Pastoralism, Uncertainty and Development

In the drylands and mountains where pastoralists live, uncertainty is everywhere. In these settings, negotiating access to resources, navigating volatile markets, making use of varying social relations in times of stress, and responding to conflict and complex political dynamics is essential if livelihoods are to be generated. Pastoralism – the extensive, often mobile use of rangelands – is a vitally important livelihood practice globally. Rangelands cover more than half the world’s land surface, supporting many millions of people and livestock, often in harsh and hostile environments. The book’s chapters – with case studies from Africa, Asia, and Europe – explore how pastoral mobility is sustained, how resources are managed, how markets are combined, how social protections are provided, and how patterns of accumulation and investment are sustained in a more globalized, interconnected world. Focusing on the attributes of flexibility, adaptation, innovation, and learning for generating reliability, the book offers wider lessons for development in pastoral areas the world over that go beyond the rigid modes of planning, management, and control.

Table of Contents:
List of figures and tables List of abbreviations About the contributors Preface and acknowledgements Chapter 1: Pastoralism, uncertainty, and development: perspectives from the rangelands Ian Scoones and Michele Nori Chapter 2: Decoding uncertainty in pastoral contexts through visual methods Shibaji Bose and Roopa Gogineni Chapter 3: Engaging with uncertainties in the now: pastoralists’ experiences of mobility in western India Natasha Maru Chapter 4: Hybrid rangeland governance: ways of living with and from uncertainty in pastoral Amdo Tibet, China Palden Tsering Chapter 5: Uncertainty, markets, and pastoralism in Sardinia, Italy Giulia Simula Chapter 6: Responding to uncertainties in pastoral northern Kenya: the role of moral economies Tahira Mohamed Chapter 7: Livestock insurance in southern Ethiopia: calculating risks, responding to uncertainties Masresha Taye Chapter 8: Confronting uncertainties in southern Tunisia: the role of migration and collective resource management Linda Pappagallo Chapter 9: Living with and from uncertainty: lessons from pastoralists for development Ian Scoones and Michele Nori

About the Author :
Ian Scoones is a professor at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex. He is an agricultural ecologist by original training but today works on questions of policy around land, agriculture, and agrarian change, mostly in Africa. He is the principal investigator of the ERC-funded PASTRES programme (http://pastres.org). Shibaji Bose is a creative consultant and a visual-methods researcher. His work draws on long-term visual ethnography and participatory visual action research in remote and climatically fragile zones in South Asia. Roopa Gogineni is a director and photographer focused on historical memory and modes of resistance. She has an MSc in African Studies from the University of Oxford, where she researched the construction of media narratives around Somalia.  Natasha Maru is a multidisciplinary social scientist and policy consultant working on pastoral development. She has recently finished a PhD with the PASTRES programme at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK, where she studied the temporal experiences of mobility among the Rabari pastoralists of western India.  Tahira Mohamed is an anthropologist from Marsabit County in northern Kenya. She recently completed her doctoral research under the PASTRES programme at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex. Michele Nori is a tropical agronomist with a further specialization in rural sociology and specific expertise in the resource management and livelihood systems of agro-pastoral communities. Linda Pappagallo has a background in research on the political economy of managing resources, which has focused on understanding the political economy of pastoral production, migration and collective management, particularly in the Mediterranean region. Giulia Simula is an agrarian and food movement researcher and activist originally from Sardinia, Italy. Masresha Taye is a development practitioner focusing on African dryland systems. He is interested in research, development, and policy work on drought and conflict-prone areas, disaster risk financing, anticipatory technologies/innovations for pastoral populations, and climate change and uncertainty. Palden Tsering (Chinese Pinyin: Huadancairang) possesses an MSc from the Durrell Institute of Conservation Ecology University of Kent, UK and a PhD from the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK, as part of the PASTRES programme.