Chapter 20
THE IMPORTANCE Of SOCIO-CULTURAL
DIFFERENCES AND OF PATHWAY ANALYSIS
FOR UNDERSTANDING LOCAL ACTORS'
RESPONSES
Mirjam de Bruijn and Han van Dijk
Abstract:
1.
The enormous diversity of resppnses to the drought conditions in the last
thirty years makes it difficult to formulate général conclusions about
people's responses to clifnate changé. It is important to study the
pathways of decisionmakihg units at the microlevel and even at
individual level and to emphasize the socioéconomie différences in
changing patterns of responses and the graduai changes in people's
'habitus'. To widerstand the options available to people it is wise to focus
on the technological changes in land use, the changes in the control over
resources, migration and môbility, the trends of livelihood diversification
and institutional change
CLIMATE VARIABILITY
The climate in the Sahel with its low and erratic rainfall is the main
problem farmers and livestock keepers have to deal with. The amount of
précipitation, rather than its distribution in time and space, is the main
structuring factor for décisions with respect to the use and management
of natural resources and the allocation of labour (Mortimore & Adams
1999).
Risks resulting ftom climate variability have an impact that goes far
beyond the domain of agricultural production alone. Given the enormous
fluctuations in agricultural production, market priées react sharply to
rainfall variability and even magnify its effects (Swift 1986, Hesse 1987,
Davies 1996); However, climate variability is not the óhly important
factor in dëcisipnmaking. A whole range of éxogenöus factors
(international markets, international and national policièà rëlated fo
341
•
A.J. Dielz el al. (eilsj;
The Impact óf Climate Change on Drylands: Witll a Focus on WeslAfiïcat 341362.
© 2004 Kluwer Académie Publishers. Prmtedin the Netherlands.
342
Chapter 20
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agricultural development, laws) needs toT5ê addressed to analyse local
level stratégies aimed at dealing with climate change. Obviously, these
high risks have an impact on the way in which people organise their
lives. It has been shown that in the Sahel livelihood stratégies, laws and
institutions, moral codes, social secunty mechanisms, rituals and
understandings of their environment have emerged out of the interaction
herween local actors and their environment while handling these high
risks. Global circulation models predict greater aridity in parts of the
Sahel, implying that the variabiliry and unpredictability in the timing and
spacing of rainfall will also increase (Dietz et al. 2001, Van den Born et
al. 2000). This will make it even more difficult for local actors than at
present.
The high risks at stake compel people to adjust constantly to variable
conditions of all sorts and to preserve a large degree of flexibility. The
stratégies that local people have developed over the years are the result
of their interaction with climatic conditions and other contingent factors
and the sequential adjustments they have made. The key to an
understanding of the stratégies people develop under conditions of
climate variability is to focus on the daily décisions they take to mitigate
climate variability and a host of other factors to ensure their subsistence
and survival. This approach also allows a better appréciation of the rôle
of individual différences in resource endowments and in social and
cultural backgrounds in moulding the distinct paths actors seem to follow
under highrisk conditions.
An important part of the research effort within the ICCD project was
thus devoted to an investigation of the rôle of sociocultural différences
for the understanding of the évolution of spécifie pathways followed by
local actors to mitigate climate variability and climate change. After a
short introduction to the ways in which the research was executed
(Section Two), we focus on the methodological aspects (Section Three)
and the results of the analysis of locallevel responses based on field
research conducted within the framework of the ICCD project and earlier
research by the authors and others (Section Four). This is done in
relation to contextual factors and climate variability. We also examine
the significance of sociocultural différences in explaining the reasons
for choosing spécifie responses and their relation to climate change
scénarios and modelling exercises (Section Five).
2.
INVESTIGATING DIFFERENCES
2.1
Méthodologies for Investigating Différences
Broadly speaking there are two stratégies for investigating socio
cultural différences in relation to actors' responses to climate variability
20. THEJMPORTANCE
OF SOCIOCULTURAL DIFFERENCES
343
and elfmate change. The first involves formulating hypotheses and
investigating these by means of a statistical analysis of a broad range of
qualitative and quantitative data in relation to each other, to see whether
these cluster and whether they indicate spécifie responses. The second
method is more mductive and is based on focused fieldwork leading to
the description of responses and an indepth analysis of these responses
compared with a broad range of contextual factors. Both methods have
spécifie advantages and disadvantages as is shown by Chapters 9 and 16,
which all lean more towards the first strategy and Chapters 1215, which
are more typical of the second strategy. The main bottlenecks of the first
strategy are the sélection process of the data and the relevant scale level
of analysis for decisionmaking units and the reliability of the data used.
