Défis de nouvelles enquêtes « Mobilités » dans trois capitales ouest-africaines : qualifier, quantifier, comparer (Moboua)

Within the Moboua Project, three quantitative collections of data have been carried out between 2009 and 2011, in order to found a broad and up-dated measurement of migration and urban movements in the capitals of Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali. The article first reconsiders the objectives of these surveys as they had been formulated upstream of the project: promoting a fine territorial comprehension of mobility, comparing its measurements according to the demographic, urban and migratory changes that concern West Africa today, connecting the quantitative and qualitative sets of investigation. It examines then the compromises that the implementation of these surveys imposed in the constrained time of a three-year project, the heuristic work of re-discussion which it caused in each fieldwork and for their comparison. Finally it considers what remains of this impressive and innovative data collection, in terms of the partnership and multidisciplinarity initially sought, and of prospects of analysis after the project.