Uncertainties of all sorts – environmental, market-based and political – are on the rise, as the world faces climate and environmental change.
In this episode of the IDS Between the Lines podcast, Rashmi Singh, interviews Professor Ian Scoones from IDS whose book: Pastoralism, Uncertainty and Development makes the case that recognising how pastoralists make productive use of variability and embrace uncertainty is central to understanding how pastoral systems in marginal dryland and montane systems work.
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They argue that learning lessons from pastoralists is therefore important for all of us, as well as ensuring that development efforts are more effective across the world’s rangelands, where millions of pastoralists live.
This podcast offers wider lessons for rethinking development policy and practice for today’s uncertain, turbulent world.
About the author
Ian Scoones is co-director of the ESRC STEPS Centre at Sussex and principal investigator of the ERC Advanced Grant project, PASTRES (Pastoralism, Uncertainty and Resilience: Lessons From the Margins).
He works on agrarian and environmental change, particularly in Africa. He has a particular interest in the connections between science, policy and the politics of sustainability. His long-term research on land, agricultural and livelihoods in Zimbabwe is covered in his regular blog, Zimbabweland. He is a member of the editorial collective of the Journal of Peasant Studies and on the editorial board of Ecology and Society.
About the interviewer
Rashmi Singh is an Affiliate Researcher and member of the Communications team at PASTRES, IDS. She has a PhD in Human Ecology from the School of Human Ecology, Ambedkar University Delhi and has conducted research on pastoral communities of Indian Himalaya for a decade now.
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