The data gathered under the second strategy are in genera! better
validated but a major drawback is the specificity of the data, which
renders généralisation of the conclusions of analysis more difficult
These difficulties are greater in a situation of uncertainty of some of
the most basic contextual parameters such as rainfall, market priées, and
the political situation. The flexible responses, which are consequently
developed by local actors and other decisionmaking units, further
complicate research. One way in which many actors respond is to look
for better opportunities to earn a living elsewhere. This means in the first
place that, for a statistical analysis, the farm or village level is
insufficient and that data at a regional (Chapter 9 and to a lesser extent
Chapter 16) and even subregional level are needed. The difficulty is to
relate this back to the sociocultural characteristics of the actors
involved.
To investigate the rôle of sociocultural différences in explaining
differential responses to climate variability, the following genera!
research domains can be formulated:
» a description of the major responses developed by local
actors to mitigate climate variability and climate change
across different agroecological régions, focusing on the
relationship between rainfall variability, erop and technology
choice, on/offfarm resource allocation, and social and
cultural factors;
• a description of current trends in order to review potential
response reactions (e.g. conditional chances) of different
catégories of local actors and higher level decisionmaking
units to selected scénarios of climate change;
• a construction of a household typology/stratification based on
the analysis of local actors' responses which integrate both
quantitative and qualitative dimensions and the intégration of
this typology into uptodate simulation models; and
• the création of a generic methodology, applicable to West
Africa, aimed at producing insights for policy makers on the
344
f*"
basis of an analysis of responses by local actors under
conditions of climate variability and climate change.
The first two domains were covered by field research and
bibliographie surveys focusing on the description of a variety of
responses. For these domains, the results of past field research were used
(see De Bruijn & Van Dijk 1995, Breusers 1999). In addition, new field
research was carried out in relation to a number of selected topics (see
below).
The third domain proved the most problematic because it was
diffïcult to corne up with sufficient quantitative indicators for a
household typology. The range of these indicators within selected
clusters of respondents was vast. This was caused by extreme variations
in climate, soil properties and other indicators (or a combination thereof)
from year to year and even within one year as the result of an intra
seasonal variation of rainfall in time and space in one casestudy area.
These variations interfered with clustering into spécifie types. In
Koutiala, more quantitative data was available but was concentrated on
just one group of actors. Longitudinal data on other groups was not
available, so only partial analyses could be made.
The fourth domain was aimed at creating a methodology able to deal
with the complexity of the process of construction of responses. This
methodology had to differentiate between climate and other physical
factors on the one hand and institutional, economie and sociocultural
factors on the other. Given the variability of the main factor to be
analysed (climate), some of the other factors involved (markets, political
situation), and the complex interaction between the relevant institutional
factors, a décision was taken to focus the methodological exercise on
decisionmaking as a process and on individual actors and larger
decisionmaking units. The reason for this was that all the relevant
factors to be taken into account converge in the decisionmaking process.
2.2
H
Chapter 20
Research Activities
Initially the following research activities were planned:
a) an analysis of the quantity and quality of farm household resources
and their fluctuations over time (land, water, labour relations and
allocation, the households' relations with the institutional and market
environment and social and cultural factors);
b) an indepth analysis of different farm household risktaking and/or
avoidance stratégies (implicit time horizon, référence position, relative
importance attached to different farm household objectives e.g. food
security, reproduction, accumulation, maintenance of resource base, etc.)
and the biophysical, socioeconomic, cultural and institutional variables
that contribute to the sélections of these stratégies; and
c) a review of the potential impact of spécifie scénarios of climate
change on the adjustment capacity of resource use and food security.
20. THE IMPORTANCE OF SOCIOCULTURAL DIFFERENCES
345
research was envisaged in three areas of the West African
Sahel: Kaya in Burkina Faso, and Koutiala and Douentza both in Mali.
Later on, Bolgatanga in northern Ghana and GoromGorom in northern
Burkina Faso were also added. Reports on the results of these case
studies can be found in Chapters 1215. In this chapter we mainly
discuss the contents of Chapter 13 and 14 and consider the results of the
case studies in Douentza, Koutiala and Kaya.
Bibliographie Surveys
An analysis of secondary data was made for these three research
locations. This analysis was carried out by Mark Breusers for Kaya, and
by Han van Dijk for Douentza, both with a broad disciplinary outlook.
For Koutiala, Mirjam de Bruijn focused on the anthropological and
economie literature.
The main constraint was the availability of literature. For the
Douentza subregion there is little quantitative information on the
technical, agroéconomie aspects of land use in the région. Furthermore,
the northern and western part of the région is quite well described but
there is hardly any information on the southern part. In the case of Kaya,
the bibliographical survey lacks information on pastoral stratégies. Past
research in this area focused mainly on the Mossi, who are described in
the literature as sedentary agriculturalists, and their survival stratégies.
There is no data on the mobile and pastoral aspects of the economy and
landuse Systems in the Koutiala région. In général, anthropological
literature on this area concentrâtes on the sedentary Minyanka (Jonckers
1987,1995) and is diffïcult to access.
