This Masters thesis is the winner of the ASC's Africa Thesis Award 2009. It examines the decision-making process of Senegalese men to make use of the dangerous boat journey to the Canary Islands in... Show moreThis Masters thesis is the winner of the ASC's Africa Thesis Award 2009. It examines the decision-making process of Senegalese men to make use of the dangerous boat journey to the Canary Islands in an effort to reach Europe. Moving beyond conventional micro- and macro-theories on migration decision-making, this study focuses at the meso-level by which the embeddedness of migrants' decision-making in ongoing social contacts is considered. The study draws on ethnographic research among unsuccessful boat migrants in Dakar, Senegal. The data collected suggests two models of migration decision-making, revealing variations in social processes that are central to the workings of undocumented migration.Miranda Poeze studied cultural anthropology at the Free University in Amsterdam. She is currently a PhD student at Maastricht University. Show less
Since the early 1980s the majority of countries in sub-Saharan Africa embarked on the implementation of IMF/World Bank designed 'structural adjustment programmes' (SAPs). This paper examines the... Show moreSince the early 1980s the majority of countries in sub-Saharan Africa embarked on the implementation of IMF/World Bank designed 'structural adjustment programmes' (SAPs). This paper examines the theoretical underpinnings of the SAPs. It shows that IMF policies are based on a theoretical framework that goes back to J.J. Polak's analysis of 1957 which adopted a number of assumptions far removed from economic conditions on the African continent. Focusing on the demand side of the economy, the IMF has neglected another important cause of the financial imbalances in African economies, namely the loss of import capacity and the related reduction in output resulting from external shocks. Furthermore, the IMF policy underestimates the fragmentation of markets and the inflexibilities in African economies. The World Bank policies are based on the Revised Minimum Standard Model that can be traced back to the Harrod-Domar model of the 1940s. A serious shortcoming of the model is that foreign exchange flows are assumed to be fully and automatically used in a productive manner in the recipient country. Another critical shortcoming of the model is the absence of distributional concerns. [ASC Leiden abstract] Show less
This paper presents a preliminary genealogy of all Somali 'clans'. Somali kinship is based on patrilineal descent, but there are no equivalents in the Somali language for the words 'clan' and ... Show moreThis paper presents a preliminary genealogy of all Somali 'clans'. Somali kinship is based on patrilineal descent, but there are no equivalents in the Somali language for the words 'clan' and 'lineage'. The Somali terminology for the levels of social segmentation is complex, amongst others because of processes of territorial dispersion and social change. The present author distinguishes the following levels of descent: clan-families, clan moieties or territorial divisions, clans, subclans, lineages, and sublineages. An appendix lists the main political organizations and/or 'warrior' or 'warlord' groups and their dominant (sub)clan in 1999. [PREFERABLY USE THE ENLARGED 2nd EDITION AT http://hdl.handle.net/1887/14007] Show less
