Managing Risk and Securing Livelihood

The Karrayu Pastoralists, their Environment and the Ethiopian State

Girum G. Alemu

• Publisher: Franz Steiner Verlag GmbH
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9783515114059
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• Subtopic: Geography
• Index: Geography

The hegemonic perspective on adaptation solely focuses on climate stimuli as the driving force behind people's adaptation. Such a perspective underestimates the role played by historical trajectories of political and social forces of change in shaping current adaptation practices. In doing so, it also separates the environment from processes of social change. This work challenges this dominant view by arguing that adaptation practices pursued by pastoral communities need to be seen at the intersection of state-environment-pastoralists-interactions. In other words, the understanding of pastoralists' risk management and livelihood practices requires a perspective that situates local actors into their broader socio-political and environmental contexts. By using a political ecology approach that emphasizes on the agency of pastoral actors, this work demonstrates how the Karrayyu pastoral groups of upper Awash valley develop and use various risk management and livelihood practices under the influence of both socio-political and ecological sources of change.

Table of contents

• TABLE OF CONTENTS
• LIST OF FIGURES
• LIST OF TABLES
• LIST OF PHOTOS
• LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
• GLOSSARY
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• ABSTRACT
• ZUSAMMENFASSUNG
• 1. INTRODUCTION
• 2. ADAPTATION, VULNERABILITY AND LOCAL AGENCY: THEORETICAL AND CONCEPTUAL REFLECTIONS
• 3. RESEARCHING WITH THE LOCALS: METHODOLOGICAL REFLECTIONS
• 4. LIVELIHOOD INSECURITY IN CONTEXT: HISTORICAL TRAJECTORIES
• 5. ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSFORMATION AND LIVESTOCKBASED LIVELIHOOD PRACTICES
• 6. LIVING THE TRANSFORMATION: THE MOVE TOWARDS AGRO-PASTORALISM
• 7. CONTEXTUALIZED ADAPTATION: HEGEMONIC PERSPECTIVES AND LOCAL RESPONSES
• 8. CONCLUSIONS
• 9. LIST OF REFERENCES