Publications

IDCE has a history of innovative teaching and research in development and environmental studies. The following publications illustrate the diversity and depth of continuing research that IDCE faculty, colleagues, students, and alumni carry out.

These publications enable development scholars, policy makers, planners, and practitioners to explore alternative approaches to community-based development. The research offers informative results presented in the form of handbooks, case studies, books, working papers and articles. It reflects the collaborative efforts of partnerships between local and central, researcher and practitioner, developing and industrial sectors, and technical and social science specialists.

Most publications have been written jointly between Clark's IDCE faculty and colleagues in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Some are available in languages other than English, including Bislama, French, Kiswahili, Malagasy, Russian, Setswana, Somali, and Spanish. There are locally produced translations in Arabic, Amharic, and Ndebele.

To order one of these publications, please email jjohnstone@clarku.edu or call 508-793-7690 for more information. Please be aware that some availability is limited. You must have the completed form sent to us and you may email it as an attachment or fax it to: 508-793-8820.

Black and Green: Afro-Colombians, Development, and Nature in the Pacific Lowlands

by Kiran Asher Publisher: Duke University Press In Black and Green, Kiran Asher provides a powerful framework for reconceptualizing the relationship between neoliberal development and social movements. Moving beyond the notion that development is a hegemonic, homogenizing force that victimizes local communities, Asher argues that development processes and social movements shape each other in uneven and paradoxical ways. She bases her argument on ethnographic analysis of the black social movements that emerged from and interacted with political and economic changes in Colombia’s Pacific lowlands, or Chocó region, in the 1990s. Download the order form to purchase this book from Duke University Press. Not available from IDCE.

IDCE Publications

Nabad iyo Caano (Peace and Milk)
Linking Peace Building and Community-Based Development for a Decentralized Somaliland
By Richard B. Ford, Adan Abokor, and Shukri Abdullahi

Dararweyne, a village of 110 households in Somaliland, had a problem. The civil war of the 1880s and '90s had left the community deeply divided among the village's three sub-clans that had previously lived in harmony. Disputes immobilized the Council of Elders so that village wells fell into disrepair, the health clinic collapsed, the school's walls were falling down, and agricultural productivity - the life blood of the village - was in steep decline. In January 2001, a team from Clark University and the Somaliland NGO, International Cooperation for Development, conducted a participatory needs assessment.

The program created an opportunity for members of all three sub-clans to speak and listen to one another - something that had not happened since the civil war. The ranking exercise was the most memorable of five participatory tools and enabled the community, especially the women, to design a new method for choosing village leaders and a new way for the village to come to consensus on village priorities. Over the three years since the assessment, Dararweyne has joined with development partners and rebuilt its clinic, repaired the school, built a sub-surface dam, fixed old and dug new wells for its farms, extended the village water supply into the middle of the village, and reversed the decline in agricultural productivity. The village's women have been exceptionally active in this effort. The case study offers models for building peace in post-conflict development settings.

Price: $6: Available from IDCE.

Mato Bato - Solving a Water Problem on Negros Island through Community Action
A PAPPA Community-Based Assessment in Negros, The Philippines
By Richard B. Ford, Adan Abokor, and Shukri Abdullahi

Mato Bato describes how the village of Nagbinlod on Negros Island, The Philippines, carried out a participatory needs assessment that led to an action plan the entire community supported: installation of a safe water supply. For five years the community had tried unsuccessfully to persuade the local government to support a plan that would protect the village well, make it safe for children collecting water, assure the quality of the water for drinking, and extend a pipeline to standpipes throughout the community to eliminate the long (2 km) and uphill climb to the well. The village action plan that resulted from the assessment called for the local government to build two storage tanks and an electric pump; the community agreed to pay for the extension of the electrical line to the well and dig two kms of trenches to bury the pipe; a US partner pledged to pay for the pipe. This three-way partnership won approval from local government, mobilized the underutilized resources of the community, and convinced the US partner that the village was serious about wanting a water system. In addition, the village has learned that building consensus and mobilizing local resources is a powerful way to achieve its goals. The case study provides instructions for others who may wish to carry out community-based planning exercises.

Price: $6: Available from IDCE.

