Pastoralism and Development: Fifty Years of Dynamic Change

Ian Scoones; Jeremy Lind; Natasha Maru; Michele Nori; Linda Pappagallo; Tahira Shariff; Giulia Simula; Jeremy Swift; Masresha Taye; Palden Tsering

doi:10.19088/1968-2020.111

Ian Scoones⁺⁻
Jeremy Lind⁺⁻
Natasha Maru⁺⁻
Michele Nori⁺⁻
Linda Pappagallo⁺⁻
Tahira Shariff⁺⁻
Giulia Simula⁺⁻
Jeremy Swift⁺⁻
Masresha Taye⁺⁻
Palden Tsering⁺⁻

Institute of Development Studies

Bio

Ian Scoones

Author Biography

Ian Scoones is a Professorial Fellow at IDS and Co-Director of the ESRC STEPS Centre. He is the Principal Investigator of the European Research Council Advanced Grant programme, PASTRES, and is exploring insights from pastoral systems for wider understandings of uncertainty in policy and practice.

Institute of Development Studies

Bio

Jeremy Lind

Author Biography

Jeremy Lind is Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS). He works on livelihoods, pastoralism, extractionist development, and conflict, focusing on Kenya and Ethiopia. His current work as part of the Seeing Conflict at the Margins project explores the responses of pastoralists to large-scale green energy projects in Kenya. He co-edited Land, Investment and Politics: Reconfiguring Eastern Africa’s Pastoral Drylands (James Currey, 2020) and Pastoralism and Development in Africa: Dynamic Change at the Margins (Routledge, 2012). His work has featured in the journals Development and Change, Political Geography, Environmental Management, and Peacebuilding.

Institute of Development Studies

Bio

Natasha Maru

Author Biography

Natasha Maru is a PhD student with the Pastoralism, Uncertainty and Resilience: Global Lessons from the Margins (PASTRES) programme at IDS. Her research focuses on everyday experiences of pastoral mobility in western India. She holds an MPhil in Development Studies from the University of Oxford, and has experience working with smallholder farmers and pastoralists with local and international organisations.

PASTRES Research Associate; Robert Schuman Centre, European University Institute

Bio

Michele Nori

Author Biography

Michele Nori is a tropical agronomist who has further specialised in rural sociology with a PhD from Wageningen University. He has specific expertise on the livelihood systems of agro-pastoral communities. By integrating field practices, academic research, and policymaking dimensions, Michele has developed a 'horizontal career’ over 25 years, through collaborations with organisations including civil society, UN agencies, research institutes, agricultural enterprises, and donor offices in different regions. His current concern at the Robert Schuman Centre, European University Institute is to provide effective scientific evidence and policy advice on rural development through sound analysis of field realities and practices.

Institute of Development Studies

Bio

Linda Pappagallo

Author Biography

Linda Pappagallo holds an MA in International Affairs from Columbia University. Her professional experience has largely focused on research and data collection methodologies, including impact evaluations on community-based rangeland and livestock management, and social impact data collection with mobile technology. Her interest in pastoralism began in Namibia in 2016, and she has since been involved in diverse pastoral-related projects. Her PhD research with the PASTRES programme at IDS explores how migration and ‘absentee’ livestock ownership influences patterns of social differentiation in southern Tunisia. She is currently interested in using pastoralism as a livelihood lens to understand society.

Institute of Development Studies

Bio

Tahira Shariff

Author Biography

Tahira Shariff is an anthropologist and holds an MA in International Studies from the University of Nairobi. She is currently a PhD student with the PASTRES programme at IDS, researching how changes in moral economy among pastoralists in northern Kenya aid in engaging with uncertainty. Her interests include working with rural communities to understand livelihood-related challenges and what roles mutual support, social relations, and networks play in managing uncertainties.

Institute of Development Studies

Bio

Giulia Simula

Author Biography

Giulia Simula is a PhD student with the PASTRES programme at IDS. Her interests lie in the politics of pastoral markets and the differentiated uncertainties affecting long and short chains. Giulia completed her MA at the Institute for Social Studies in the Hague, majoring in Agrarian, Food and Environmental Studies. She then became engaged in food sovereignty efforts and worked with the European Coordination Via Campesina; with the non-governmental organisation Crocevia, which serves as the secretariat of the International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty; and with the Civil Society Mechanism for relations to the United Nations Committee on World Food Security.

Institute of Development Studies

Bio

Jeremy Swift

Author Biography

Jeremy Swift is Emeritus Fellow at IDS. He has worked on nomadic pastoral economies in mountain and desert environments. His research includes understanding pastoral economies, food insecurity, post-conflict rehabilitation, the transition from socialism to a market economy, and institutional issues including land tenure reform and market development. This work has been conducted among the Tuareg in the southwestern Sahara, the Turkana and Boran in northern Kenya, the Wodaabe in Niger, the Bakhtyari in northwest Iran, and in southern Oman, Mongolia and the Tibetan areas of China. Most recently, he developed a programme for distance learning among nomads in Kenya and Chad.

Institute of Development Studies

Bio

Masresha Taye

Author Biography

Masresha Taye joined the PASTRES programme at IDS as a PhD student in 2019. He holds an MA in Development Studies from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. Masresha served as Ethiopia country programme coordinator for the Index-Based Livestock Insurance (IBLI) programme at the International Livestock Research Institute for five years. Leveraging his experience at IBLI and in the pastoral systems of East Africa, Masresha’s PhD research focuses on ‘Financialization of Risk in the Ethiopian Drylands: Pastoralists’ Practices of Integrating Livestock Insurance to Respond to Uncertainty’.

Institute of Development Studies

Bio

Palden Tsering

Author Biography

Palden Tsering is a PhD researcher with the PASTRES programme at IDS. He holds an MSc in Conservation and Rural Development from the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, University of Kent. Palden recently worked as project manager for Qinghai Plateau Nature Conservancy, a local NGO that is dedicated to biodiversity conservation and community development in the ‘Three Rivers’ region. His current research focuses on hybrid land governance in pastoral areas of Amdo Tibet.

Volume 51 Number 1A

Published: May 27, 2020

https://doi.org/10.19088/1968-2020.111

This archive IDS Bulletin reflects on 50 years of research on pastoralism at IDS. Thirteen articles are introduced around six themes that have characterised IDS-linked research over this period. These are: pastoral livelihoods; institutions and common property resource management; climate change and ecological dynamics; food security, early warning, and livelihood vulnerability; pastoral marketing; and conflict and governance.

Across these themes, IDS research has challenged mainstream development thinking and practice, highlighting the importance of mobility and living with uncertainty. This introductory article concludes with some reflections on research gaps and new challenges, including: the effects of climate change; new forms of pastoral mobility and livelihood; increasing pattern of commoditisation and social differentiation; and changing conflict dynamics. Although massively changed over 50 years, and despite repeated proclamations of crisis and collapse, pastoralism remains, we argue, an important, resilient source of livelihood in marginal rangeland areas across the world, from which others can learn.

From Issue: Vol. 51 No. 1A (2020) | Fifty Years of Research on Pastoralism and Development