Field Research
In collaboration with various university departments (the Department
of Agronomy and the Department of Tropical Nature Conservation at
Wageningen Agricultural University; the Department of Cultural
Anthropology at Utrecht University and the Amsterdam Research Centre
for Global Issues and Development Studies at the University of
Amsterdam), several field research activities were organised. The
following projects were carried out:
• landuse stratégies by sedentary farmers in Koutiala (2) and
Douentza (3) (Nijenhuis 1998, Nikiéma 1999, Maas 2001,
Brandts 2002, Griep 2001);
• mobility stratégies of seminomadic pastoralists around
Koutiala (1) (Van Steenbrugge 2001);
• the dynamics of a small rural centre in Douentza (1) (Zondag
2001);
• informai trade Systems of cereals in Douentza (1) (Rutgers
van der Loeff 2001); and
» végétation dynamics in Douentza (1) (De Boer 2001).
346
Chapter 20
A PhD project on the dynamics of entitlements
to fallow land in
ititleme
Douentza and Koutiala started in 1999 and is still continuing. This
project has resulted m several papers (Nijenhuis 2002, forthcommg).
TJi <•
3.
PATHWAYS AND HABITUS: TWO CONCEPTS
FOR THE ANALYSIS OF DECISION-MAKING
IN HIGHRISK ENVIRONMENTS
3.1
Pathways
The methodology for the analysis of decisionmaking in highrisk
conditions was geared towards analysing the dynamic interaction
between individuals and groups and their environment. This
methodology, labelled 'pathways', focuses on decisionmaking.
Pathways can be conceptualised as the stratégies arising out of the
décisions actors, households and groups take in order to deal with all
kind of risks in an unstable environment. A pathway is different from a
strategy because a pathway is not designed to attain a preset goal after a
process of conscious and rational weighingup of the actor's préférences.
Instead it arises out of an iterative process in which goals, préférences,
resources and means are constantly reassessed in view of new (unstable)
conditions with which the decisionmaker is confronted. In this process a
wide range of past expériences are at the basis of décisions rather than a
sharp vision of the future, while these recollections of the past depend to
a great extent on the mtellectual concerns of present recollections (Ortiz
1980: 80). Knowledge of these unstable conditions and how to deal with
them is gathered in an incrémental learning process.
The following assumptions underlie the concept of pathways:
• the environment of decisionmakers is inherently unstable;
« decisionmakers proceed on a stepbystep basis in a high
risk environment and decisionmaking is an iterative process
with the resulting pathway not necessarily having an
intrinsically planned or rational character or following a
logica! order;
• past décisions have to be taken into account because they
influence the pathways and the condition of the decision
maker and his/her mental state in the present;
• décisions are made within a spécifie context by decision
makers with a spécifie history and a variation in décisions
therefore need not to be based on the synchronie attributes
such as resource endowments but can also arise from life
history; and
« decisionmakers coordinate their décisions explicitly and
implicitly.
20. THE IMPORTANCE OF SOCIOCULTURAL DIFFERENCES
347
ThisftjSho
ïüSthodology does not aim to create idiosyncraüc descriptions of
actors' and collectives' décisions but rather to analyse the dynamics
underlying these décisions and to pinpoint the opportunities and
constraints which cause a spécifie type of actor or group of actors to be
likely to follow spécifie pathways to mitigate instability. This may result
m the formulation of a number of 'rules of the game', which may be fed
into formal decisionmaking models as treated in other chapters.
In the study of pathways, special attention is given to moments in
their évolution when the environment is marked by crisis or a situation of
shortage. It is dunng these periods that we find extremes and an
accelerated pace of change in the decisionmaking stratégies of the
actors. The options open to actors during these times vary according to
the actor but still we expect regularity in options and in decisionmaking
stratégies to be detected which relate to the typology of actors according
to the varying constellations of their capitals.
A typology of pathways can only be made for the level of the
individual or household. Cultural capital appears to have an important
influence on the way décisions are taken. People refer to who they are
with référence to rules and norms of behaviour. For instance, a cultivator
from a Dogon culture will consider different aspects of his habitus when
deciding whether or not to use new technologies than a cultivator within
a Fulbe cultural environment. The outcome may be the same but in most
cases it is not.
Another important element is economie capital which is also used in
the linear models developed by economists. It is clear that the possession
of tools, money, etc. is very important at a given moment and heavily
influences the decisionmaking process. Another prominent form of
capital in the typology is social capital, i.e. social networks, social care
relations, labour relations, etc. Knowledge can be an equally important
capital. Thèse capitals define thé access people hâve to social and
ecological resources and to institutions. They also define perceptions of
the environment. A Dogon cultivator with a long history in thé région
and who sees him/herself as an autochthon will have a different outlook
to a cultivator who was once captured as a slave by thé Fulbe.
3.2
Habitus
The data requirements for an analysis of pathways are enormous. A
strict application of thé concept would compel us to assess an actor's
perspectives and attributes, amounting to an enormous number of
relevant contextual variables, and thé social and cultural factors involved
at any moment in time. Therefore, we need an intermediate concept to
économise on data and one that can be used to link up 'pathways' to
contextual factors.
