- Reading, Reading, United Kingdom
Ruth Evans
University of Reading, Geography and Environmental Science, Faculty Member
- Social Networks, Migration, HIV/AIDS, Critical Care, Caring / Care Ethics, Africa, and 21 moreIntergenerational Relations, Gender Inequalities, Children and Youth, Family studies, Emotional Geographies, Land Rights, Critical Disability Studies, Geographies Of Disability, West Africa, East Africa, CARE AND SUPPORT OF PEOPLE LIVING WITH HIV/AIDS, Social Policy, Poverty, Social Exclusion, Poverty and Inequality, Gender and education, Human Geography, Social Geography, Development Geography, Intergenerational Transmission of Poverty, and African inheritance, kinship and land tenureedit
Context • Children’s informal, unpaid care work within the family became a growing concern in the UK in the 1990s. Census 2001 figures show that 175,000 children have caring responsibilities in the UK, although this figure is unlikely to... more
Context • Children’s informal, unpaid care work within the family became a growing concern in the UK in the 1990s. Census 2001 figures show that 175,000 children have caring responsibilities in the UK, although this figure is unlikely to include children caring for parents/relatives with HIV/AIDS (Becker, 2007). Many children in subSaharan Africa are increasingly likely to have significant caring responsibilities for parents and relatives with HIV/AIDS (Ogden et al., 2004; Robson and Ansell, 2000).
Research Interests: Psychology and Medicine
Young refugees and diasporic youth often have multiply-located senses of self. Using a creative visual methodology, recently arrived young Syrian refugees and young people of diverse African heritages born in the UK (aged 16-20) produced... more
Young refugees and diasporic youth often have multiply-located senses of self. Using a creative visual methodology, recently arrived young Syrian refugees and young people of diverse African heritages born in the UK (aged 16-20) produced digital self-portraits to express their translocal subjectivities. Young Syrians represented themselves as 'bilingual becomings'; learning English occupied their minds and was key to their imagined futures, while their hearts were often associated with the homeland they had lost. In contrast, speaking English was sometimes taken for granted in the art work produced by young people of African heritages, which portrayed hybrid, multilingual selves and translocal relationality. Both groups embraced signifiers of national, religious and cultural identity, but through their silences and omissions, dis-identified with exclusionary notions of 'Britishness', nationhood and citizenship. Their self-representations provide hopeful counter-narratives to hegemonic socio-political discourses that position 'Black African' youth and Muslim young men as a 'threat' and 'illegitimate' citizens.
Although women's land rights are often affirmed unequivocally in constitutions and international human rights conventions in many African countries, customary practices usually prevail on the ground and often deny women's land... more
Although women's land rights are often affirmed unequivocally in constitutions and international human rights conventions in many African countries, customary practices usually prevail on the ground and often deny women's land inheritance. Yet land inheritance often goes unnoticed in wider policy and development initiatives to promote women's equal access to land. This article draws on feminist ethnographic research among the Serer ethnic group in two contrasting rural communities in Senegal. Through analysis of land governance, power relations and 'technologies of the self', this article shows how land inheritance rights are contingent on the specific effects of intersectionality in particular places. The contradictions of legal pluralism, greater adherence to Islam and decentralisation led to greater application of patrilineal inheritance practices. Gender, religion and ethnicity intersected with individuals' marital position, status, generation and socio-ecological change to constrain land inheritance rights for women, particularly daughters, and widows who had been in polygamous unions and who remarried. Although some women were aware that they were legally entitled to inherit a share of the land, they tended not to 'demand their rights'. In participatory workshops, micro-scale shifts in women's and men's positionings reveal a recognition of the gender discriminatory nature of customary and Islamic laws and a desire to 'change with the times'. While the effects of 'reverse' discourses are ambiguous and potentially reinforce prevailing patriarchal power regimes, 'counter' discourses, which emerged in participatory spaces, may challenge customary practices and move closer to a rights-based approach to gender equality and women's land inheritance.
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... Phoebe Foy-Phillips and Sally Lloyd-Evans' paper also directly answers this call by exploring how materiality shapes social relations ... of the paper by Gina Porter Kate Hampshire, Albert Abane, Augustine Tanle, Kobina... more
... Phoebe Foy-Phillips and Sally Lloyd-Evans' paper also directly answers this call by exploring how materiality shapes social relations ... of the paper by Gina Porter Kate Hampshire, Albert Abane, Augustine Tanle, Kobina Esia-Donkoh, Regina Obilie Amoako-Sakyi, Samuel Agblorti ...
