ETHNOGRAPHIES OF PUBLIC SERVICES IN AFRICA: AN EMERGING RESEARCH PARADIGM Thomas Bierschenk and jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan THE STUDY OF PUBLIC SERVICES IN AFRICA: AN INVISIBLE COLLEGE? This book is at the heart of a new and rapidly growing field, in which con- ventional anthropological methods (qualitative approaches, fieldwork, participant observation, interviews, etc.) are used to investigate topics usually taken up by political science, the administrative sciences or man- agement studies. Empirical studies of public services and 'the state at work' (von Stein, see Bierschenk and Olivier de Sardan, introduction) have, of course, been carried out for a long time. They mainly concem the Global North; where they are a focus of the political and administrative sciences and sociology rather than social anthropology. The situation with respect to the Global South, and especially Africa, is different: a comparably rich research tra- dition does not exist there. At the same time, however, in recent years, anthropological and ethnographie approaches have gained a special importance in the study of public services in Africa. This chapter is about what we have leamed frorn the literature, and how it has influenced our perspectives. We do not aim to provide a com- prehensive literature review; instead, we describe the ernergence of a par- ticular research paradigm in which this book participates. The process involved could also be referred to as the formation of an invisible college of researchers who share important theoretical references and empirical perspectives on public services in Africa. STUDIES OF PUBLIC SERVICES, PUBLIC POLICIES AND PUBLIC SERVANTS IN THE GLOBAL NORTH Public services, public policies and public servants have been extensively studied in countries of the Global North.