This intermediate concept is labelled 'habitas' to dénote thé habituai
aspects of many of the concepts, devices and perspectives local actors
348
sfe?
l*
i
Chapter20
have and use to interact with ecological and other environments. The
concept was defmed by Bourdieu: 'Systems of durable, transposable
dispositions, structured structures predisposed to fonction as structunng
structures, that is as prmciples which générale and organise practices and
représentations that can be objectively adapted to their outcome without
presupposmg a conscious amung at ends or an express mastery of the
opérations necessary in order to attain them. Objectively "regulated" and
"regulär" without being in any way the product of being of obédience to
rules, they can be collectively orchestrated without being the action of
the organizing action of a conductor' (Bourdieu 1990: 53). 'Habitus' can
be defmed as the way in which the environment is interpreted and used
by local actors. lts properties can be abstracted from the décisions they
take in dealing with this environment and the opinions they have about
it, discourses and the cultural means they develop for reflecting on these
properties. The habitus is the sum of 'cultural understandings' of the
environment (Croll & Parkin 1992). The habitus is embedded in the
institutional environment, creatmg and reshaping this institutional
environment and through this the physical and social environment. The
latter in turn define the availabihty and the nature of social and natural
resources and the possible modes of use.
Habitus dénotes both the constructed and objectified nature of the
sociocultural devices people use to interact with the environment and
the more permanent character of these devices without implying that
they are consciously constructed. Only when confronted with an
unexpected situation, e.g, a drought, sévère flood or other disaster, will it
change form and content. These transformations arise out of the most
recent interactions, reflections and people's changing opinions of their
environment when they attempt to give meanmgs to the events that
caused these changes and the changes in the natural and social resources
perceived and used by them.
For instance, perceptions of the environment change drastically
because of récurrent drought. Once seen as the basis for existence,
chmate variability has become a major concern for people who have lost
most of their assets. Though the situation may return to normal, the
effects of such events may be permanent. The crisis moulds the relations
to which people direct their actions. Rules, norms and idéologies change.
With respect to Sahelian droughts, the religieus Community has become
more prominent as a focus of solidarity (Niezen 1990, De Bruijn 1994,
1997) and the rôle of ritual changes (De Bruijn & Van Dijk 1995).
Kinship ties and village solidarity become weaker and people retreat to
smaller units such as the 'hearthhold' and individual enterprises (De
Bruijn 1997, Van Dijk 1994).
20. THE IMPORTANCE OF SOCIOCULTURAL DIFFERENCES
3.3
349
e Decision-Making Unit: Actors and Groups
The decisionmaking unit or actor that follows a distinct pathway is a
selfrefiective agent, taking décisions based on the available information
in the face of constraining factors and with the assets at his/her disposai.
A relevant decisionmaking unit can be an individual, a family or a
household or any other social unit that acts in a corporate manner.
Highrisk environments require spécifie decisionmaker dispositions
and organisational setups to deal effectively with risk and to ensure
continuity. All the environmental domains are defmed in relation to
decisionmaking units. They become relevant only because of the
décisions taken by these units acting upon one or more attributes,
fonctions or rôles of a spécifie environmental domain. While taking
these décisions, the relevant characteristics of an environmental domain
have to be defmed by the decisionmaking unit. In turn, the decision
making unit changes as a resuit of its interactions with the environment
and has to be defmed as a highly flexible unit. The environment itself, as
well as its relevant characteristics, is transformed as a result of its
interactions with the decisionmaking units and processes within this
environment itself. In order to explain human behaviour in highrisk
environments we need to deal with this twoway interaction.
The survival options of each decisionmaking unit depend on the
possibilities a unit has to interact with its environment. This in turn
dépends on the degree to which a decisionmaking unit is able to
appropriate and/or incorporate and consequently make use of éléments
from its environment, which then become 'resources' or 'capitals'. The
following types of capital can be distinguished: (i) economie capital:
access to technology, tools, erop varieties, equipment, knowledge,
labour, cattle, land, water, cash etc.; (ii) social capital: social security
networks, family, friends, neighbours, marriage relations, village,
hneage, composition of the household; (iii) cultural capital: religion,
knowledge, skills, educational level; and (iv) political capital: status,
ethnie identity, position in local hiérarchies, relations with government
and development organisations.
3.4
Related Concepts
These concepts can be used in isolation. However, all kinds of related
concepts can be employed to differentiate decisionmaking units and
position them in the various contexts in which they operate. The idea that
actors take the various forms of capital at their disposai into
considération in the process of decisionmaking does not seem
problematic. However, in the institutional environment, all kinds of
constraints exists for spécifie types of actors when they interact with
their environment. People may not be equal players in the various capital
markets such as those for land, credit, employaient and political support.
350
Chapter 20
They are ranked in hiérarchies that influenceTSe
ci^eirange of choices open to
them and they may be excluded from certain types of resources and
capitals.
