
Catalyst Fellow, July 2021
Dr Elieth Eyebiyi is a researcher at DHI CREPOS Senegal and LASDEL Benin/Niger. He holds a first PhD in Sociology Anthropology (Benin, 2012) and a second PhD in Urban Studies (Canada, 2017) and teaches various courses including Migration and Development. He held scholarships in institutions such as IAS Princeton (USA), Stellenbosch University (South Africa) and Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (France). He has authored outstanding publications and peer-reviewed articles in French, English and German and delivered communications within four continents. He has received several distinctions including the Prix du Rayonnement international (Canada) and the Edinburgh Catalyst Fellowship from The University of Edinburgh (UK). His current work examines the bureaucratization of informality in West African borderlands.
Project title: The Bureaucratization of Informality: The case of Benin–Nigeria Fuel Smuggling
The informal sector refers in part to those activities which are outside mainstream economic and statistical measurement and more generally, to those outside the ambit of state control and regulation. This project intends to analyze to what extent smuggling is bureaucratized by rules, practical norms and also various stakeholders' games. From a Weberian perspective of bureaucratization, and also challenging that, the work examines the concept of Informality from the empirical perspective of cross-border fuel smuggling with a case study in Benin-Nigeria borderlands. It is embedded in a large ongoing research project focusing on informality at borderlands. As an IASH Catalyst Fellow, I will advance the project by exploring theoretically with the University of Edinburgh’s research groups on borders, the links between borders and African capitalism, as well as aspects of bureaucratization, temporality and norms.
Eyebiyi, P. E., 2016. "Etudier l'Etat à partir de l'informalité. Répression et résistances autour du commerce informel de carburant", Lien Social et Politiques, 76 : 77-95.
Eyebiyi, P. E., 2018. Migration im Fokus der Weltpolitik, in Almanach Entwicklungspolitik 2019. Migration und Entwicklung: Globale Wanderungen menschengerecht gestalten, Almanach Entwicklungspolitik 2019, Luzern: Caritas-Verlag.
Eyebiyi, P. E. & A. F. Mendy, 2019. Examining the Links between Migration, Mobility and Development in Africa, In: Eyebiyi P. E. & A. Mendy (Eds), Migrations, mobilités et développement en Afrique - Vol. I : Mobilités, circulations et frontières, Ottawa : Lasdel & Daraja Press, p.23-39.