Women and Agroforestry: A Human Ecology Approach to Understanding The Needs and Priorities of Women Farmers in Africa

This study examined rural Ugandan women's lives to discover reasons why they may or may not practice agroforestry. These women are responsible for the triple roles of reproduction, production and community maintenance work, all carried out within the context of a gendered social environment. From the perspective of the social manifestations of gender, six key factors were identified. The findings were used to create a theoretical model of the interaction between rural women's lives and agroforestry systems. The model shows that agroforestry is not only a biophysical farming system; There is a human component in that interacts with other components to determine the success or failure of an agroforestry initiative. The model can be used to identify and understand the human component of the agroforestry system on an individual and community level.women in development, agroforestry programs, human ecology, women and work, Crop Production/Industries, Labor and Human Capital,

Gender and the Value of Trees in Mutoko Communal Area, Zimbabwe

This study examined the gender based differences in valuation of trees, as indicated by differences between men and women in the planting, care and use of tree resources. An analysis of differences in tree related behaviours between male headed households and female headed households was also undertaken. The study used a combination of quantitative and qualitative methodologies, including an interview schedule and card sort, supplemented by open-ended interviews and observations. The survey data were analysed using SPSS Windows. The study results indicate that trees were being planted and cared for in both male and female headed households and the majority of heads of households preferred multipurpose, fruit bearing tree species. There were differences in the types of tasks undertaken by men and women in both male and female headed households, the locus of decision making authority in the two types of households, and the uses of tree resources by men and women.Labor and Human Capital,

Children and Covid 19 in the UK

The UK has been one of the most badly affected nations of the Global North by the COVID-19 outbreak in terms of illness, death rates and a severe economic downturn. Children have been impacted severely (and unequally), with UK lockdown meaning that many children were away from school and usual leisure activities for six months during the first lockdown. We revised this Viewpoint during the third lockdown when schools were closed again for an indefinite time. Despite substantial media and policy debate about the impact of COVID-19 on young people, with a focus on education, young people’s own voices tend to be obscured in these mainstream accounts. By contrast, the Children’s Commissioner for England has focused on young people’s accounts, which are discussed in this viewpoint

Interdependent, imagined, and embodied mobilities in mobile social space:Disruptions in ‘normality’, ‘habit’ and ‘routine’

This article draws on ethnographic research of everyday mobilities to further understanding of interdependent mobilities practices in relation to normality, habit and routine. The contention here is that a rethinking of ‘normality’, ‘habit’ and ‘routine’ reveals how mobilities are interdependent, imagined and embodied. We draw from Lefebvre's (1991) notions of social space and rhythmanalysis to illustrate the relationality of these aspects of mobility. In doing so, we build on recent theorisations of habit in the field of mobilities, which have opened this concept as a key site for interrogating body–society relationships arguing that both ‘routine’ and ‘normality’ have similar potential in revealing the regulation and control of everyday spaces. We consider everyday embodied engagements with mobile space and how these become normalised, habitualised and routinised. This paper draws from a Research Council UK Energy Programme funded project, ‘Disruption, the raw material for carbon change’, which uses ‘disruption’ as a lens through which to reveal potential for changes in mobility practices that result in carbon reduction. Our exploration of interdependent, imagined and embodied mobilities concurs with existing scholarship in the mobilities field that argues for a rethinking of individualised conceptions of ‘normality’, ‘habit’ and ‘routine’ in seeking an understanding of mobilities that are socially, culturally and materially contingent.</p