These processes of exclusion (or inclusion) have predommantly
sociocultural and political dimensions. They concern, for example,
issues of identity (who belongs to a particular group and is therefore
entitled to a spécifie form of capital and who does not) and status (who is
expected to perform a given type of labour because he/she is expected to
do so on the basis of a spécifie status). Actors are not necessarily equally
predisposed to taking similar décisions when facing similar conditions.
Neither are they equally vulnérable to the impact of climate variability
and climate change. They occupy different 'risk positions' (cf. Beek
1992).
4.
4.1
SOME RESULTS
The Past in the Present
One of the results of the study indicates that there is a certain
congruence between ethnicity and social and political status and strategy
because ethnie and social groups have already followed a spécifie
pathway in becoming what they are. They have done so under the
pressure of past conditions. For example, under the impact of slave
raiding by the Fulbe, the Dogon in the Douentza area are organised
around a small strip of land located on the Bandiagara escarpment,
whereas the Fulbe organised their existence around the possession and
management of livestock on the plains.
Once the political situation changed during the colonial period, this
division of resources also changed. The Dogon now occupy more and
more land on the plains in their search of fertile cropland and organise
new villages around this resource. Their strategy is different ftom the
cultivating Riimaybe who are the former slaves of the Fulbe. They stay
where they are since they have never owned the land they cultivated. The
noble Fulbe owned that land. As a result they still cannot claim land in
Fulbe territory because they do not dispose of cultural capital in the form
of généalogies (i.e. they cannot say 'this land belongs to my kinsmen'),
for they were part of the family of their masters. Instead these Riimaybe
organise themselves around new resources such as aid and development
initiatives. A similar development can be observed on the Bandiagara
plateau, where the Dogon do not have sufficient land. They are also
turning to new resources such as labour migration and aid.
Pathways are at least partly shaped by this historical legacy. Even
today Fulbe pastoralists tend to décide more often to follow a pathway,
in which livestock keeping plays a prominent rôle. Likewise Minyanka,
20. THE IMPORTANCE OF SOCIOCULTURAL DIFFERENCES
351
ogon farmers tend to invest in cereal cultivation as their
main subsistence strategy, and Riimaybe pathways are more often
marked by a more diversified pathway, going for cereal cultivation in
combination with the gathering of wild food grains.
These patterns persist when représentatives of these groups décide to
move to new contexts. A Mossi farmer does not usually suddenly change
from cereal cultivation to livestock keeping when moving to the
southwest of Mali. He may, however, adapt his choice of crops, add cash
crops such as cotton or other cereals like maize and rice, adopt new
technology and may possess a herd of cattle tended by a Fulbe herdsmen.
However, he will remain a farmer. Likewise, the Fulbe have a strong
préférence for occupations related to livestock, such as herding or the
livestock trade. They only invest in cultivation and land when they have
disposed of their herd.
4.2
Technological Change in Land Use
Under the impact of the droughts of the 1970s and 1980s, the partial
recovery of rainfall conditions in the 1990s, the intégration of the study
régions in the world economy and population growth, tremendous
changes have taken place in landuse stratégies during the period under
study (19602000). However, in the subregions, changes were very
different due to the différences in weight of the various contextual
factors. In the Kaya subregion, population growth coupled with poor
soil fertility and declining rainfall have driven Mossi farmers to cultivate
heavier soils in the valley bottoms, which were hitherto left uncultivated
because of the technological difficulties involved. This development has
also had an impact on the stratégies of Fulbe pastoralists in the area.
With increasing rainfall, the Mossi may be expected to return to their
former land on the slopes of the hills that dominate the landscape. Mossi
interest in livestock increased during the drought years and many of the
cattle they own are entrusted to sometimes impoverished Fulbe
herdsmen who, in this way, see their liberty of movement further
restricted.
In the Douentza area, rainfall is clearly the most limiting factor for
agricultural production. Over the past decades, a technological révolution
has occurred in response to the increasing variability in rainfall
conditions. Due to the droughts, the number of livestock in the area has
declined dramatically. As the manure of these livestock was used to
restore soil fertility after cultivation, productivity from cereal cropping
has also declined. Dogon farmers and Fulbe herdsmen compensated for
this décline by investing in ploughs and animal traction, an innovation
that has allowed them to cultivate more land with thé same amount of
labour. Strangely enough, camels are now being used as draught animais
in thé north of this subregion.