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While many academics are sceptical about the 'impact agenda', it may offer the potential to re-value feminist and participatory approaches to the co-production of knowledge. Drawing on my experiences of developing a UK Research Excellence... more
While many academics are sceptical about the 'impact agenda', it may offer the potential to re-value feminist and participatory approaches to the co-production of knowledge. Drawing on my experiences of developing a UK Research Excellence Framework (REF) impact case study based on research on young caregiving in the UK, Tanzania and Uganda, I explore the dilemmas and tensions of balancing an ethic of care and participatory praxis with research management demands to evidence 'impact' in the neoliberal academy. The participatory dissemination process enabled young people to identify their support needs, which translated into policy and practice recommendations and in turn, produced 'impact'. It also revealed a paradox of action-oriented research: this approach may bring greater emotional investment of the participants in the project in potentially negative as well as positive ways, resulting in disenchantment that the research did not lead to tangible outcomes at local level. Participatory praxis may also pose ethical dilemmas for researchers who have responsibilities to care for both 'proximate' and 'distant' others. The 'more than research' relationship I developed with practitioners was motivated by my ethic of care rather than by the demands of the audit culture. Furthermore, my research and the impacts cited emerged slowly and incrementally from a series of small grants in an unplanned, serendipitous way at different scales, which may be difficult to fit within institutional audits of 'impact'. Given the growing pressures on academics, it seems ever more important to embody an ethic of care in university settings, as well as in the 'field'. We need to join the call for 'slow scholarship' and advocate a re-valuing of feminist and participatory action research approaches, which may have most impact at local level, in order to achieve meaningful shifts in the impact agenda and more broadly, the academy.
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Agricultural land use in much of Brong-Ahafo region, Ghana has been shifting from the production of food crops towards increased cashew nut cultivation in recent years. This article explores everyday, less visible, gendered and... more
Agricultural land use in much of Brong-Ahafo region, Ghana has been shifting from the production of food crops towards increased cashew nut cultivation in recent years. This article explores everyday, less visible, gendered and generational struggles over family farms in West Africa, based on qualitative, participatory research in a rural community that is becoming increasingly integrated into the global capitalist system. As a tree crop, cashew was regarded as an individual man's property to be passed on to his wife and children rather than to extended family members, which differed from the communal land tenure arrangements governing food crop cultivation. The tendency for land, cash crops and income to be controlled by men, despite women's and young people's significant labour contributions to family farms, and for women to rely on food crop production for their main source of income and for household food security, means that women and girls are more likely to lose out when cashew plantations are expanded to the detriment of land for food crops. Intergenerational tensions emerged when young people felt that their parents and elders were neglecting their views and concerns. The research provides important insights into gendered and generational power relations regarding land access, property rights and intra-household decision-making processes. Greater dialogue between genders and generations may help to tackle unequal power relations and lead to shared decision-making processes that build the resilience of rural communities.
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This article explores the role of women's inheritance and ownership of property in urban Senegal. It shows how being able to inherit and own property promotes the economic and emotional security of widows and their children in urban... more
This article explores the role of women's inheritance and ownership of property in urban Senegal. It shows how being able to inherit and own property promotes the economic and emotional security of widows and their children in urban areas, and discusses the challenges posed by legal pluralism in working on poverty alleviation and social protection in the city.
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This paper develops a framework of risk and protective factors to conceptualise the relationship between HIV-related stigma, asset inheritance and chronic poverty among widows and caregiving children and youth in eastern Africa. Analysis... more
This paper develops a framework of risk and protective factors to conceptualise the relationship between HIV-related stigma, asset inheritance and chronic poverty among widows and caregiving children and youth in eastern Africa. Analysis of two qualitative studies with 85 participants in rural and urban areas of Tanzania and Uganda reveals that gendered and generational inequalities and stigmatisation sometimes led to property grabbing and chronic poverty. Human and social capital and preventative measures however may help widows and caregiving young people in HIV-affected households to safeguard land and other assets, within a wider supportive environment that seeks to tackle structural inequalities.
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Concerns about spaces of age segregation and generational separation in people's lives appear to reflect the interests of research and policy in the global North. In diverse contexts in Africa, the everyday lives of different generations... more
Concerns about spaces of age segregation and generational separation in people's lives appear to reflect the interests of research and policy in the global North. In diverse contexts in Africa, the everyday lives of different generations are often integrated within families and communities, based on an implicit intergenerational contract (Collard, 2000; Kabeer, 2000) and generational hierarchies (Reynolds Whyte et al., 2008). This chapter draws on recent literature on youth transitions, generations in Africa (Alber et al., 2008; Christiansen et al., 2006; Punch, 2002) and empirical research on intergenerational caring relations in families affected by HIV in Tanzania and Uganda and among those who have experienced bereavement in Senegal. I explore how inter- and intra-generational relations and transitions to 'adulthood' may be changing in diverse African contexts. 'Homespace' and the 'community' are analysed as key sites where gendered, age-based and generational identities and power relations are reproduced, contested and negotiated. Reciprocal caring relations and responsibilities may strengthen emotional connections between members of different generations. Dominant gendered and generational norms may also become more fluid. While young people are often expected to care for family members and contribute to the household from an early age, however, they may also be regarded as a threat to the generational order (Diouf, 2003) when they engage in activities conventionally associated with adulthood, such as heading sibling households without a co-resident adult and young parenting outside of marriage. This may result in marginalisation and intergenerational tensions that impact on young people’s wellbeing and future life transitions. To conclude, I reflect on how 'intergenerationality' contributes to geographies of care, family relations and life transitions.
