Solidarity in crisis : social policies and social support networks in Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire
Lauren Mathews Morris MacLean, University of California, Berkeley (Degree granting institution)
Despite nearly identical cultural landscapes and the tremendous homogenizing pressure of World Bank-advocated structural adjustment programs, informal social support networks in two neighboring countries of West Africa differ in puzzling ways. Furthermore, the study finds the differences run contrary to state policymakers' efforts to strengthen informal social welfare systems in Ghana versus the efforts to replace them with new centrally organized bureaucracies in Cote d'Ivoire. Analyzing original survey research, the study documents that Ivoirian networks are actually deeper in value and more extensive than those in Ghana. The structure of the networks also differs, with important implications for inter-generational solidarity. Ivoirian networks are more concentrated and vertically oriented, with strong ties between youth and elders within families compared to the Ghanaian networks, which are more diversified and horizontally oriented amongst peers with linkages cutting across families and class
Thesis, Dissertation, English, 2002
2002