352
Chapter 20
20. THE IMPORTANCE OF SOC1OCULTURAL DIFFERENCES
In the Koutiala area the main driving force ftas been a staterun cotton
development scheme. This agricultural intensification project has
managed to encourage cereal farmers to devote one third of their land to
commercial cotton growing. This authoritarian agricultural
intensification model worked exceptionally well as long as thé cotton
priées on thé world market guaranteed a profit for thé Cotton Company
and the farmers, and as long as there was enough wasteland to put into
production. The latter was essential because, despite thé use of inputs,
productivity failed to grow at the same pace as production and profits
were being made at the expense of soil fertility. The resuit has been an
almost total transition from hoe to ploughbased cropping Systems. Small
and marginal farmers and villages have, however, been ignored. This
success story came to an halt at the end of the 1990s when thé cotton
priée dropped, farmgate priées were reduced and thé financial stability
of cotton development came under threat. Rampant corruption at all
levels of the organisation also played a part in this downturn of fortunes.
For each of thé areas, there seem to be critical factors of a political,
économie and climatic nature that shape decisionmaking stratégies with
respect to land use. In thé Douentza area, declining rainfall might
become the most critical factor. Cereal cultivation hère is at the margins
of feasibility. A further détérioration in average rainfall and an increase
in ils irregularity might drastically reduce thé production potential of the
région and induce numerous people to opt for something else in thé
future. A similar reasoning might be envisaged in thé growing of cotton
in thé northern parts of the Koutiala area.
For the Kaya area, the story is somewhat more complicated given its
intermediate position and the possibility of substituting one kind of land
for another. Both modern and endogenous technological innovations can
be observed. However, the évidence of improvements in productivity is
contested. The increase in productivity cannot be directly attributed to
the changes observed and relatively few Investments are being made to
improve the performance of local cropping Systems. Local farmers and
herdsmen do not invest in landed resources but rather in capital that can
be moved from one location to another, such as livestock or social
capital in the form of access rights to land in a variety of locations (see
also below). Other factors such as rainfall patterns, the increase in
livestock numbers and the relative importance of infields versus outfields
might be more important factors on which the observed increases in
productivity are based.
4.3
353
cash cropifThese units are in genera! more sedentary than others. Poor
households of Dogon are moving to the south (Nijenhuis forthcoming)
and individuals from the Kaya area who do not belong to the core
lineages of villages and are at the bottom of the pile when land is being
distributed often décide to move to other areas where land is still
available. In the past, they moved into areas in the Kaya zone which are
less densely populated. Nowadays they are moving to the southwest of
Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire where population densities are relatively
low and agroecological conditions are better.
Likewise, control over cattle is an important factor in understanding
the development of pathways of livestockkeeping Fulbe families. When
they have control over their cattle they are more inclined to engage in
smallscale movements in their home areas to look for the best pasture
and watering areas and the optimal place to market livestock products
(milk). When not involved with livestock they devote themselves to
cereal cultivation and tend to live an economically marginal existence in
the northern Sahel or a socially marginal existence in the southern areas
(the Sudan) where the conditions for cultivation are better. Alternatively,
they may end up as wandering paupers, relying on temporary activities
such as guarding someone eise's herd, wage labour and/or religieus
services.
The case studies also show the importance of nonmaterial resources
and social capital in the form of social relations that enable people to
access spécifie types of labour, support and income. Cultural and
political capital, such as religious knowledge or affiliation to spécifie
status groups may have material conséquences in the form of access to
land and/or access to sources of income in the form of gifts and/or
payment for spécifie services rendered. Affiliation with the founding
lineage of a village or belonging to the autochthonous lineages is still an
important criterion for gaining access to land. The position of 'strangers'
is by définition much weaker. In Douentza, members of the noble groups
among the Fulbe remain in firm control of the land whereas the
Riimaybe are still extremely dependent on the nobles.
4.4
Population Movements
Mobility is not only a part of daily life and a form of crisis
management. It has always been an integral feature of life in unstable
West African climatic conditions as the prime strategy for coping with
instability (Adepoju 1995), The history of the Mossi, for instance, is
marked by the expansion of their kingdoms (often they are still
considered aggressive expanders), and by forced labour migration to
Côte d'Ivoire. The history of the Dogon is one of expansion in the 20*
Century with the pacification of the area by the colonial powers. The
Fulbe herdsmen have a spécifie history of movement and are regarded all
over West Aftica as the people who come from elsewhere, as strangers.
Control over Resources
Maintaining control over resources is pivotai to the continuity of a
decisionmaking unit and for the pathway it follows. It is clear that units
that have preferential access to land in a spécifie area are more inclined
to invest in a landbased strategy such as the cultivation of cereals and
't?
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Chapter 20
An analysis of these histories and actual patterns of movement have
shown that the conclusion Gallais (1975) drew, based on the predrought
situation, that people in the Sahel and Sudan have to move to earn a
living to accommodate climate variability is still valid. The events during
the drought years of the 1970s and 1980s only confïrmed this, although
new patteras of activities have emerged. Current trends m population
mobility will certainly become more articulated with increasing climate
variability and climate change and this will have farreaching
conséquences for policy formulation and recent trends in urbanisation
and population growth in more southerly areas.
In all the studies undertaken, mobility émerges as an important aspect
of people's pathways. This aspect of life goes way beyond an individual
level and may be designated a group strategy. Being mobile has various
causes, among which climate change, variations in rainfall and conflict
appear as the most important. Mobility refers not only to the population
of the areas themselves but also to others migrating to the study areas.