Recent Books by IDCE faculty

Globalization and Militarism: Feminists Make the Link
By Cynthia Enloe

Written by one of the world's leading feminist scholars, this masterful and provocative book takes seriously women's desires to be patriotic yet feminine and men's fears of being feminized as a strategy to explain how militarism is being globalized and thus what it will take to roll back militarized societies and assumptions. Through explorations of how governments think so narrowly about national security, of how post-war reconstruction efforts have marginalized women, of how ideas about feminization were used to humiliate male prisoners in Abu Ghraib, and of why camo has become a fashion statement, Cynthia H. Enloe unravels militarism's both blatant and subtle workings. Focusing her lens on the Big Picture of international politics and on the small picture of women's and men's complex everyday lives, Enloe challenges us to recognize militarism in all its forms.

Visit Amazon to purchase this book. Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. Not available from IDCE.

War Destroys, Peace Nurtures
Somali Reconciliation and Development
By Richard B. Ford, Edna Adan Ismail, and Hussein M. Adam

War Destroys: Peace Nurtures presents selected papers from the 8th Somali Studies International Association Congress held in Hargeisa in July 2001. The volume focuses on finding tools, solutions, and policies that speak to the need for building peace, establishing equitable and stable governance, and achieving reconciliation. The papers are of value not only to Somalis throughout the Horn of Africa but also to other African states that have suffered horrific disasters over the last few decades including Liberia, Sierra Leone, Angola, Zaire/DRC, Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi, and others.

Contributors describe the role of women's groups in reconciliation, peace building, and economic development; potential linkages between traditional and modern governance models; alternative modes of decentralization; the role of language, poetry, and proverbs in cultural reconciliation; techniques of community participation for building peace at the community level; overcoming health concerns, especially HIV/AIDS and FGM; the role of local institutions in sustaining environmental resources; and ways in which Islam is compatible with democracy and can be an effective tool for building peace. The book opens with a section on the poetry of peace and reconciliation, written in Somali.

Price: $34.95: Available through The Red Sea Press, Inc., 11-D Princess Road, Lawrenceville, NJ 08648 and P.O. Box 48, Asmara, Eritrea.

Southern Exposure
International Development and the Global South in the Twenty-First Century
By Barbara Thomas-Slayter

In this era of rapid globalization, increasing poverty and inequality are two of our most urgent problems, leading to misery and providing fertile fields for anger, despair, and violence. In Southern Exposure, Barbara Thomas-Slayter examines the changes brought about by globalization from the perspective of ordinary people in the Global South, such as small farmers in Kenya, cocoa growers in Bolivia, or garment workers in Bangladesh, highlighting both the diversity of their experience and common themes.

Using an issues-based approach and keeping questions of gender and culture to the fore, Thomas-Slayter explores key political and economic challenges facing Southern countries as they engage with the global system. She identifies critical issues that will shape twenty-first century developments including the continuing boundaries, food security, and the relationships among population growth, scarce resources, and environmental degradation. The final chapter identifies key voices from the South, which are grappling with the emerging choices that face our world.

This book will become a widely adopted introductory text on development issues for undergraduate students, and many case studies will provide general readers with a fascinating overview of the world as experienced from the Global South.

Price: $25.00 (Paper), $65.00 (Cloth): For more information on how to obtain a copy of this book, you may contact Kumarian Press, Inc., 1294 Blue Hills Ave., Bloomingfield, CT 06002. Toll Free (800) 289-2664, Tel: (860) 243-2098, Fax: (860) 243-2867.

Another World Is Possible
Popular Alternatives to Globalization at the World Social Forum
Edited by William Fisher and Thomas Ponniah

Many believe that there are no alternatives to globalization as we know it - with its world of giant corporations in the driver's seat, dominating a "free" market in reality shaped in accordance with their dictates, and elevating economics over all other human considerations and values. But there are alternatives - and the global justice movement is giving voice to them. In this remarkable collection, the compilers have brought together some of the most important themes and voices that these rapidly growing, diverse citizens' movements have expressed at the World Social Forum that gathers each year in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

List price: $19.95 For more information on how to obtain this book, visit www.palgrave-usa.com. Order by phone at (888) 330-8477, or fax your order to (800) 672-2054. Mail your order to: VHPS 16365 James Madison HWY. (Rte 15) Gordonsville, VA 22942. Payment options: Visa, Mastercard, American Express, check or money order.

