature as to what variables drive magico-religious expenditures. We find that the main determinants are economic success and tensions within the family and that economically successful agents resort to magico-religious expenditures as a substitute for transfers to acquaintances and relatives in dealing with redistributive pressures.

The Conversation, 2024

Africa@lse, 2023

The Conversation, 2023

Developing Economics, 2023

Africa@lse, 2021

The Conversation, 2021

Berghahn, 2020

REVIEWS

Berghahn, 2011

MRAC/L'Harmattan (Cahiers Africains), 2011

Editions de l'Université de Bruxelles, 2010

Disponible sur amazon.fr et amazon.co.uk

Gradhiva, 2008

Africa, 2023

Social Im/mobilities in Africa, 2019

This is the conclusion of the edited volume Social Im/mobilities in Africa.

Social Im/mobilities in Africa. Ethnographic Approaches, 2020

Hau: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 2019

Review of African Political Economy, 2017

Cahiers d'Etudes africaines, 2017

Terrain, 2014

La dynamique des masques en Afrique occidentale, ed. by A-M Bouttiaux, Tervuren, MRAC, 2013

Journal of African Economies, 2013

African Studies, 2012

This article explores the socialisation of the experience of grief in Southern Benin. Drawing on ... more This article explores the socialisation of the experience of grief in Southern Benin. Drawing on field research conducted in Southern Benin since the beginning of the 2000s and mobilising interviews and participant observations with bereaved people, I argue that grief is profoundly shaped by interiorised dispositions to think, act and feel, as well as social experiences (from family relationships to religious practices and economic conditions, among other things). The article mainly exemplifies this contention with two ethnographic vignettes, which respectively emphasise the significant place that funerals take locally in the grieving experience, and approach the issue of the socialisation of infant deaths.

Rencontre autour du cadavre, 2012

Cet article entend montrer combien les transformations de la chaîne opératoire du cadavre dans le... more Cet article entend montrer combien les transformations de la chaîne opératoire du cadavre dans le Bénin méridional s’avèrent révélatrices d’évolutions plus générales dans l’ordre de la prise en charge de la mort et, finalement, puisque les deux sont toujours peu ou prou liés, dans l’organisation des rapports sociaux. À cet égard, envisager le changement social, en prenant pour point de départ les transformations de la chaîne opératoire du cadavre, peut d’ailleurs s’avérer une entrée épistémologique féconde, car, si le corps est bien ce « premier lieu du social », pour reprendre l’heureuse formule de Gil Bartholeyns , le cadavre peut légitimement être considéré comme un double particulièrement éloquent de celui-ci, relevant, comme lui, à la fois pleinement du biologique et du social, et de leurs nouages complexes.
Plus spécifiquement, dans la sociologie historique du cadavre que je propose dans les pages qui suivent, je partirai de deux ressorts de la transformation de l’apprêt des corps, qui me sont apparus comme majeurs, au cours de mes enquêtes sur les funérailles dans le Bénin méridional. Ainsi, j’évoquerai, dans un premier temps, les effets du changement religieux sur le traitement des cadavres, dont une proportion croissante échappe désormais aux mains des spécialistes « traditionnels » de la gestion des corps. Dans un deuxième temps, je montrerai la place occupée dorénavant par les morgues dans la prise en charge de la mort et les déplacements significatifs que cette innovation technologique a contribué à diffuser dans la chaîne opératoire du cadavre.

Funerals in Africa. Explorations of a Social Phenomenon, 2011

Building on research conducted on funerals in the Celestial Church of Christ, an African propheti... more Building on research conducted on funerals in the Celestial Church of Christ, an African prophetic Church very popular in southern Benin, this paper engages the debated issue of "syncretism".

Fetish Modernity (A-M Bouttiaux and A Seiderer, eds), Tervuren, MRAC, 2011

For several centuries, the vodun religious system has been marked by a rationale of power accumu... more For several centuries, the vodun religious system has been marked by a rationale of
power accumulation, and vodun worshippers have been appropriating the religious forces of neighbouring peoples. This is a well documented and widespread process in this part of Africa. Against this backdrop, this short text explores how understanding today’s vodun tradition is inseparable from understanding the broader historical dynamics that inform African modernity, and how much the authenticity and traditionality of these cults reside, paradoxically, in their malleability and creativity –and not in an alleged fi xed or timeless character, as some avidly held, nostalgic views of authenticity so stubbornly claim.

