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This dissertation analyzes and discusses various applications and implications of Big Data for demo-economic analysis, focusing on the analysis of cell-phone data collected by telecommunication operators for billing purposes, commonly referred to as call-detail records, or CDRs, which include the time and duration of calls, the location of the emitter and receiver, etc. This is done by placing the resulting opportunities and challenges within the broader context of the 'Data Revolution', presented in Chapter 1. In this context, "applications" refer to ways in which CDR analytics can be used for research and policymaking purposes by leveraging the information contained in these data on human behaviors, for example to predict criminality (Chapter 2), study weather and mobility patterns (Chapter 3), and estimate income levels (Chapter 4) and population density (Chapter 5). "Implications" refer to ways in which CDR analytics has and can be expected to affect and be affected by ethical, political, legal, and institutional factors and processes (Chapter 6). At the heart of Big Data are new kinds of passively emitted digital data or `crumbs' that are the by-product of the fast growing and already near-ubiquitous use of digital devices and services by humans around the globe. These 'crumbs' leave digital traces of most of their actions that are collected and can be analyzed through powerful methods and machines by new types of stakeholders, including multi-disciplinary teams. Chapter 1 analyzes the advent of the Big Data phenomenon over the past decade, with particular attention to its observed and possible effects on social science research and policymaking. In addition to providing an historical overview, it proposes taxonomies and concepts to clarify the nature and significance of the change brought about by Big Data. An important point of the chapter is the distinction it introduces between big data as new kinds of large datasets and Big Data as an ecosystem of 3Cs of Big Data: its crumbs, its capacities, and its communities. The chapter ends by questioning whether these kinds of digital data may replace traditional data and whether Big Data may render the scientific method obsolete, answering by the negative but arguing that social science research will dramatically evolve in contact with Big Data, while in turn shaping Big Data. The subsequent four empirical chapters focus on different applications of CDR analytics to social problems:Chapter 2 uses CDRs from Telefónica in London in conjunction with other socio-demographic data including police records to attempt to predict future crime hotspots, and presents a model with a predictive power of close to 70\%. This chapter offers an example of one of the major functions of Big Data introduced in Chapter 1, its predictive function here understood as forecasting, alongside its descriptive, prescriptive, and discursive functions. It also provides an opportunity to discuss some key tools and concepts commonly used in machine-learning as well as merits and limits of these approaches to crime prediction for public policy. Chapter 3 uses CDRs from Orange in Côte d'Ivoire made available as part of the 2013 Data for Development challenge---a modality that has been the hallmark of the field and contributed to developing Big Data communities over time---alongside meteorological data, with the goal of estimating whether weather could impact human mobility in ways that may violate the exclusion restriction in research using rainfalls as an instrument from economic conditions to assess the causal link between economic conditions and conflict. It presents a statistically significant relationship, suggesting that weather could affect conflict through other channels than economic conditions and casting doubt on the use of rainfalls as an instrument for economic conditions in these settings. Chapter 4 uses the same dataset and attempts to predict, here in the sense of inferring or now-casting, the multi-poverty index based on DHS data to assess whether and how these kinds of data available at high levels of temporal and geographical granularities may help some of the data gaps that characterize and may impede the development of some of the poorest countries in the world, showing promising results. Chapter 5 uses similar data as in Côte d'Ivoire but for Senegal, in conjunction with census data, to address the central issue of sample bias in big data by correlating estimated population size through cell-phone activity and census data. It proposes a novel approach to estimating biases in the data as a function of key demographic variables including age at different geographic levels. Chapter 6 finally focuses on political economy implications of Big Data as an ecosystem and socio-technological phenomenon, with a focus on its prospects and requirements, including institutional, legal, ethical, and political. It shows that Big Data in general and CDR analytics in particular raise complex and contentious questions for social science research, policymaking, and societies at large---including around power dynamics, informed consent, fairness, and civic participation etc., which will require significant investments in developing adequate responses, including to human awareness and capacities. It also argues, as does the overall conclusion, that Big Data and open algorithms notably can provide an entry and anchor point to challenge and improve the current state of the world by giving data emitters---citizens---greater control over the use of the data they generate in ways that could revive democratic ideals and principles and make it a potentially truly revolutionary force.

For many Africans, water is not only the source of life, but also a means of purification and a centre of regeneration. Water rituals and cults, such as 'Mami Wata', lead their followers to liberation of body and spirit. But customary rites can also cause harm. For example, the ancestral use of irrigation reduces contemporary female labour participation and female property rights. It is crucial to consider gender in resource management in the context of climate change, environmental degradation and population growth, which will exacerbate conflicts over scarce resources such as arable land, water, fishing and hunting. Poor governance leads to the alienation and exploitation of the majority and growing inequality, especially when water is scarce and people's livelihoods are threatened. Sub-Saharan Africa is the continent most affected by climate change, population growth and food insecurity. Yet African states, where water ecosystems are strategic resources, are more inclined to regional conflict than cooperation. In the past, climaterelated shocks have fuelled violent conflict in West Africa. Land pressure and water scarcity are causing increasingly acute crises. Traditional institutions of water and land management are often destabilised by modern irrigation techniques and massive inflows of foreign capital. Modernisation is driven by a Western-centred utilitarianism that cannot be universalised. The intensification of conflicts over water has revealed a general crisis that is likely to worsen, given the dynamics at work. Environmental degradation is one of the undesirable by-products of agricultural productivity growth, but customary institutions cannot provide adequate regulation to mitigate its effects. But even in West African regions where water is plentiful, the resource curse links the abundance of natural resources to higher levels of conflict. The commercialisation of water, including land and water grabbing, can even lead to interstate conflict through the effects of greed or grievances. Ultimately, however, conflicts are often not so much about access to scarce resources such as water, food or land, but rather about changing the political institutions through which resources are distributed. Water scarcity puts pressure on people, resulting in migration, displacement, food insecurity and impoverishment, which can lead to further conflict.