Participatory and Community Development Handbooks

Villagers Building Communities: "How Za'ari Used PAPPA Self-Managed Community-Based Tools To Strengthen Infrastructure." Richard Ford, Saeed Bancie Abubakari and Moses Tampuri. International Development Community and Environment (IDCE) at Clark University, December 2003. English - Price: $6.00.

This booklet focuses on another dimension of popular enfranchisement. Providing tools that communities can use to plan and manage their own development. Skills in community-based planning are a first step towards building the necessary community infrastructure and institutional capacity to support micro-enterprise initiatives. These are tools that villagers can use on their own as well as train other villagers.

Introduction to PRA. Clark University and National Environment Secretariat, Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, Nairobi, Kenya. November, 1989. 23 pp. English - $2.00; KiSwahili, French, Setswana, Somali, and Malagasy - $4.00, Russian and Spanish (xerox) - $4.00.

PRA is a simple methodology that brings a grassroots focus to rural development and enables rural communities to participate in preparing and implementing Community Action Plans. A summary of the PRA Handbook, this booklet explains the merits of Participatory Rural Appraisal and briefly describes the rationale and steps to carry it out.

Participatory Rural Appraisal Handbook. The National Environment Secretariat, Government of Kenya; Clark University, USA; Egerton University, Kenya and The Center for International Development and Environment of the World Resources Institute, USA. December, 1994. English - $8.00, French and Russian (xerox) - $4.00.

PRA is a way to systematize a very old approach to rural development: community participation. This guide presents field-based steps of the PRA methodology including: data gathering, organizing and ranking problems and opportunities, creating community action plans for resource management and evaluation/monitoring. PRA is an excellent tool for identifying community needs and addressing them through an integration of traditional skills and external technical knowledge.

Implementing PRA: A Handbook for Facilitating Participatory Rural Appraisal. Elizabeth Oduor-Naoh and Isabella Asamba, National Environment Secretariat (NES), Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, Kenya; Richard Ford and Lori Wichhart, Program for International Development, Clark University; and Francis Lelo, Egerton University, Njoro, Kenya. March,1992. 64 pp. English - $8.00; Russian (xerox)- $4.00.

This handbook is a sequel to the basic PRA handbook. Drawing on several PRA experiences, it focuses on how to develop a Community Action Plan (CAP). It helps to focus community discussion, mobilize community groups during the CAP implementation, and helps communities measure their progress toward achieving CAP objectives.

Negotiating Conservation: Reflections on Linking Conservation and Development in Madagascar. Richard Ford, et al. SAF and Clark University. November, 1996. English and French - $6.00.

Fourteen villages neighboring Mantadia National Park in Madagascar used participatory tools to establish local baseline data, action plans, implementation procedures, community-based indicators and village monitoring and evaluation. The document illustrates that community groups are fully able to monitor and assess local information as an essential step to sustaining natural resources and livelihood production.

Linking Governance and Effective Resource Management: A Guidebook for Community-Based Monitoring and Evaluation. Richard Ford, Francis Lelo and Harlys Rabarison. Clark University. March, 1998. $6.00.

This guidebook explores a range of monitoring and evaluation techniques designed to help resource users assess the impact of their own practices. These techniques can be built into local resource management practices that eventually may be scaled up to influence national resource management policies. Some of the monitoring tools include: 1) establishing trend lines, 2) monitoring institutional change, 3) re-ranking problems and solutions to reflect changing priorities and 4) improved record keeping. The guidebook focuses on case studies of four communities, (three in Kenya), drawing on longitudinal data on participatory approaches. The fourth case study describes a village in Madagascar.

Neighborhoods Taking Action: Linking Community Action and Local Participation in Kenya and Massachusetts. NTA Steering Committee. Clark University. May 1999. $6.00.

Can community-based approaches that work in one cultural setting be adapted to work in another? This guidebook explores that question through case studies presented at a Neighborhoods Taking Action workshop held in 1998 at Clark University, Worcester. The guidebook is based on the belief that around the world, neighborhoods represent a dramatically underused resource for social and economic development. Examples of local activism are drawn from six case studies that include: 1) neighborhood efforts to relocate the Public Inebriate Program and improve services to single adult homeless, 2) creating a recreation area at Union Hill School, 3) establishing a Parents Council for the Lakeside Neighborhood, 4) building a coalition: Downtown Neighborhood Partners, 5) local action in Gilgil, Kenya and 6) community decision-making in Pwani, Kenya.

