Reproducing Embeddedness: Colonial and Post-Colonial French Networks in Tunisia

• In Event: Political Economy of the MENA Region: A Pluralist Approach

Abstract

How do post-colonial foreign investments differ from colonial ones?
To compare French economic networks in colonial and post-colonial Tunisia, I use network visualization on an original dataset of French business organizations in contemporary Tunisia and corporate data on French companies operating in Tunisia between 1881 and 1953 (collected by the D-FIH project). I demonstrate that French companies in today’s Tunisia continue to rely on their embeddedness in a social structure comparable to the one developed under colonial rule. Indeed, both colonial and post-colonial network structures facilitate coordination between French companies through non-price mechanisms. However, the composition of the colonial network differs from the post-colonial one. While the former was spontaneously integrated through interlocked directorates, the latter relies on tens of deliberative organizations to reproduce the social cohesion within the French corporate community that existed during the colonial period. Without these organizations, the density of the network drops, and many companies become isolated and lose influence.
Further, using centrality measures–to distinguish influential actors from peripheral ones–I establish that financial and political actors occupy the most central positions in both colonial and contemporary networks. Looking at the identity of board members represented in both networks, I find that today’s French FDIs rely more heavily on locals than during the colonial period. This paper’s findings thus confirm Frantz Fanon’s theory on the evolution of post-colonial economies. Apart from a change-over in the managerial elite’s nationality, the structure of neocolonial networks remains similar to colonial ones.

Author

• Mohamed-Dhia Hammami, Maxwell School, Syracuse University