Religion Crossing Boundaries (A Adogame & J Spickard, eds), Leiden, Brill, 2010

Bulletin des Séances de l'Académie Royale des Sciences d'Outre-Mer, 2010

Dans le Bénin méridional, un contraste saisissant entre la profusion de discours officiels sur la... more Dans le Bénin méridional, un contraste saisissant entre la profusion de discours officiels sur la traite esclavagiste atlantique, d’une part, et la persistance de silences et de gênes autour de la question de l’esclavage local (ou africain), d’autre part,est aujourd’hui évident. Cet article revient sur les enjeux des mémoires de cet esclavage local pour mettre en évidence les formes rituelles de subversion des hiérarchies sociales héritées de la période précoloniale qui existent aujourd’hui dans la population yoruba d’Abomey. En effet, massivement issue d’esclaves capturés par l’armée du Dahomey avant la colonisation française, cette population s’est affirmée notamment en construisant une mémoire alternative de ses origines fortement articulée autour d’un culte des ancêtres dont l’émergence dans le courant du XXe siècle peut difficilement s’aligner sur le modèle canonique de l’«invention» des traditions

L’ancien et le nouveau. La production du savoir dans l’Afrique d’aujourd’hui (P-J Hountondji, dir), 2009

Gradhiva, 2008

This article explores memories of slavery in the Abomey region, in the heart of Fon country and o... more This article explores memories of slavery in the Abomey region, in the heart of Fon country and of the pre-colonial kingdom of Dahomey, as they are revealed through the Egun cult, a Yoruba form of ancestor cult. In the local debates that have surrounded the emergence and then the development of this cult, which began principally among Yoruba with slave origins, there are noticeable continuities and slippages in the place made for slavery in Abomey society. One discerns simultaneously the emergence, in the lineages claiming Yoruba origins, of attempts at liberation from the stigma of slavery and at a claim of Yoruba authenticity. Involvement in the Egun cult, at first tolerated and later appropriated by the Fon, is at the centre of this process.

paper presented at the workshop "Theorizing the social world from the south. A day with Jean and ... more paper presented at the workshop "Theorizing the social world from the south. A day with Jean and John Comaroff", Université libre de Bruxelles, 8 Dec 2014.

A striking contrast between the profusion of official discourses on the transatlantic slave trade... more A striking contrast between the profusion of official discourses on the transatlantic slave trade, and pervading silences on local (or African) slavery, is evident in Benin today. On the one hand, periodical public initiatives of commemorations of the Atlantic trade multiply, memorials are erected, and diverse projects (including the local UNESCO’s “Slave Route” project) occupy the field of the memory of the Atlantic trade. On the other hand however, the question of the presence of slave descendants in many lineages in southern Benin remains a lineage issue par excellence, a “closed calabash” as a local expression puts it, and the domain of lineage intimacy. Drawing on fieldwork conducted since 2001 in the regions of Abomey and Ouidah, two towns that were at the heart of the slave economy in nineteenth century southern Benin, this paper will explore the dynamics of these different legacies, as well as the current interplay between these various forms of memory.

The quests for recognition of "African" Churches in Brussels prove to be quite diverse depending ... more The quests for recognition of "African" Churches in Brussels prove to be quite diverse depending on the Church's position in the landscape of "migrant" churches. In fact, their more or less centrality or marginality in this environment can position those Churches as either interlocutors for politicians or administrations, thus progressively increasing their political capital, or leave them at the extreme margins of the religious field. This paper will draw on research conducted in the Celestial Church of Christ, which has only one small parish in Brussels frequented mostly by Nigerians, and in the Nouvelle Jérusalem, which is the most important "African" Church in Brussels, attended mostly by Congolese (DRC), some of whom have high levels of formal education. By comparing the two profiles, I will show that their unequal success in obtaining public recognition in the Belgian context can be explained, in particular, (a) by their size, (b) by the importance of the ethno-national population that forms the majority of their faithful (the persons of Congolese origin being much more numerous in Belgium than the persons of Nigerian origin), and (c) by the style of Christianity they profess. Actually, Pentecostalism (as is the case in the Nouvelle Jérusalem) is probably a more classical and efficient theological base to join a religious network and to escape full marginality, than the African prophetic origin of the Celestial Church of Christ.