Students Schools Neighborhoods: A SPARCS Action Curriculum for Community Change. Laurie Ross, Mardi Coleman and Ricci Hall. Clark University. October, 1999. $6.00.

A curriculum for participatory community planning and action for youth in urban neighborhoods, written with the support by the Bell Atlantic Foundation and the USIA, with Worcester Public Schools and Clark University.

Students Participating and Acting to Reinforce Community Spirit (SPARCS) is a collaborative effort between Worcester Public Schools to transform urban teens into community analysts, activists and planners. This SPARCS program equips students with skills in community-based development and Geographic Information Systems to analyze neighborhood strengths and problems and to develop action plans and partnerships to implement change. Planned as first in a series, the SPARCS curriculum begins with defining the neighborhood and a walking survey and progresses to a Neighborhood Treasure Hunt, creation of a vision statement and ranking of opportunities for improvement. Journal writing and entering data into GIS database are important activities throughout the program. The program requires the students' collaboration with other community groups, such as parent councils, community development corporations, and local churches and businesses. Through the SPARCS program, teens learn not only important technical and analytical skills in community development, but also about their role as productive, active citizens.

Using Village Log Books for Monitoring and Evaluation: A Guide to Community-Based Project Management. Ndranto Razakamanarina, et al. SAF and Clark University. August, 1995 (xerox) - $4.00.

This booklet through examples from Madagascar describes cost-effective local development. The village log is a tool that concentrates on five areas: evaluating the Community Action Plan, illustrating links between conservation and development, increasing public awareness and transparency, building ownership among community groups and increasing accountability of project participants both external staff and village organizations.

Community-Based Development in Armenia: A Handbook for Participatory Regional Assessment and Community Development Planning. Save the Children/Armenia and Clark University. June, 1995 (xerox) - $4.00.

This handbook presents a new approach to connect local and regional development planning. The approach identifies regional priorities that reflect needs of regional planners as well as locally based community groups. The field work and analysis demonstrate that the present institutional gap pervading much of the former Soviet Republics can be eased through use of local and community-based participation to construct regional agendas for action.

Sustaining Development Through Community Mobilization: A Case Study of Participatory Rural Appraisal in the Gambia. Richard Ford, Clark University; Charity Kabutha, (formerly) National Environment Secretariat, Kenya; Nicholas Mageto, Ministry of Water Development, Kenya and Karafa Manneh, ActionAid, The Gambia. October, 1992. 47 pp. (xerox) - $4.00.

This case study describes the initial data collection that the villages of Dingiraay and Ndawen undertook and how they ranked their problems. Each village developed a Community Action Plan (CAP) in which specific community groups are identified to carry out particular tasks and begin their own mobilization for development. This case study places particular emphasis on the role of community institutions in both villages.

Case Studies

Using PRA with Somali Pastoralists: Building Community Institutions for Africa's 21st Century. Richard Ford, Hussein Adam, Adan Yusuf Abubaker, Ahmed Farah and Osman Hirad Barre. Published in cooperation with GTZ/Gardo. December, 1994. 64 pp. English and Somali - $6.00, Russian (xerox) - $4.00.

A full PRA assessment leads to a Community Action Plan (CAP) for Jeded, Somalia. The CAP establishes a framework to improve the villages economic and social well being, stressing the need to rely on material and human resources and the building of partnerships with other communities, as well as with government and NGO agencies. This case study presents PRA as a first step to rebuild rural Somali communities, in preparation for the larger task to rehabilitate the entire nation.

Managing Resources with PRA Partnerships: A Case Study of Lesoma, Botswana. Richard Ford, Clark University; Francis Lelo, Egerton University; Chandida Manyadzwe, Department of Wildlife and National Parks and Richard Kashweeka, Forum on Sustainable Agriculture. September, 1993. 47 pp. English and Setswana - $6.00.

The village of Lesoma, Botswana, struggles with problems of persistent encroachment by large game, male out-migration, ethnic tension and fragmented community institutions. This case study describes how PRA opens negotiations between park officers and communities. The goal of the Community Action Plan is to develop partnerships between the villagers and two outside entities: an NGO and the government extension officers.

