Michaël Bourdon

Please tell us about your research project.

My PhD proposal focuses on the recomposition of the state and capitalism in West Africa in the wake of the diffusion and penetration of the start-up model, particularly in Togo and Ghana. The category of start-up and the imaginary that it conveys largely irrigate specialised literature and political discourse, but is still the subject of a limited attention in academic research. The aim of this project is to provide an account of the growing influence of this form of entrepreneurship on the African continent and more particularly in the urban concentration that stretches from Accra to Lagos. My approach is primarily ethnographic but also employs quantitative and archival analysis.

Could you please tell us about your scholarship/exchange programme?

I have the great pleasure of spending two terms in Oxford, until the end of Trinity, as part of the exchange programme between the Maison Française d'Oxford and the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris. As an academic visitor in the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, I am given the opportunity to be affiliated to a college as well as to follow fully the courses and seminars of the University of Oxford and thus to benefit fully from its intellectual resources.

First impressions of Oxford/the University?

Oxford is a city of great intellectual vitality, and bringing my PhD project to fruition here prepares me in the best possible way for entering the world of research.