22 pages, via online journal, Past explanations of why rural people respond as they do to external development interventions have emphasized the role of key limiting factors or critical characteristics (wealth, education, land tenure, etc.) which are thought to influence peoples' behavior in predictable ways. Efforts to promote tree planting and soil conservation in eight neighboring villages in the Philippines revealed that variation in participation did not reflect clear patterns based on existing household or village characteristics. Instead, specific responses to interventions reflected a complex, but interpretable interaction between existing socio-economic factors and historic trends or events. Characteristics like the degree of local knowledge, security of land tenure and community cohesion affected peoples' participation, in general, but their specific influence was neither predictable nor consistent between, and even within, individual villages. An appreciation of the specific historic context was often sufficient to explain these variations. The following historic trends and events were found to have important consequences for peoples' participation: migration and settlement history; family and group lineages; history of socio-political organization and conflict; history of physical isolation; labor history; economic–ecological history; environmental history; and past exposure to development agents. The paper concludes with a preliminary checklist of questions intended to assist researchers and development agents to discover relevant and interesting historical information about rural villages.
Hewat, Charlene (author) and Banda, Barbara (author)
Format:
Book chapter
Publication Date:
2010
Published:
Zimbabwe
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D08704
Notes:
Pages 232-239 in Gordon Wilson, Pamela Furniss and Richard Kimbowa (eds.), Environment, development and sustainability: perspectives and cases from around the world. Oxford University Press, Oxford, England. 290 pages.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: C29792
Notes:
Pages 229-233 in Ian Scoones and John Thompson (eds.), Farmer First revisited: innovation for agricultural research and development. Practical Action Publishing, Warwickshire, U.K. 357 pages.
Murwira, Kudakwashe (author), Hagmann, Jurgen (author), and Chuma, Edward (author)
Format:
Book chapter
Publication Date:
2001
Published:
Zimbabwe
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D01211
Notes:
Pages 300-309 in Waters-Bayer (eds.), Farmer innovation in Africa: a source of inspiration for agricultural development. Earthscan Publications, Ltd., London, England. 362 pages.
