Development Geographies |
Session Title: | TBC | ||
Session 1 Chair: | TBC | ||
Session Abstract: | TBC | ||
Session: 1 | |||
Paper 1 | |||
Title: | Ensuring food security in post-conflict Freetown, Sierra Leone: What role for urban and peri-urban agriculture? | ||
Author(s): | Roy Maconachie (University of Manchester) Tony Binns (University of Otago) | ||
Presenter: | Roy Maconachie (University of Manchester) Tony Binns (University of Otago) | ||
Abstract: | Sierra Leone is currently regarded as the world’s poorest country with a range of very weak development indicators. During the decade-long civil war in the 1990s, food production became severely dislocated and, in the post-conflict era, the state of the agricultural sector has become a major concern to governmental and non-governmental development agencies. Focusing on the question of urban food security in the country’s capital city, Freetown, this paper examines the incidence, dynamics and significance of urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) among households, at a crucial point in Sierra Leone’s post-conflict reconstruction phase. Drawing on recent field-based data, the paper contributes to the growing debate concerning how urban planning and development might be reconciled with the promotion of an ‘enabling environment’ in which UPA is encouraged and supported. The paper argues that in the case of Freetown, a detailed evaluation of UPA is urgently needed to determine how agricultural activities can fit in with urban structure, urban problems and the livelihoods of a wide range of actors in and around the city. The paper concludes that not only is UPA a vital element in ensuring household food security, but it could potentially play a fundamental role in safeguarding the urban food continuum and promoting sustainable urbanization in the post-conflict period and beyond. | ||
Paper 2 | |||
Title: | From Geographies of Poverty to Geographies of Possibilities' Exploring ideas of poverty and conditions of hope in St. Lucia and Dominica | ||
Author(s): | Anthony George (University of Otago) Tony Binns (University of Otago) | ||
Presenter: | Anthony George (University of Otago) Tony Binns (University of Otago) | ||
Abstract: | The problem of poverty in the Caribbean is persistent, complex and highly contested. A content analysis of Poverty Assessment Reports (PARs), which were conducted by governments and international development agencies in the islands between 1996 and 2007, revealed that poverty frameworks have frequently been built on misconceptions and fail to appreciate that poverty is a multi-dimensional phenomenon. Many of the region’s nation-states experience significant and variable levels of poverty, which constitute ‘geographies of poverty’. Certain geographical spaces have been classified as ‘poor’, identifying deprivations of facilities, services, structures and capabilities. However, the ideas of poverty expressed in the PARs do not always accurately represent the poverty realities of the Caribbean. Instead, they constitute forms of power and knowledge, which construct and shape the ‘imaginaries’ (ideas and pathways to poverty reduction) among the poorest communities of the region. This paper focuses on ‘poverty imaginations’ in St. Lucia and Dominica, through a critical exploration of perceptions, experiences and pathways concerning poverty in local communities. Drawing upon detailed field-based research, the paper examines community-based resources, networks and capabilities among what the PARs identify as the six ‘poorest’ communities on the two islands. The paper concludes by demonstrating the implications for future community-based poverty interventions in the Caribbean, and considers broader implications for poverty alleviation and development both in the region and elsewhere. | ||
Paper 3 | |||
Title: | Rights, Responsibility and the Transnational Environment: Governing elephants and ivory in Namibia | ||
Author(s): | Lorraine Moore (Manchester University) | ||
Presenter: | Lorraine Moore (Manchester University) | ||
Abstract: | There has been increasing awareness of the inability of environmental problems to be territorially contained within any one political unit or state. This trend has been associated with the post-Cold War era. Such a view of the environment has resulted in the rise of concern and activity from various different sectors of the ‘transnational community’ (including governmental and non-governmental organisations) as they assist in the management of the global commons. This paper will explore this phenomenon of the reconceptualisation of environmental problems from the local (state) level to the transnational (global) level. Using the perspective of global environmental governance the paper will draw on five months of doctoral research investigating the impacts of CITES norms and Appendices on elephant management in Namibia to illuminate the state level impacts of the global commons and global commons resources. In particular, the paper will focus on the conflict between rights and responsibility associated with managing global commons resources at both the state and international level. The right to use or decide the management strategy of a valuable natural resource, such as the elephant, weighed up against individual elephant range states’ needs and responsibility to steward such a global commons resource is significant because it has implications for local level access to resources. |
| Development 2 | |||
Chair: | TBC | ||
Paper 1 | |||
Title: | Markets, trust and class power under semi-feudalism: The relations of exchange on the Nepali lowlands. | ||
Author(s): | Fraser Sugden (University of Edinburgh) | ||
Presenter: | Fraser Sugden (University of Edinburgh) | ||
