Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan

Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan (born in Languedoc, (1941-07-11) July 11, 1941 (age 83)) is a French and Nigerien anthropologist, and Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Marseilles.

He is also Emeritus Director of Research at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris and associate professor at Abdou Moumouni University in Niamey where he founded the master of socio-anthropology of health.

For his doctoral work, he studied social change among the Wogo people in Niger, after first being recruited by Jean Rouch to conduct fieldwork with this group over a year in 1965.

Known as an unconventional anthropologist, he had many collaborations with sociologists, historians or political scientists, and has produced innovative concepts such as "local modes of governance" and "practical norms".

He established LASDEL in Niamey (Laboratoire d’études et de recherches sur les dynamiques sociales et le développement local).

Olivier de Sardan has also made significant contributions to the understanding of social change and development on African societies, through empirical observation in Niger, Benin, Mali and other countries in Africa (but also including the Lozère region in France).