Facts that Matter: Enquête Practices and the Politics of Worldmaking

The international conference “Facts that Matter: Enquête Practices and the Politics of Worldmaking” brings together interdisciplinary perspectives on the relationship between practices of investigation and social, political, and environmental change. At its center is the concept of enquête developed within the research network, understood broadly as an applied form of knowledge production through which actors not only describe social realities, but also shape them as matters of concern and intervention.

The conference examines how empirical investigations generate “facts that matter”, how such facts become resources for political claims, and how enquête practices contribute to projects of planning, governance, resistance, and self-determination. It addresses fields in which investigative practices have played a central epistemic and political role, including colonial and postcolonial administration, social reform and social policy, resource management and environmental politics, economic planning and development, public health, humanitarianism, data technologies, and activist knowledge production.

Generously hosted by the Université Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar, it provides a space to discuss the research developed within the network with colleagues and partners in Senegal, West Africa, and beyond. In cooperation with the doctoral school ARCIV at the Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines of UCAD, the Chair for African History at Bayreuth, and the Institute of Historical Research at the University of Bremen, the conference also seeks to foster exchange beyond the boundaries of the university, bringing scholars into conversation with activists, journalists, policy-makers, and actors involved in public or civic knowledge production.