Livelihoods perspectives and rural development

TLDR

Livelihoods perspectives have been central to rural development thinking and practice in the past decade. The paper investigates the origins, conceptual roots, and influencing factors of livelihoods perspectives, and provides a historical review of key moments, tensions, ambiguities, and challenges in the field. The authors conduct a historical review of key moments in rural livelihoods debates, mapping tensions, ambiguities, and challenges. The review identifies core challenges, especially the need for a more thorough political analysis, which would enhance livelihoods perspectives' capacity to address gaps in knowledge, politics, scale, and dynamics.

Abstract

Livelihoods perspectives have been central to rural development thinking and practice in the past decade. But where do such perspectives come from, what are their conceptual roots, and what influences have shaped the way they have emerged? This paper offers an historical review of key moments in debates about rural livelihoods, identifying the tensions, ambiguities and challenges of such approaches. A number of core challenges are identified, centred on the need to inject a more thorough-going political analysis into the centre of livelihoods perspectives. This will enhance the capacity of livelihoods perspectives to address key lacunae in recent discussions, including questions of knowledge, politics, scale and dynamics.