This archive IDS Bulletin reflects on 50 years of research on pastoralism at IDS. Much has changed, but there are also important continuities. The ‘end of pastoralism’ was proclaimed widely in the 1970s, yet, as a successful, resilient livelihood adapted to some of the harshest environments on the planet, pastoralism has survived, and remains an important livelihood for many.
Over the last 50 years, both pastoralism and development have changed massively. IDS work has attempted to bridge the gap between theory and practice, and to insert new understanding of pastoralism into development planning. This has involved building a coherent analysis of policies and institutions for pastoral development, and then helping to see the results of that analysis put into practice.
The issue brings together 13 articles on pastoralism published in the IDS Bulletin between 1986 and 2017. The articles address six overlapping themes: pastoral livelihoods; institutions and common property resource management; climate change and ecological dynamics; food security, early warning, and livelihood vulnerability; pastoral marketing; and conflict and governance.
Across these themes, IDS research has challenged mainstream development thinking and practice, highlighting the importance of mobility and living with uncertainty. Research has also challenged the standard models derived from settled systems, and emphasised flexibility, opportunism, and improvisation as responses to uncertainty.
Although massively changed over 50 years, and despite repeated proclamations of crisis and collapse, pastoralism remains, we argue, an important, resilient source of livelihood in marginal rangeland areas across the world, from which others can learn.
Introduction
Pastoralism and Development: Fifty Years of Dynamic Change
Ian Scoones, Jeremy Lind, Natasha Maru, Michele Nori, Linda Pappagallo, Tahira Shariff, Giulia Simula, Jeremy Swift, Masresha Taye and Palden Tsering
Pastoral Livelihoods
Access to Food, Dry Season Strategies and Household Size amongst the Bambara of Central Mali
Camilla Toulmin
Article first published July 1986, IDSB17.3
Gender and Livelihoods in Northern Pakistan
Susan Joekes
Article first published January 1995, IDSB26.1
Institutions and Common Property Resource Management
Local Customary Institutions as the Basis for Natural Resource Management Among Boran Pastoralists in Northern Kenya
Jeremy Swift
Article first published October 1991, IDSB22.4
Institutional Change in the Syrian Rangelands
T. Ngaido, F. Shomo and G. Arab
Article first published October 2001, IDSB32.4
Climate Change and Ecological Dynamics
Climate Change and the Challenge of Non-equilibrium Thinking
Ian Scoones
Article first published July 2004, IDSB35.3
Pastoralists, Patch Ecology and Perestroika: Understanding Potentials for Change in Mongolia
Robin Mearns
Article first published October 1991, IDSB22.4
Food Security, Early Warning, and Livelihood Vulnerability
Why are Rural People Vulnerable to Famine?
Jeremy Swift
Article first published May 1989, IDSB20.2
Food Security: Let them Eat Information
Margaret Buchanan-Smith, Susanna Davies and Celia Petty
Article first published May 1994, IDSB25.2
Pastoral Marketing
Communities, Commodities and Crazy Ideas: Changing Livestock Policies in Africa
Andy Catley, Tim Leyland, Berhanu Admassu, Gavin Thomson, Mtula Otieno and Yacob Aklilu
Article first published June 2005, IDSB36.2
Youth Participation in Smallholder Livestock Production and Marketing
Edna Mutua, Salome Bukachi, Bernard Bett, Benson Estambale and
Isaac Nyamongo
Article first published May 2017, IDSB48.3
Conflict and Governance
Reconstructing Political Order Among the Somalis: The Historical Record in the South and Centre
David K. Leonard and Mohamed Samantar
Article first published January 2013, IDSB44.1
Livestock Raiding Among the Pastoral Turkana of Kenya: Redistribution, Predation and the Links to Famine
Dylan Hendrickson, Robin Mearns and Jeremy Armon
Article first published July 1996, IDSB27.3
Conflict Management for Multiple Resource Users in Pastoralist and Agro-Pastoralist Contexts
Ben Cousins
Article first published July 1996, IDSB27.3
Notes on Contributors: Fifty Years of Research on Pastoralism and Development
Authors
