Languages: Danish, French, English, German (read), Fon.

Primary research areas
RELIGION, POLITICAL POWER, THE STATE

Pentecostalism, transnational networks, democracy, autoritarism,

MONEY, ECONOMIC CHANGE, EVERYDAY ECONOMIC PRACTICES, BENIN

Current research
Keywords: everyday economic practices, economic change, economic ideas, money, meaning, development aid, Benin.



My current research focuses on the construction of new economic ideas and practices in Benin. Since 1990 when the state-controlled economy was replaced by a liberal market ideology promoting privatization and a strengthening of civil society, Benin has experienced rapid economic growth, and seen an important development of the banking system and private market activities. At the same time, the successful democratic process stimulated a massive involvement of external donor agencies, and the country has since 1990 received a considerable amount of development aid every year predominately from European countries and the United States. These changes have invigorated the interest in money within Beninese society; new ideas about value and wealth have emerged and, concretely, banknotes are increasingly circulating in everyday life. Stimulating this new interest in money, the considerate institutional presence of foreign donors affect the ways in which new ideas of money and wealth are constructed locally.

Investigating these changes to the meaning of money, the project examines how global economic changes characterized by the expansion of neo-liberal market ideology and novel practices of development aid are expressed in everyday economic discourses and practices in Benin.

Teaching