Commons and Care in Senegal: Social Security in the Face of Social and Environmental Change in Casamance

This article examines shifting practices of commoning among the Jola in the Casamance region of Senegal. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and a theoretical background of New Institutional Political Ecology as well as commoning, it explores how a collective social security system formed through collectively labored rice fields is increasingly strained by socio-economic pressures and environmental change. While migration due to environmental change is often cited as a primary cause for labor shortages in the rice fields, the study highlights deeper transformations linked to a powerful naturalist ontology leading to deagrarianization. Newly formed systems of solidarity, such as the association Servir Bubajum Áyii, adapt persisting commoning principles to contemporary needs, maintaining commoning principles rooted in pre-colonial commons and support mechanisms with values such as discretion and dignity despite the changes.