Conducting PRA in the South Pacific: Experiences in Natural Resource Management from Vanuatu. John Bronson, Wycliff Bakeo and Richard Ford. February, 1995. 64pp. English - $8.00 and Russian - $4.00.

The goal of the PRA workshop organized by the Profitable Environmental Protection Project (PEP) was to establish an environmental management plan, based on the social, economic and ecological characteristics of Hog Harbour, Vanuatu. Beautiful scenery, plus education, church influences, rising aspirations for material goods and cash income constitute the primary forces driving change for this community. PRA involved residents in discussions about how to set priorities, manage resources, formulate a sound resource management plan and then implement the plan.

Analyse Participative en vue de la Réduction de Pression sur une Aire Protégée, Andasibe, Madagascar. Peter Shaun Reveley, Julien Rajaona, Faly Rasamison, Hery Ramambasoa, Harlys Rabarison, Ndranto Razakamanarina and Naina Razafindrakotohasina. SAF. Août, 1993. 34 pp. French only - $6.00.

L'ERP (PRA) Andasibe a le double but de ressortir les objectifs de la méthodologie (organiser et structurer les informations détenues par la population et aussi mobiliser les ressources locales pour que la population soit consciente qu’elle peut et doit être le seul acteur de son propre développement) et collecter les informations pour le consortium VITA/SAF. Pour le cas d'Andasibe l'ERP a été conçu en dialogue d'affinités entre les villageois et l'équipe, entre la population et le complexe d'aires protégées, entre les ressources et les opportunités. Les activités de l'ERP on eu comme résultat l'élaboration, par chaque de cinq villages étudiées d'un Plan Communautaire d'Action Centre sur les problèmes ressentis comme les plus cruciaux.

Conserving Resources and Increasing Production: Using Participatory Tools to Monitor and Evaluate Community-Based Resource Management Practices. Richard Ford, Francis Lelo, et.al. Egerton University and Clark University. September, 1996. English (xerox) - $4.00.

The case study describes use of community-based indicators for self-monitoring and evaluation in three communities in Kenya. Approximately ten different indicators and monitoring tools are used in order to strengthen community institutional abilities to keep village log books, note changes in indicators, and use the data in periodic community meetings in negotiations with NGO, government, and bilateral agencies.

Working Papers and Articles

Paper #1 Assessing Mbusyani: Using Participatory Rural Appraisal for Sustainable Resources Management. Charity Kabutha, (formerly) National Environment Secretariat; Barbara Thomas-Slayter, and Richard Ford, Clark University. October, 1991. $5.00.

The extension of farming and the subsequent constriction of grazing lands are two forces that have led to accelerated resource degradation, including the loss of ground cover, soil erosion and reduced water availability in this region in Kenya and Mbusyani in particular. The purpose of the Mbusyani study was to learn whether a research team, with substantial community participation, could gather data, define problems, rank solutions and devise an integrated village plan for natural resource management in a relatively short time.

Paper #2 Evaluating Participatory Rural Appraisal: Listening to Village Leaders in Kakuyuni Location. Richard Ford, Clark University, and Francis Lelo, Egerton University, Kenya. (Reprint of article published in Forests, Trees and People NEWSLETTER, Number 13). June, 1991. $3.00.

This short article presents an "in-the-field" assessment of PRA as it functioned for two years in two Kenyan communities. A community forum involving more than 100 resource users, farmers, merchants, technical officers and community leaders considered PRA projects, local solutions, quality of data, systematization of participation, acceleration of change and the role of self-initiated action in their communities.

Paper #3 Community Action: Water, Trees, and PRA in Pwani. Richard Ford, Clark University; Francis Lelo and Joseph Ayieko, Egerton University. November, 1992. $5.00.

Pwani village in Kenya seized the opportunity to be a living/learning laboratory for a PRA training course, jointly sponsored by Egerton University, the World Resources Institute, Kenya's National Environment Secretariat and Clark University. Pwani leaders viewed this course as an opportunity to start their own development of natural resource management. The course allowed tensions to soften in Pwani and attracted outsiders to participate in Pwani's spirit of self-designed development and growth.