These movements have all kinds of conséquences in the area from which
people originate and in the régions to which they migrate. Migration to a
spécifie place may channel the movements of those who décide to move
later. For example, people from the same ethnie background and even
from the same microunit (village, lineage) tend to cluster in spécifie
places.
The conséquences for those who remain behind depend on the
characteristics of the people who migrate. For Fulbe women, the elderly
and children, the massive outflow of young men, coupled with the failure
of these migrants to contribute substantially to the welfare of their
dépendants who remain behind, is a sévère problem (see De Bruijn
1998). Among the Dogon and Mossi, ties with the migrants remain close
and their decisionmaking units may more aptly be called multispatial
livelihoods (cf. Foeken & Owuor 2001).
The form this mobility takes and the way it is used depend on the
personal characteristics underlying a spécifie pathway and the perception
of the environment as comprised in the habitus. For instance herdsmen
perceive their environment as food for their animais and behave
accordingly. For them, transhumance is an important part of their
mobility. And if their usual transhumance routes are no longer accessible
maybe because of drought they will search for another option. This
has led in the Douentza area to a shift of transhumance towards the west
(in the Seeno to the west of the Daande Seeno and from the Bandiagara
plateau to the Inner Delta of the Niger).
Another important strategy for nomadic people is to fiée the régions
where they anticipate problems, i.e. conflicts or drought. They simply
move to the south. Their perception of the ecological environment is
much more as a space to feed their animais than as a space to produce.
Cultivators will appropriate and exploit their environment with the idea
of seulement in mind and are mobile if mobility serves this objective.
20. THE IMPORTANCE OF SOCIOCULTURAL DIFFERENCES
355
Neverthïress, the Mossi and Dogon also have their rural seasonal
migrations. They move to locations in which they expect to obtain better
results. This is, however, limited and is related to their political position
(dominance over other groups) and to the availability of open space. In
the southern research area, Koutiala, it was clear that this way of
exploiting the environment had corne to an end. There, even the herders
(who often came from the north) had no further possibilities to move
freely with their cattle, leading them to flee to relatively empty zones in
the border région between Mali and Burkina Faso.
Exceptional conditions lead to more articulated forms of population
mobility. An ongoing development that can be currently observed and
which can be attributed to climate change or at least to successive
drought years, is the expansion of the Dogon and Mossi towards the
south and within their home areas. Coupled with the introduction of the
plough and camel or oxen traction, they are able to occupy more land as
a conséquence. This process starled in the northern areas of Douentza
and Kaya but the same pattern is now apparent in the southern area of
Koutiala.
Mobility also links the different agroecological zones in which the
various case studies were carried out. It appears that the geographical
borders drawn around these areas had nothing to do with social borders
or ethnie relations. This linkage between the régions could even be seen
as multispatial land use and production units. Access to various natural
resources in different agroecological zones is crucial for the survival of
some families and individuals. They are individually mobile between the
zones, or they spread different family members over the zones to assure
the survival of the family. Mossi, for example, try to maintain rights of
access to agricultural land in various climate zones, using an elaborate
kinship network. In this way they can play with rainfall conditions and
adapt their farming stratégies to various phases in their life cycle.
Concrete examples of this were studied among Fulbe herdsmen and
Dogon cultivators (Steenbragge 2001, Brandts 2002). One can also find
examples of Mossi and Fulbe outside their home area cohabiting with
Senoufo and other ethnie groups in the southwest of Burkina Faso.
In their search for land Dogon tend to become more mobile while the
Fulbe, in their search for cereals, tend to become less mobile (since their
principal source of labour, the Riimaybe, have disappeared). Likev/ise,
the Mossi frequently move their fields and compounds, both within and
beyond village boundaries. Mossi are moreover heavily involved in long
distance migration to Côte d'Ivoire where over the last thirty years a shift
in their main occupation can be observed from mostly wage labour to
more entrepreneurial activities (e.g. share croppers, cocoa or coffee
plantation owners). Others from all groups tend to go into non
agricultural activities (wage labour, trade).
Urban migration has received relatively little attention in this study
(see Chapter 16 this volume). For Dogon and Mossi cultivators,
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Chapter 20
migration to towns is a seasonal activity, accépted as an alternative way
of earning additional income. Fulbe herdsmen may also move to towns.
However, for them, thé town is a last resort, only to be considered if their
main resource (their herd) is depleted.
Fmally at thé opposite end of the scale is sedentanty The studies
done for this project show that both mobility and sedentanty are a
reaction to thé same changing circumstances. Technological change may
lead to thé seulement of herding people who are adopting similar
technologies to thé Dogon and Mossi. The Riimaybe, thé former slaves
of thé Fulbe, hâve become less mobile as a reaction to climate changes.
