Biased Net Model and Subgroup Relations: Social Integration in Heterogeneous Groups

In this article I apply a Biased Net Theory model (Skvoretz, 1991) called “Inbreeding” on social networks in a community of 7 villages located in the Northwest of Senegal who manage their own water supply due to government policy of administrative decentralization. The subgroup relationships are partly offset by mistrust caused by conflict over grazing land between farmers and nomads. While the nomads threatened often in the last years to depose the management board because of infrastructural and resource use disadvantages, they contribute fully to the provision and management of the resource. I n- and outgroup relations or tendencies among and between subgroups, defined on the basis of location and ethnic/linguistic background, are analysed to detect the effect of group structure on the common management of the water supply. The results show that segregating behaviours are stronger when two differentiation features are considered (between Fulani and Wolof), while they are relaxed at the location level (seven differentiation features). Successful cooperation of the Fulani is thus due to the embeddedness of their villages in social interactions with the Wolof villages.