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A
book review of Sustainable Livelihoods titles, written by
Bridget O'Laughlin, appeared in a recent edition of the journal
Development and Change (35:2). The review looks at three kinds
of books: field studies; edited collections; and a training
manual.
The
reviewer notes that the term livelihoods has different, often
overlapping, meanings to different authors. The reviewer suggests
that too much focus is placed on documenting complexity and
diversity in the livelihoods of the poor, without due focus
on the reasons for poverty itself. The micro-focus of most
analysis does not challenge the basic lines of macro-economic
policies recommended by the international financial institutions
(IFIs) nor demand major redistibutive reforms. The goal of
livelihoods approaches as she has interpreted it - to help
the poor to help themselves - is too modest.
Read
the review PDF
Many of the titles discussed are in the Livelihoods Connecty
key documents section. The titles reviewed include:
- Walking
the Tight Rope: Informal Livelihooods and Social Networks
in a West African City (Ilda Lourenco Lindell/ Stockholm
University/ 2002) Find
- Land
Reform and Peasant Livelihoods: The Social Dynamics of Rural
Poverty and Agrarian Reform in Developing Countries. (Krishna
B. Ghimire / Intermediate Technology Development Group /
2001) Find
- Sustainable
Livelihoods in Kalahari Environments: Contributions to Global
Debates (Debora Sporton / David Thomas / Oxford University
Press 2002) Find
- Pathways
of Change in Africa: Crops, Livestock and livelihoods in
Mali, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe (Ian Scoones / William Wolmer
/ Institute of Development Studies/ 2002) Find
- Learning
about livelihoods: Insights from Southern Africa.
(Rick de Satgé; Ailsa Holloway; Dan Mullins; Leah
Nchabaleng; Penny Ward/ PeriPeri / 2002) Find
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