Prompted by some new translations, I have discussed my short book Sustainable Livelihoods and Rural Development at eight different sessions over the past few months. Coming on the back of a podcast recorded in South Africa that was released earlier in the year, it has been interesting to compare responses from quite different audiences in Brazil (online), Germany and Italy and as part of a podcast discussion in Indonesia.
The sustainable livelihoods approach is now over 30 years old, emerging around the time of the classic IDS Discussion Paper by Robert Chambers in Gordon Conway in 1992. But the appeal of the approach as an integrative framework going beyond sectoral siloes for thinking about how people make a living remains. There have been many critiques of course, some of which I addressed in the 2015 book, as I tried to link the original thinking to debates in agrarian studies and political economy. But I think the core ideas remain important, useful to students, academic researchers, activists and policymakers alike. This feeling was most definitely reinforced by all the conversations in different ways.
This article is from Zimbabweland, a blog written by IDS Research Fellow Ian Scoones. Zimbabweland focuses on issues related to rural livelihoods and land reform in Zimbabwe.
