Sylvie Ayimpam is a researcher affiliated with the Institute of African Worlds (IMAF). She is a member of various institutions, including the Aix team of IMAF in Political and Social Sciences, Development Studies, the office of the Association for Anthropology of Social Change and Development (APAD), and the Development Studies Association (DSA). Professor Ayimpam teaches the course "Political and Economic Anthropology: Informal Economic Worlds, Fieldwork, and Theories," ETH Q29 (6 ECTS) in the Master's program in Anthropology, specializing in Anthropology and Sustainable Development Professions at the University of Aix-Marseille. Her previous research mainly focused on two areas: on the one hand, urbanity, sociability, and survival strategies in popular urban environments; and on the other, the issue of conflicts and ordinary social violence in African cities. Her research interests cover informal economy, urban governance, local dynamics, social networks, urban reinventions of the gift economy, socio-spatial changes in cities, and ordinary violence, among others. Her recent research is focused on two directions: the forms of violence, vulnerability, and uncertainty that accompany current urban dynamics, and the relationship between informality and normative regulation. Topics addressed include beliefs generating violence in contexts of uncertainty, the reinvention of social norms in a crisis society, informality and entrepreneurship in migration contexts, changes in magical-religious practices, and more.
Introduction The Covid-19 pandemic has emerged around the world as a new danger, accompanied by considerable uncertainty about the extent of the threat, the effectiveness of the means of dealing with …
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