From family dynamics to individual behaviours : looking at attitudes to children in Africa

It is almost a truism to say that the family environment in sub-Saharan Africa is complex. The contours of membership groups - residential, economic, lineage - are variable; relationships between spouses and family members take a wide range of forms (polygamy, large age differences between spouses, intergenerational co-residence, classificatory system of kinship) and mobility is high, starting in childhood. In short, individuals are bound up in dense and shifting social networks. How, and to what extent does this family environment shape individual behaviours? How much individual room for manoeuvre exists within family structures? How do individuals cope with the relationship structures and reference frameworks (norms, values, institutions, etc.) imposed upon them? Last, how should the interaction between collective structures and individual action be viewed?
Starting out from contributions that present theoretical approaches and empirical research, the scientific meeting will approach these questions from an original angle: that of attitudes and behaviours towards children. The aim will be to examine the construction and control of attitudes to children, and to explore the way in which behaviours in this area (health, schooling, mobility, etc.) have changed, been challenged and grown in diversity.