"The history of development in Africa is littered with all sorts of experiments and projects centred on new technologies often presented as a panacea to the problems of health, education, or agricultural production. The failure of some of those projects shows the limits of the technocentrist approac ... h which has recently resurfaced in the developmentalist discourse and which is based on the idea that technology (and technology alone) can solve all the social and economic problems Africa is facing. This is the case of the educational television in Niger that was supposed to ensure a rapid access to universal education. It started in 1964 and was abandoned in 1979. It failed to transform the educational system in any significant way, the school enrolment rate in Niger still being under 60 %, 46 years after the experiment started. In this paper, I intend to show that this failure was not due to a lack of community involvement as generally advanced by project evaluations, but the result of a confrontation of divergent views of the world and society. Indeed, the educational television has become an issue of both social and political struggle, which resulted in the victory of one of the parties and the allocation of the educational television to other purposes for which it was not previously designed." (Abstract) more

"This paper analyses how the French media perceive the advent of Al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in the Sahel, and particularly in Niger. It shows that the French media are constructing Niger as a ‘grey area’, a dangerous place and a ‘failed state’ through a monolithic discourse rooted in ... French cultural and ideological presuppositions about Africa and Africans. I argue that the monolithic discourse of French media on the War on Terror in the Sahel is the result of similar educational trajectories, cultural backgrounds and positions shared by journalists within the field, which tend to produce similar patterns of thinking. The paper is based on a critical analysis of ‘representative’ articles written between 1 January 2008 and 30 September 2011 in three leading French newspapers. It uses a qualitative approach and takes place within the framework of media content analysis." (Abstract) more

"This article explores how computers and the Internet are represented among young, educated people in Niger and the social expectations that are attached to their use. It argues that pre-existing social and economic conditions play an important role in shaping the meanings associated with these devi ... ces. Thus, in a context of poverty and unemployment, the Internet and computers are perceived as technologies that may help young people and their country integrate into a modern world of economic opportunities and well-being via the transnational and transcultural interactions that take place in cyberspace. The Internet is associated with the ideas of modernity and ‘leapfrogging’ development. However, because of the lack of computer equipment and adequate infrastructure, these expectations are largely exaggerated, and they divert attention from the actual possibilities for change that reside in people and not in technological devices. The research is based on fieldwork conducted among young, educated computer and Internet users during the summers of 2003 and 2004 in Niamey, the capital city of Niger and further complemented by data collected in 2008." (Abstract) more