Gender

Handbooks

A Manual for Socio-Economic and Gender Analysis: Responding to the Development Challenge. Barbara Thomas-Slayter; Rachel Polestico, Xavier University, the Philippines; Andrea Esser; Octavia Taylor; and Elvina Mutua, Tototo Home Industries, Kenya. October, 1995. 278pp. $20.00.

This manual for socio-economic and gender analysis is geared to development professionals, working as planners, organizers, educators, project managers, or community activists. It provides the concepts and tools to promote local empowerment and capacity building and to create effective projects that are more responsive to local needs and interests. It introduces a conceptual framework, offers 40 tools and strategies for socio-economic and gender analysis, provides mini-case studies of NGO development activities in different settings around the world, and suggests ways to clarify objectives and to measure outcomes.

Tools of Gender Analysis: A Guide to Field Methods for Bringing Gender into Sustainable Resource Management. Barbara Thomas-Slayter, Andrea Lee Esser and M. Dale Shields. July, 1993. 44 pp. English, French and Spanish - $ 6.00, Russian (xerox) - $4.00.

This guide focuses on ways gender analysis helps to increase the effectiveness of development for sustainable resource management. It presents an overview of gender considerations and suggests analytical tools for development professionals in NGO and government and international organizations to increase the effectiveness and sustainability of project activities. The primary goal is to make policy and program specialists aware of simple and inexpensive tools to incorporate gender concerns into development.

Introducing the ECOGEN (Ecology, Community Organization and Gender) Approach to Gender, Natural Resources Management and Sustainable Development. Barbara Thomas-Slayter, Dianne Rocheleau, Dale Shields, Mary Rojas. 1991. 12 pp. $4.00.

Gender's impact on natural resource management and development strategies has often been overlooked by researchers, practitioners and policy makers. ECOGEN seeks to clarify men's and women's roles, the indefinite boundaries of household and family, and the complex linkages among family, household, community and ecosystem. The ECOGEN framework for analyzing gender in natural resource management includes interactive processes, linkage of micro- and macro-structures, recognition of the diversity of ecosystems and communities, as well as the relevance of local institutions.

Case Studies

From Cattle to Coffee: Transformation in Rural Machakos. Isabella Asamba, National Environment Secretariat, Government of Kenya; and Barbara Thomas-Slayter, International Development Program, Clark University. June, 1991. 36 pp. $5.00.

Analysis of Mbusyani and Kyevaluki, two sublocations in Machakos District, Kenya, reveals some important differences in how households and community organizations respond to challenges resulting from a degraded resource base, pressures on the land, a rapidly growing population, water scarcity and inadequate employment opportunities. This case explores the sources of these differences including leadership roles, women's organizations and institutional linkages in Mbusyani and Kyevaluki.

People, Property, Poverty and Parks: A Story of Men, Women, Water and Trees at Pwani. Dianne Rocheleau, Graduate School of Geography, Clark University; Karen L. Schofield, International Development Program, Clark University; and J. Njoki Mbuthi, National Environment Secretariat, Government of Kenya. July, 1991. 45 pp. $5.00.

Pwani, Kenya illustrates settlement processes and park periphery dynamics, as well as the gender division of labor, rights, responsibilities and interests in each. Land shortage and the consequent outmigration of young people, especially men, have also shaped the gender division of labor and knowledge in agriculture, resource management and health care in Pwani. The researchers integrated gender into the content and method of an on-going participatory rural appraisal (PRA), while exploring issues of resettlement and resource management.

Gender, Ecology and Agroforestry: Science and Survival in Kathama. Dianne E. Rocheleau, Graduate School of Geography, Clark University. March, 1992. 31 pp. $5.00.

The semi-arid farming communities surrounding the village of Kathama in Kenya have participated in agroforestry and related research for more than a decade. The experiences of people in Kathama during the famine in 1985 provide insights into the resourcefulness of rural women's organizations and the complexity of rural people's tactics of survival (both ecological and political). The application of that knowledge demonstrates the importance of both men's and women's participation in the research and development process in forestry, agriculture and other sectors of rural resource management and production.

Gender, Class, Ecological Decline and Livelihood Strategies: A Case Study of Siquijor Island, The Philippines. M. Dale Shields and Barbara Thomas-Slayter, Clark University. March, 1993. 52 pp. $5.00.