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This article explores the interactions between disabled forced migrants with care needs and professionals and the restrictive legal, policy and practice context that health and social care professionals have to confront, based on the... more
This article explores the interactions between disabled forced migrants with care needs and professionals and the restrictive legal, policy and practice context that health and social care professionals have to confront, based on the findings of a qualitative study with 45 participants in the South-East of England. In-depth interviews were conducted with 15 forced migrants who had diverse impairments and chronic illnesses (8 women and 7 men), 13 family caregivers and 17 support workers and strategic professionals working in social care and the third sector in Slough, Reading and London. The legal status of forced migrants significantly affects their entitlements to health and social care provision, resulting in prolonged periods of destitution for many families. National asylum support policies, difficult working relationships with UK Border Agency, higher eligibility thresholds and reduced social care budgets of local authorities were identified as significant barriers in responding to the support needs of disabled forced migrants and family caregivers. In this context, social workers experienced considerable ethical dilemmas. The research raises profound questions about the potential and limitations of health and social care policies, provision, and practice as means of protection and support in fulfilling the human rights of forced migrants with care needs.
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Cultivation of cashew nuts in Ghana is expanding rapidly and is bringing benefits (more income) and potential problems (conflict over land access and threats to food security). Key recommendations to protect food security and alleviate... more
Cultivation of cashew nuts in Ghana is expanding rapidly and is bringing benefits (more income) and potential problems (conflict over land access and threats to food security). Key recommendations to protect food security and alleviate poverty:
•maximise yield quality and quantity from existing cashew trees
•use and sale of by-products, spacing between trees for food crops
•increase power of local farmers in negotiating prices
•community dialogue over land use
•investment, access to credit and education
•maximise yield quality and quantity from existing cashew trees
•use and sale of by-products, spacing between trees for food crops
•increase power of local farmers in negotiating prices
•community dialogue over land use
•investment, access to credit and education
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This research aimed to investigate the implications of changing agricultural land use from food production towards increased cashew cultivation for food security and poverty alleviation in Jaman North District, Brong-Ahafo Region of... more
This research aimed to investigate the implications of changing agricultural land use from food production towards increased cashew cultivation for food security and poverty alleviation in Jaman North District, Brong-Ahafo Region of Ghana. Based on qualitative, participatory research with a total of 60 participants, the research found that increased cashew production had led to improvements in living standards for many farmers and their children over recent years. Global demand for cashew is projected to continue to grow rapidly in the immediate future and cashew-growing areas of Ghana are well placed to respond to this demand. Cashew farmers however were subject to price fluctuations in the value of Raw Cashew Nuts (RCN) due to unequal power relations with intermediaries and export buyer companies and global markets, in addition to other vulnerabilities that constrained the quality and quantity of cashew and food crops they could produce. The expansion of cashew plantations was leading to pressure on the remaining family lands available for food crop production, which community members feared could potentially compromise the food security of rural communities and the land inheritance of future generations.
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Research Interests: Food Security and Insecurity, Environmental Impact Assessment, Land-use planning, Liberia, Social Impact Assessment, and 8 moreEcosystems Services, Food Security, Land Rights, Land Grabbing, Palm Oil, Property Ownership and Land Acquisition, Land Acquisition, and Environmental and Social Impact Assessments
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Recent research and policy have recognised the central role of unpaid care-givers (often women and girls) in the global South. Disability rights perspectives, however, challenge the language of ‘care’ and ‘dependence’. Drawing on... more
Recent research and policy have recognised the central role of unpaid care-givers (often women and girls) in the global South. Disability rights perspectives, however, challenge the language of ‘care’ and ‘dependence’. Drawing on qualitative research with women living with HIV and children caring for them in Tanzania, and on learning from the National Community of Women Living with HIV and AIDS in Uganda (NACWOLA), this paper explores the divergences and interconnections between the concepts and practices of care, disability and HIV in the context of East Africa. Despite the development of interdependent caring relations, both care-givers and people living with HIV in Tanzania experience ‘diminished autonomy’. The participation of people living with HIV, including disabled people, in home-based care and in peer support groups, however, can enhance ‘relational autonomy’ for both care-givers and care-recipients. We reflect on opportunities and challenges for mutual learning and cross-movement advocacy by disabled people, people living with HIV and care-givers.
