The devil in the detail: Interpreting livelihood turbulence from a 25-year panel study from Thailand

10.1111/area.12188Area473296-30

The problems of agricultural intensification in a marginal rainfed environment : A study of farmers' practices and government policies in two villages in northeastern Thailand.

In short, the study proposes that farming in a marginal rain-fed environment such as that of the Northeast Region of Thailand presents special problems for the intensification of production, and that government policies should take account of these problems. The thesis is based on fieldwork conducted in two villages in the province of Mahasarakham, Northeastern Thailand, during the period September 1982 to June 1983. The villages were both farming communities in which households grew rain-fed wet-rice to meet their subsistence requirements/ and upland cash crops (principally cassava) to supplement their income. A detailed questionnaire was conducted among approximately a fifth of the population. The work involves an analysis of farmers' practices vis a vis rice and upland cropping and contrasts them with the government recommendations. There were significant disparities between the two and these have been explained from the perspective of the farmer, rather than that of the extension office. The outcome is that many government initiatives are shown to be less than relevant to the position in which the farmer finds himself. This fact - that the government recommendations are often irrelevant to the inhabitants - is then expanded upon to reveal some of the problems of intensifying agricultural production in a marginal environment where the risks are great. The strategy that the farmers adopted appeared to consist of two contrasting, although not contradictory, elements: firstly, a great specificity of response to varying edaphic and topographic conditions; and secondly, an emphasis on flexibility of response to the variable climate. Both elements combine to stabilise production or minimise risk. The resulting limited opportunities for investment in agriculture forced farmers to look for a large proportion of their cash income outside rice and upland crop cultivation. This was accentuated by the ever-increasing pressure on farmers to have a greater disposable income, and emphasises the importance of diversifying the farm economy and presenting farmers with opportunities outside agriculture

The texture of livelihoods: Migration and making a living in Hanoi

10.1080/00220388.2013.858130Journal of Development Studies503368-38

Between a rock and a hard place: Vulnerability and precarity in rural Nepal

Drawing on a local study on Nepal’s Terai, this paper explores the nature of livelihood exposure to shocks and stresses among rural households in two Village Development Committees in Sunsari District. The primary data are derived from a 117 household survey supplemented by 19 purposefully sampled follow-up interviews. The paper opens with a discussion of the changing nature of exposure in the global South, distinguishing between inherited vulnerability and produced precarity. We then provide background to the research site and the research methods. In the core empirical part of the paper we unravel and distinguish between the livelihood threats and opportunities faced by households in the area and use these to reflect on the nature of ’exposure’, its historical origins and contemporary (re)production. The final part of the paper uses the Nepal case to build a more general argument, proposing that if we are to understand the puzzle of continued livelihood exposure and uncertainty in the context of aggregate economic expansion we need to identify and interrogate the processes that may, at the same time, produce wealth and reduce vulnerability, while also generating precarity

The Routledge Handbook of Global Development

This Handbook provides a comprehensive analysis of some of the world’s most pressing global development challenges – including how they may be better understood and addressed through innovative practices and approaches to learning and teaching. Featuring 61 contributions from leading and emerging academics and practitioners, this multidisciplinary volume is organized into five thematic parts exploring: changes in global development financing, ideologies, norms and partnerships; interrelationships between development, natural environments and inequality; shifts in critical development challenges, and; new possibilities for positive change. Collectively, the handbook demonstrates that global development challenges are becoming increasingly complex and multi-faceted and are to be found in the Global ‘North’ as much as the ‘South’. It draws attention to structural inequality and disadvantage alongside possibilities for positive change. The Handbook will serve as a valuable resource for students and scholars across multiple disciplines including Development Studies, Anthropology, Geography, Global Studies, Indigenous and Postcolonial Studies, Political Science, and Urban Studies

Introduction

This chapter provides the introduction to the Handbook. It provides a broad overview of global development. It notes that while progress has been made on some development challenges, this progress has been uneven, and has been accompanied by the emergence of new challenges. Following this, it makes a case for the shift from international to global development, and then outlines the key contributions made by this Handbook. The effort to provide pedagogical insights is stated

The Asian tsunami, academics and academic research

10.1111/j.0129-7619.2005.00216.xSingapore Journal of Tropical Geography262244-24