In the Filipino rural villages of Napo and Tubod, migration of men and women plays an integral role in livelihood systems, as do the indigenous groups that are normally structured around gendered and class interests. Findings reveal negative impacts on gender roles and relations within poorer households in Napo and Tubod as their members are drawn into the modern cash economy. The case further explores men's and women's reliance on social exchange networks and "safety nets" that are central to household and family sustenance but may be detrimental to long-term preservation of the natural resource base.

Managing Resources in a Nepalese Village: Changing Dynamics of Gender, Caste and Ethnicity. Nina Bhatt, Laju Shrestha and Barbara Thomas-Slayter, Clark University;. Indira Koirala, Institute for Integrated Development Studies, Kathmandu, Nepal. May, 1994. 50 pp. $5.00.

This case explores the changes in gender and ethnic dynamics as villagers in Ghusel, Nepal shift from an emphasis on subsistence agriculture to livestock rearing. While the shift assured food security for many households previously vulnerable to hunger, it created new inequalities in gender roles and ethnic/class relations. The disproportionate access to resources that men control has increased the subordinate position of women.

Shifting Boundaries: Gender, Migration and Community Resources in the Foothills of Choluteca, Honduras. Anne-Marie Urban, Clark University; and Mary Hill Rojas, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. October, 1994. 54 pp. $5.00.

The opportunities and constraints affecting the women and men of Linaca are linked to the agricultural export economy dominating the fertile lowlands and valleys, and to the natural resource depletion throughout Honduras. Research suggests that Linaca has a growing number of landless and near-landless households without access to sufficient local resources. Households also have a rising dependence on seasonal and permanent migration to secure wage labor as a vital component of the their livelihoods. The case explores the various strategies women and men have handle external and internal economic obstacles and environmental pressures, particularly the implications for gender-based rights, roles and responsibilities.

Adapting to Resource Constraints in Gikarangu: New Livelihood Strategies for Women and Men in Rural Kenya. Leah Wanjama, Kenyatta University; Njoki Mbuthi and Barbara Thomas-Slayter, Clark University. 1996. 37 pp. $5.00.

Residents of Gikarangu, Kenya, work hard to manage their resources. Land pressures, stratification, family breakdown, increasing economic and political pressures, rising unemployment and an increase in single mothers are shaping the patterns of gender roles in resource management and livelihood systems. Gikarangu offers insights into a community with high levels of social mobilization and organization, linked in numerous ways to economic, social and political systems beyond its borders.

Forests, Gardens and Tree Farms: Gender, Class and Community at Work in the Landscapes of Zambrana-Chacuey, Dominican Republic. Dianne Rocheleau, L. Ross, Clark University; J. Morrobel, C. Brito, C. Amparo and R. Hernandez, the Rural Federation of Zambrana-Chacuey and ENDA-Caribe, Cotui. July 1996. 60 pp. $5.00.

The story of this region is one of successful struggle to gain access to land, as well as extensive outmigration to gain access to employment. In each process, both women and men have played key roles in the Rural Federation of Zambrana-Chaucey, as well as in their homes and communities to secure and manage land and water resources, to provide basic services (health, education, transportation and markets) and to promote land use and livelihood innovations. The case study explores constraints and opportunities for men and women in developing a cooperative sawmill and a regional tree and tree products industry.

Working Papers and Articles

Gender, Equity and Effective Resource Management in Africa: Building Indicators, Analyzing Cases, Developing Strategies. Barbara Thomas-Slayter, Genese Sodikoff and Eileen Reynolds. July, 1996. $8.00.

This report includes a literature search to develop an inventory of situations where women's involvement in natural resource management has contributed effectively to livelihood security and sustainable environments. It contains 12 brief project descriptions based on the literature and five case studies from the Gambia, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria and Rwanda on this topic. From this evidence, the authors identify enabling conditions, develop indicators and suggest strategies for gender-inclusive approaches to natural resource management.

Research Frontiers at the Nexus of Gender, Environment, and Development: Linking Household, Community, and Ecosystem. Babara Thomas-Slayter and Dianne Rocheleau. (Reprint of an article published in The Women and International Development Annual, edited by Rita S. Gallin and Anne Ferguson. Boulder: Westview Press, 1994.) $3.00.

