Email: tonsom@prio.org
Twitter: @ToneSommerfelt
I am an anthropologist and my research focuses on the effects of economic volatility, emigration and changing religious mores on social dynamics in rural and urban areas. I also focus on how contemporary debates on religion, ethnicity and emigration on the African continent shape state-society relations and feed into political processes.
I currently work on the project entitled Future Migration as Present Fact (FUMI). FUMI explores future horizons of migration and consequences of unfulfilled migration desires. With reference to Cape Verde, Ghana and The Gambia, the project asks how people's plans of migration, even if these plans never materialise, affect individuals' life course and the development of societies.
My primary ethnographic focus is on West Africa. I have conducted long-term fieldworks in rural, peri-urban and urban areas of The Gambia, and shorter-term fieldwork in Mali. In research on global child protection, and specifically on youth and child labour, children's street living and child soldiering, I have worked on projects in Haiti, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Morocco and Jordan.
My research is based on ethnographic fieldwork as well as qualitative techniques like semi-structured interviews and focus groups. I also use participant observation and qualitative methods to shape research design of large scale surveys.
https://prio.academia.edu/ToneSommerfelt
Norwegian: Mother tongue, fluent in oral and written
English: Fluent in oral and written
Wolof (spoken in The Gambia and Senegal): High competence in speaking and transcribing
French: Intermediate in oral and reading, basic writing skills
2020-Current: Senior researcher, Social Dynamics Department, PRIO.
2018-2020: Post-doctoral fellow, Department of Social Anthropology, The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).
2015-2018: Senior researcher, Fafo Research Foundation, Rights and Security Research Group.
2013-2015: Senior researcher, Fafo Institute for Applied International Studies. Served as Research Director for the Society, Politics and Marginalisation Research Group in 2014.
2002-2008: PhD research fellow, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Oslo.
2000-2002: Researcher, Fafo Institute for Applied Social Science.
2013. PhD (Social anthropology), University of Oslo, Norway.
1999. Cand. Polit (Social anthropology), University of Oslo, Norway
1994. Cand. Mag (Social anthropology, history and political science), University of Oslo.
2007. Visiting Study Scholar, Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford; and Visiting Study Fellow at the International Gender Studies Centre, Department of International Development (Queen Elizabeth House), University of Oxford.
Report - External Series
Journal Article in History and Anthropology
Report - External Series
Journal Article in The Journal of Modern African Studies
Since the end of August, a thousand young adults in Serekunda, The Gambia, have been interviewed about their lives and dreams.
The journal History and Anthropology has dedicated a special section to Norwegian anthropologist Axel Sommerfelt and his previously unpublished paper on ethnic groups and boundaries. The section has been put together by PRIO researcher Tone Sommerfelt – Axel Sommerfelt's daughter – Marek Jakoubek and Thomas Hylland Eriksen.
The lives and dreams of young adults in three cities are explored in the project Future Migration as Present Fact (FUMI).
The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign has asked PRIO to carry out an external review of its Strategy for Norway's efforts in the Sahel region 2018–2020 in Africa. The review will be conducted by research professor Øystein H. Rolandsen (PRIO), Professor Tor Arve Benjaminsen (NMBU and PRIO) and Senior researcher Tone Sommerfelt (PRIO).
Thousands of people have responded to surveys with questions about their wishes or plans for migration and researchers have analyzed the data to identify the drivers. But until now, the results have been fragmented. In the first-ever systematic literature review four PRIO researchers map out what makes people want to migrate.
With the hiring of Maryam Aslany, the three-person core team of the project Future Migration as Present Fact (FUMI) is in place. The team composition reflects the project's uique ambitions.