Muriel Côte, Dr.
- Associate Researcher
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Keywords
Forest, gold, security, Burkina Faso, Sahel, territorialisation, property, authority, state margins.
Education
MA in social anthropology, University of St Andrews, UK
MPhil in Geographical research, University of Cambridge UK
PhD in Geography, University of Edinburgh, UK
Current research
My research focuses on the politics of resource extraction and conservation that is at the core of uneven development dynamics. I situate my work within political ecology, and take an ethnographic approach to my research. I am particularly interested in contexts where the state is considered weak or absent.
Empirically, since starting my phd, I have been focusing on the production of woodfuel and gold resources in Burkina Faso. Both resources have been the subject of ‘community-based’ (conservation and consultation) policies that have had the unintended effects of reproducing inequalities (sometimes producing new ones). My research focuses on these dynamics, with the aim to foster new ways to think about development and environmental justice.
I recently started working on a new project on security, through the case of the ‘kogl weogo’ auto-defense groups that have consolidated in Burkina Faso since 2016. This project is a collaboration with sociologist colleagues at the University of Ouagadougou and will end in February 2019.