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This paper explores the ways that young people express their agency and negotiate complex lifecourse transitions according to gender, age and inter- and intra-generational norms in sibling-headed households affected by AIDS in East... more
This paper explores the ways that young people express their agency and negotiate complex lifecourse transitions according to gender, age and inter- and intra-generational norms in sibling-headed households affected by AIDS in East Africa. Based on findings from a qualitative and participatory pilot study in Tanzania and Uganda, I examine young people's socio-spatial and temporal experiences of heading the household and caring for their siblings following their parent's/relative's death. Key dimensions of young people's caring pathways and life transitions are discussed: transitions into sibling care; the ways young people manage changing roles within the family; and the ways that young people are positioned and seek to position themselves within the community. The research reveals the relational and embodied nature of young people's life transitions over time and space. By living together independently, young people constantly reproduce and reconfigure gendered, inter- and intra-generational norms of ‘the family’, transgressing the boundaries of ‘childhood’, ‘youth’ and ‘adulthood’. Although young people take on ‘adult’ responsibilities and demonstrate their competencies in ‘managing their own lives’, this does not necessarily translate into more equal power relations with adults in the community. The research reveals the marginal ‘in-between’ place that young people occupy between local and global discourses of ‘childhood’ and ‘youth’ that construct them as ‘deviant’. Although young people adopt a range of strategies to resist marginalisation and harassment, I argue that constraints of poverty, unequal gender and generational power relations and the emotional impacts of sibling care, stigmatisation and exclusion can undermine their ability to exert agency and control over their sexual relationships, schooling, livelihood strategies and future lifecourse transitions.
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This chapter provides insight into young people’s caring relations and transitions within what is often considered a particularly ‘troubling’ familial context in both the global North and South: living with HIV. I analyse the findings... more
This chapter provides insight into young people’s caring relations and transitions within what is often considered a particularly ‘troubling’ familial context in both the global North and South: living with HIV. I analyse the findings from two qualitative studies of young people’s caring roles in families affected by HIV in the UK, Tanzania and Uganda from the perspective of feminist ethics of care, emotion work and lifecourse transitions.
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Caregiving is usually associated with adults’ responsibilities. Official statistics and research have demonstrated, however, that many children and young people in the global North and South have substantial, regular caring... more
Caregiving is usually associated with adults’ responsibilities. Official statistics and research have demonstrated, however, that many children and young people in the global North and South have substantial, regular caring responsibilities for family members with chronic illnesses, impairments or other care needs. This chapter conceptualises children’s roles as ‘caregivers’ and the care work they do. It then analyses the available evidence on outcomes of children’s caregiving and the factors and processes influencing their involvement. While research reveals that caregiving may have positive as well as negative outcomes for children’s well-being, formal and informal safety nets are needed, especially in resource-limited settings, to alleviate children’s care work. Children’s and families’ experiences suggest that social protection measures and support for those being cared for as well as those providing care would help to ensure that caregiving does not have long-term negative impacts on children’s personal development, education, health, family relations, peer interactions, social participation, employment opportunities and socially expected transitions to adulthood.
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This article reflects on key methodological issues emerging from children and young people's involvement in data analysis processes. We outline a pragmatic framework illustrating different approaches to engaging children, using two case... more
This article reflects on key methodological issues emerging from children and young people's involvement in data analysis processes. We outline a pragmatic framework illustrating different approaches to engaging children, using two case studies of children's experiences of participating in data analysis. The article highlights methods of engagement and important issues such as the balance of power between adults and children, training, support, ethical considerations, time and resources. We argue that involving children in data analysis processes can have several benefits, including enabling a greater understanding of children's perspectives and helping to prioritise children's agendas in policy and practice. © 2007 The Author(s). Journal compilation © 2007 National Children's Bureau.
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This paper explores the diverse ways that children and young people negotiate their social identities and construct their life course trajectories on the street, based on ethnographic research with street children in Tanzania. Drawing on... more
This paper explores the diverse ways that children and young people negotiate their social identities and construct their life course trajectories on the street, based on ethnographic research with street children in Tanzania. Drawing on the concept of a ‘street career’, I show how differences of age, gender and ethnicity intersect with the time spent on the street, to influence young people's livelihood strategies, use of public space, access to services, and adherence to cultural rites of passage. Using the notion of ‘gender performativity’, I analyse how young people actively reconfigure gender norms and the concept of ‘the family’ on the street.