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An Economist's View of Survey Research in Africa: Observations on Tarzan, Fascism, the Measurement of Attitudes and Nonparametric Techniques
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 May 2014
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I claim authority to provide an economist's view because (1) I am an economist and (2) I recently returned from Nairobi where I conducted an interview-survey of about 1500 African households, the data from which I am now processing with the aid of a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. In the remaining five sections of this paper, I will discuss the value to Africans of survey research in Africa by expatriates, the value to expatriate scholars of such survey research, twenty-five survey-based studies in Nairobi, the Hopkins-Mitchell manual of survey research in Africa, and my conclusions.
In their paper, Hopkins and Mitchell state their purposes to be (1) to address the doubts raised by “many scholars and African officials about the value and appropriateness of surveys in Africa” and (2) “to stimulate discussion that will be of interest to prospective expatriate (mainly American) researchers in Africa.” The authors devote practically all of their discussion to advocating high quality survey research and to offering suggestions on how that research should be conducted. They barely address the other issue, namely, the value and appropriateness of surveys in Africa, and their brief treatment of it is clearly inadequate. After a brief but stimulating digression, I will return to discuss their argument.
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