Eric Komlavi Hahonou

I studied economics at the University of Paris I – Panthéon – Sorbonne in France (M.Sc. in Environmental Economics), received my MA in Social Sciences (M.Sc. History, Sociology and anthropology) from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales at Marseille (France), and my PhD in Social Anthropology and Ethnology from the same university. I am a research fellow of LASDEL in Niger and Benin where I did field research the last ten years. At present I am teaching at the Institute for Society and Globalisation / Roskilde University (Denmark) and studying political cultures, democartisation and decentralisation processes, local politics, social movements, and citizenship (with a special focus on people of slave origins in West Africa).

I have extensive experience in democratic decentralisation reforms and theirs local impacts in developing countries using my educations in both economy and social anthropology. My academic activities include teaching and supervision of students, organisation of research training courses and seminars in various institutions.

My main research focuses on analysing the impacts of democratisation on West African local politics, governance and political cultures with a particular interest for marginalized groups, socio-political dynamics and their relationship to citizenship. Field experience is gained from Niger, Benin, Madagascar and Mali. I have published one monography and several articles in peer reviewed journals and books. I also realized a documentary movie related to my research.

Read his article Past and present African citizenships of slave descent: lessons from Benin.