Les deux faces du sens commun*

This paper focusses on a definition of the notion of common sense drawn on the inheritance of the philosophical concept of sensus communis. The Cartesian idea of “bon sens” as a disposition–the faculty of judgment–is contested. Defining common sense as knowledge held in common by a number of subjects allows us to set forth the nature of the relationship that underlies the social group. The conception of common sense proposed here is twofold. On the one hand, it represents the knowledge involved in action and is characterized as the ability to think and act in common with others. It is thus a sense of community. On the other hand, it is also a corpus of passive knowledge that forms the background of action and communication, a stock of articulated or tacit practical knowledge. L'article présente une définition de la notion de sens commun à partir de L'évocation des idées contenues dans le concept philosophique sensus communis. La conception cartésienne du bon sens en tant que faculté intellectuelle est contestée au profit d'une autre compréhension du sens commun. C'est en délimitant un sujet collectif du jugement du sens commun qu'on peut opter pour une définition de la communauté et du lien social qui y est impliqué. Le sens commun se dresse alors comme un corpus de connaissances à deux volets: en tant que connais‐sance active, il exprime L'aptitude a penser et à agir en commun avec autrui, il est ainsi un sens de la communauté; en tant que connaissance passive, il forme L'arrière‐plan de L'action et de la communication, une réserve de connaissances tacites ou articulées. Whatever view we hold, it must be shown. Why every lover has a wish to make Some other kind of otherness his own: Perhaps in fact we never are alone. Auden, Alone     

Transnational parenting and the well‐being of Angolan migrant parents in Europe

Studies on the transnational family highlight the emotional difficulties of migrant parents separated from their children through international migration. This article consists of a large‐scale quantitative investigation into the insights of transnational family literature by examining the well‐being of transnational parents compared with that of parents who live with their children in the destination country. Furthermore, through a survey of Angolan migrant parents in both the Netherlands and Portugal, we compare the contexts of two receiving country. Our study shows transnational parents are worse off than their non‐transnational counterparts in terms of four measures of well‐being – health, life satisfaction, happiness, and emotional well‐being. Although studies on migrant well‐being tend to focus exclusively on the characteristics of the receiving countries, our findings suggest that, to understand migrant parents' well‐being, a transnational perspective should also consider the existence of children in the migrant sending country. Finally, comparing the same population in two countries revealed that the receiving country effects the way in which transnational parenting is associated with migrant well‐being.     

Moving for a ‘better welfare’? The case of transnational Sudanese families

The burgeoning literature on welfare migration, or on the likelihood of migrants moving to countries with more generous welfare states, yields mixed results. In this article, we aim to disentangle what kinds of considerations underlie the decisions that migrants and their families make to address their social protection needs when they move to certain places. We explain how Sudanese extended families, with members scattered across multiple countries, draw on formal and informal institutions to meet their needs for social protection. Through a transnational approach, we analyse the mechanisms guiding the access, circulation and coordination of resources to cover different but related social protection domains. We contribute to current debates on transnational social protection by drawing on the life stories of members of a Sudanese transnational family and by expanding on the concept of ‘resource environment’. We based this article on 14 months of multi‐sited ethnographic fieldwork with Sudanese migrants and their families in the Netherlands, the UK and Sudan.     

Navigating transnational childcare relationships: migrant parents and their children's caregivers in the origin country

In this article, we investigate the daily work entailed in maintaining informal transnational childcare relationships between migrant parents and the children's kin or non‐kin caregivers in the country of origin. By applying the concept of ‘kin work’, we seek to understand how work is performed within transnational care relationships. Using a simultaneous matched sample methodology that gives equal weight to data on both sides of the transnational relationship, a team of researchers collected ethnographic data from Ghanaian migrant parents in the Netherlands and from their children's caregivers in Ghana. This approach allowed us to investigate the day‐to‐day care work from two perspectives – namely the visible and the invisible actions of the people involved in creating the kinship relationships of care work. Discrepancies in perceptions were uncovered because we compared data obtained on both sides of the relationship. These findings contribute to our understanding of the ways in which long‐distance practices facilitate the maintenance of kin relationships and how the inability to perform these can lead to tensions.     

Small is beautiful: the micro‐politics of transnational relationships between Ghanaian hometown associations and communities back home

In this article we investigate why some hometowns in Ghana are more successful than others in mobilizing resources for community development projects from their hometown associations (HTAs) abroad. We analyse the praxis of HTA‐financed development by studying all actors involved in the process – HTAs and migrants abroad and local community leaders and their populations in Ghana. We find there is a relationship between the size of the community and the effectiveness of HTA mobilization. From a matched sample of five villages and towns in Ghana and their respective HTAs in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, we conclude that three important factors are at play in the relationship between size and effectiveness – the micro‐politics of relationships between migrant and local leaders; the institutions that exist at the village/town level to create incentives or sanctions for migrants; and the relationships of trust between the different actors involved.