Abstract: | This paper examines the political economy of rural marketing systems on the Nepali lowlands. A body of economic literature asserts that relations of ‘trust’ can improve the equity of rural marketing systems. This is compatible with theories of neo-liberal ‘social capital’ which asserts that social institutions within communities can be used as a tool for development. However, such theories fail to engage with the class structures that condition access to such mutually beneficial institutional arrangements. A case study of agricultural markets in a region of Nepal dominated by ‘semi-feudal’ production relations identifies numerous mechanisms which facilitate price manipulation by merchants. Monopoly power can be used to manipulate prices, while ties of debt bondage to merchants reduce the bargaining power of marginal predominantly tenant cultivators when they do engage with the market. Larger landed farmers however, are the only group able to cultivate trust based relations with merchants. They are considered valuable customers, and are thus offered prices closer to the prevailing market rate, and often achieve other benefits such as lower interest rates on loans. In this context, it is argued that trust based institutions serve the interests of emerging capitalist producers, but do little to limit the existing mechanisms of surplus appropriation into which marginal producers are subsumed. | ||
Paper 2 | |||
Title: | Mineral wealth and rural change in post-conflict Sierra Leone: Re-agrarianizing livelihoods in artisanal and small-scale mining communities? | ||
Author(s): | Roy Maconachie (University of Manchester) | ||
Presenter: | Roy Maconachie (University of Manchester) | ||
Abstract: | In rural West Africa, livelihood diversification through alternative off-farm income-generating opportunities has long been a vital mechanism for household survival. In mineral rich regions of Sierra Leone, the diversification of livelihood portfolios is widespread and local actors pursue complex and dynamic livelihood strategies that involve the intertwining of farming and mining economies. Drawing on recent field-based data, this paper examines evidence from two impoverished communities in the diamond and gold producing areas of the country, where artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) operations dovetail with agrarian activities. In exploring the livelihood dynamics of both communities, the paper considers the viability of ASM as an alternative livelihood strategy in the context of wider rural transformations. On the one hand, the analysis suggests that income derived from ASM provides valuable investment funds for reviving the agrarian institutions and social networks that are vital to the post-war rural economy. On the other, diminishing returns from mining operations coupled with the institutional and policy challenges of the minerals sector may be responsible for persuading some individuals to abandon ASM, and to re-orientate livelihoods around farming. In light of these two diverging developments, the paper argues that further investigation is required to determine, more specifically, how informal mining activities can better fit into poverty reduction strategies and sustainable rural livelihoods in the post-war period. | ||
Paper 3 | |||
Title: | Contested histories, contrasting identities: the impact of SADF military operations on conservation and land-use in Caprivi, Namibia. | ||
Author(s): | Lorraine Moore (Manchester University) | ||
Presenter: | Lorraine Moore (Manchester University) | ||
Abstract: | Marx observed that while people make their own history they do not choose the circumstances in which they make it. People do not exist in a vacuum; our lives are embedded within a social network of collective identities, prevailing social norms and structures. This paper uses a case study that investigates the impact of military operations by the South African Defence Force (SADF) in Caprivi to investigate the importance of cultural identity and socio-political structures in current land-use activities, plus how people recall past events. It is a widely held belief in Namibia that the SADF had a very destructive impact on wildlife, especially elephants, during Namibia’s struggle for independence from South Africa, which ended on 21st March 1990. Interviews undertaken by the author with ex-military officials and three different ethnic groups in the Caprivi strip (Khwe, Subyia and Mafwe) demonstrate that the events surrounding the tremendous decline of wildlife and displacement of people during this time are highly complex and have a direct impact on people’s current relationship with and access to wildlife. For example, some interviewee accounts framed the SADF as environmental destroyers whereas others portrayed them as environmental conservers. Recollections of these events highlight the complex relationship some interviewees had with the SADF, but also illuminate ongoing complexities with the current government of Namibia plus their access to land, natural resources and livelihood opportunities. | ||
Paper 4 | |||
Title: | Second home development in small town South Africa | ||
Author(s): | Gijsbert Hoogendoorn (Rhodes University, South Africa) Gustav Visser (Bloemfontein, South Africa) | ||
Presenter: | Gijsbert Hoogendoorn (Rhodes University, South Africa) Gustav Visser (Bloemfontein, South Africa) | ||
Abstract: | The aim of this investigation is to make a contribution towards addressing the general lack of academic reflection on second homes in the developing world context. The paper aims to provide insight into the question of what types of second homes there are in South Africa and what impacts second home development holds for different types of urban settlements, particularly smaller towns in remote rural areas. Whilst the case studies elucidate unique development characteristics and impacts, the investigations also highlight some communalities to those found elsewhere. In particular, it is firstly argued that second home development in South Africa demonstrates similarities to developments found internationally, and secondly, that the near-generic impacts of second homes found elsewhere are echoed in the South African context too. Here, in particular, the generation of employment and property price appreciation stand out as key similarities. However, the unique historical development trajectory of the South African urban form, not least of which its small towns, present many challenges in harnessing the potentially beneficial impacts of second home development. |