"Die neuen Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien (ICT) wie Internet und Mobiltelefon haben auch die urbanen Mediensysteme Afrikas, ihre Informationsbeschaffung, -verarbeitung und –verbreitung grundlegend verändert. Gemeinsam mit der Einführung von Mehrparteiensystemen, der Ausweitung der Meinungsäusserungsfreiheit, der ökonomischen Liberalisierung und der internationalen Verflechtung sind die privaten Medien in vielen afrikanischen Ländern seit 1989 zu einem wichtigen, aber empirisch nach wie vernachlässigten Fakor für Kultur, Öffentlichkeit und Politik geworden. Die Prosperität des Medienangebotes und des Medienkonsums ist zwischen lokalen (Analphabetismus, Informalität, Klientelismus, Korruption, Kriminalität, Sprachenvielfalt) und globalen Bedingungen (Abhängigkeit von internationalen Nachrichten- und PR-Agenturen, Organisationen etc.) zu kontextualisieren. Diese verschiedenen Faktoren führen dazu, dass die Verbreitung von Massenkommunikationsmitteln häufig auf die urbanen Räume und die sozialen Ober- und Mittelschichten beschränkt ist und die neuen Technologien zur Vergrösserung der digitalen Kluftzwischen den Gesellschaften des Nordens und des Südens beigetragen haben. Dem ersten Teil des Uno-Weltgipfels zur Informationsgesellschaft (WSIS) im Dezember 2003 in Genf ist die Aufgabe zugekommen, die Weltgemeinschaft für die durch die Dynamik der ICT entstandenen Probleme zu sensibilisieren und in Erinnerung zu rufen, dass sich die ökonomische und politische Marginalisierung Afrikas auch in der Einseitigkeit der transnationalen Kommunikationsflüsse spiegelt. Auch wenn afrikanische Massenmedien ihre Informationsangebote per Internet oder World Space weltweit anbieten können, werden sie hierzulande vergleichsweise wenig genutzt. Und auch das Netz an Auslandskorrespondenten der meinungsführenden europäischen Massenmedien sowie der Nachrichten- (AFP, AP, DPA, Reuters, SDA) und Bildagenturen (Keystone) ist auf dem afrikanischen Kontinent unterrepräsentiert und zentralistisch in Johannesburg (Südafrika) und Nairobi (Kenia) organisiert. Mangels valabler lokaler und panafrikanischer Alternativen (Inter Press Service, Pana) üben diese globalen Informationsagenten einen entscheidenden Einfluss auf die Inhalte afrikanischer Massenmedien aus. Der vorliegende Beitrag zeigt am Beispiel des Distributionssystems der senegalesischen Printmedien, dass die spezifischen lokalen Bedingungen des Massenmediensektors erkannt und erforscht werden müssen, bevor Projekte der Internationalen Zusammenarbeit (IZA) überhaupt die Voraussetzung mitbringen, zur Reduktion der digitalen Kluft erfolgreich beitrage zu können." (Autorenreferat)

En s'appuyant sur des travaux empiriques et des études sectorielles, cet ouvrage propose une vision rénovée des interventions de l'État en Afrique. Au cours des années 1980, les institutions financières internationales imposèrent un État minimum à tous les pays en leur retirant une partie de leur pouvoir dans les domaines économiques et sociaux. En préconisant une profonde réforme de l'État, leurs programmes d'ajustement structurel devaient résoudre le problème de la dette, permettre aux pays de renouer avec la croissance et déposséder les pouvoirs publics nationaux de certaines de leurs prérogatives au profit d'acteurs privés afin de favoriser la mondialisation et le libéralisme. Les États africains furent contraints d'appliquer ces politiques libérales, élaborées par les instances internationales, qui se traduisirent presque partout par des échecs, voire par des catastrophes socio-économiques et sanitaires. De plus, les populations, qui s'appauvrissaient sous leurs effets, les rejetèrent parfois violemment si bien qu'à la fin des années 1990, on assista à une lente réhabilitation des politiques publiques : l'État comme acteur principal du développement retrouvait ainsi une certaine légitimité, actée par des déclarations et des forums internationaux. Les textes réunis ici reviennent sur ces trajectoires historiques et montrent combien les États africains, bien que sur la voie de la réhabilitation, ont du mal à retrouver le rôle central qui était autrefois le leur, peinant à définir des politiques publiques et à faire respecter leurs choix face à la multiplicité des acteurs nationaux et internationaux, aux intérêts parfois divergents et aux ressources fort différentes.-- Résumé de l'éditeur