This paper bases its analysis in the literature from political and cultural ecology and from institutional and community organization. It identifies issues and themes relevant to understanding the role of gender in managing natural resources. It argues that a new integrative approach must emerge to conceptualize the ecological and organizational complexity. It also argues that attention to gender is central to increasing the equity and effectiveness of local management of natural resources.

Books Available Directly from the Publishers

Gender, Environment, and Development in Kenya: A Grassroots Perspective
By Barbara Thomas-Slayter and Dianne Rocheleau
Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1995. 247 pp. ISBN# 1-55587-419-3: Available from Lynne Rienner Publishing, 1800 30th St., Suite 314, Boulder, CO 80300, Tel: 303-444-6684; Fax: 303-444-0824.

Linkages among poverty, gender roles, resource decline, and ecological degradation challenge development policy and practice in many parts of the world. This award winning book provides an analytical framework for understanding these connections, then examines them empirically in six different communities in rural Kenya. The authors explore ways in which community institutions, and specifically women and their organizations respond to changing resource conditions. Looking at gender-based strategies for controlling such critical resources as soil, water and woodlands, they consider the effects of these strategies on local decision-making, changing gender roles, rural stratification and community relations within the broader social and political environment.

Feminist Political Ecology: Global Issues and Local Experiences
Edited by Dianne Rocheleau, Barbara Thomas-Slayter and Esther Wangari
London: Routledge, 1996. HB: ISBN# 0415120268 - $59.95, PB: ISBN# 0415120276 - $19.95. Available from Routledge Publishing, 29 West 35th St., NY, NY 10001. Tel: 800-634-7064; Fax: 800-248-4724.

This work brings a feminist perspective to political ecology. The volume focuses on understanding and interpreting local experience in the context of global processes of environmental change. It joins three critical themes: 1) gendered knowledge as reflected in an emerging "science of survival;" 2) gendered environmental rights and responsibilities, including property, resources, space and all the variations of legal and customary rights that are "gendered;" 3) gendered environmental politics and grassroots activism. The recent surge in women's involvement in collective struggles over natural resource and environmental issues is contributing to a redefinition of their identities, the meaning of gender, and the nature of environmental problems. Contributions to the volume come from Austria, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, India, Kenya, the Philippines, Poland, Spain, the United States and Zimbabwe.

Power, Process, and Participation: Tools for Change
Edited by Rachel Slocum, Lori Wichhart, Dianne Rocheleau, and Barbara Thomas-Slayter
London: Intermediate Technology, 1995. ISBN# 1 85339 303 7. 251 pp. $17.50. IT Publications are available through Women, Ink., 777 United Nations Plaza, New York, NY 10017 USA, Tel: 212-687-8633; Fax: 212-661-2704 and Intermediate Technology Publications, 103-105 Southampton Row, London WC1B 4HH, UK.

Powerlessness, marginality and dispossession are found worldwide. This book enables community facilitators to empower people who are frequently omitted from the decision-making process. The book focuses on participatory capacity-building in ways that address the practical needs and strategic interest of the disadvantaged. It pays particular attention to gender issues. Other issues examined include how differences in class, ethnicity, race, caste, religion, age and status may lead to the "politics of exclusion" that this book aims to avoid. Contributors include 30 professionals, community activists and researchers from around the world.

Mending Rips in the Sky: Options for Somali Society in the 21st Century
Edited by Hussein M. Adam and Richard Ford
Trenton: Red Sea Press, July 1997. Available Through: Red Sea Press, P.O. Box 1892, Trenton, NJ 08607 USA, Tel: (609) 844-9583.

Only once in the 20th-century has a nation state totally collapsed without a new state arising in its place: Somalia in January 1991. Mending Rips in the Sky presents 40 perspectives on what caused the collapse; why each major initiative to restore government has failed, whether a decentralized confederation could work, and why a clan-based United States of Somalia would not. The volume offers concrete proposals for restructuring a state, through presenting a selection of papers delivered at the Fifth Somali Studies International Association Congress.

The essays explore options for a decentralized state that draw strength from traditional and community-based institutions. While no single model is recommended, a number of alternatives are considered. Contributors include Somali analysts and practitioners as well as European and North American specialists on Somalia.

IDCE Department Publications: Click here to download a Publications Order Form

< back to top