They hâve become active in appropriating development projects
propagated by nongovernmental organisations (NGOs), which bas
stabilised village life for them.
4.5
Diversification
Trade
One of the most interesting aspects of the changes over the last 40
years is the enormous increase in the amount of trade and the number of
people (partly) dependent on this activity. The town of Douentza has, in
particular, changed from a dusty administrative centre into a lively
market town. The area has also become an important transit route
between cerealproducing areas in the south and the cerealdeficit areas
to the norm. In the Douentza area this has given rise to a big increase in
the number of small millet traders based in the villages. This évolution
has been promoted by the libéralisation of the cereal trade, the
introduction of donkey carts, the end of political unrest in the north of
Mali and the availability of capital from wage labour in town and abroad.
Personal characteristics of people engaging in trade are very important,
for example whether or not they use their capital to buy a donkey cart or
to invest in merchandise, and whether there is someone at home to
replace them during periods of prolonged absence.
In Koutiala, trade is certainly booming, though less so than in
Douentza. Here, imported goods have acquired a certain importance as
people seek to spend the money they have earned from growing cotton.
Even more importantly, earnings are being invested in livestock. The
cottongrowing zone has become the main area for rearing cattle in Mali.
Cattle are a good investment and fit into the farmers' stratégies of doing
something about declining soil fertility. However, little is known about
who manages and owns the cattle presently in the area, and for what
purposes their products are used.
In Kaya, trade is less obvious. Incomes are not as high as in Koutiala
in Mali and the need to trade is less urgent than in Douentza since large
numbers of people have settled in other areas. The ties maintained with
these people often serve as the basis for alternative sources of income, or
for acquiring access to other resources.
20. THE IMPORTANCE OF SOCIOCULTURAL DIFFERENCES
357
üour and Services
Though trade is also a poor man or woman's occupation as a coping
mechanism, wage labour is one of thé principal forms of crisis
management. The diversity and forms of wage labour are too numerous
to discuss hère m füll. At the local level, wage labour plays a hmited
rôle. Sometimes poor people work for others on the land dunng thé ramy
season. However, in général thé possibihties for earning a wage in one's
home area are Hmited, especially in Douentza and Kaya. This is not only
due to a lack of employment but also because labour shortages are often
covered by exchange between individuals and households.
People have been going to towns and to other countries to look for
work since thé colonial era. The period of time people are away ranges
from a couple of weeks to several years without interruption. Earnings
from wage labour are mainly used for consumption purposes, for
example, to solve thé cereal gap after a bad harvest. Direct Investments
in agricultural equipment are Hmited to oxen or camel teams and donkey
carts, which can also be used for trade.
The kinds of activities and their locations vary enormously between
ethnie and status groups but also within thèse groups depending on
gender, âge, knowledge and status. Social networks play an important
rôle as they often provide entry to spécifie activities. A distinction must
also be made between people who remain in thé countryside and those
who move to town, Young Fulbe herdsmen, for example, often take up
salaried herding in thé south of Mali, northern Côte d'Ivoire or southwest
Burkina Faso. They may also settle and become agricultural migrants.
Among thé Dogon and Mossi this kind of ruralrural migration is quite
common, though thèse groups are not looking for work with livestock
but for work on the land. In areas Hke Koutiala with its cotton industry,
thé prospects for employment are somewhat better than in other areas.
Not surprisingly, many Fulbe and Dogon from Douentza and Bandiagara
can be found in Koutiala.
Cultural préférences also play an important rôle in thé choice of
labour. The Fulbe avoid manual labour as far as possible and stick to
herding and trade. Dogon and lower status individuals from Fulbe
society are much less sensitive in this respect. There has been a striking
increase in thé participation of women in temporary migration, for
example as domestic servants for rieh people in town and among thé
Mossi they join their husbands in agricultural enterprises in Côte
d'Ivoire.
The delivery of services Hke healing and counselling is also a way of
earning an income. The Fulbe, for example, are regarded as Islamic
clerics by nonIslamic groups and are reputed to be potent healers with
the help of Koranic texts. The Dogon hâve a réputation for being skilful
herbal healers and are often consulted in their home areas as well as
further afield.
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4.6
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Chapter 20
Habitus, Institutional Changé
Another question is, of course, what happened to the institutional
environment in relation to climate variability and economie policy and
pohtical changes at higher levels and whether these institutions have
been affected by the évolution of the pathways as sketched above. In the
first place such an analysis must distinguish between effects caused by
global and national economie and political change and those related to
onsite (i.e. régional and local) factors. For reasons of space we limit
ourselves here to the habitus as perceived by the local people. Higher
order changes have been treated in Breusers (2002), Van Dijk
(forthcoming) and Brons et al. (Chapter 16 this volume).
A major institutional change that has had a great impact on the
construction of pathways concerns social relations, especially relations
between générations. Among all the groups studied for the rmcrolevel
studies it is noticeable that the younger générations make different use of
the opportunities offered by the outside world and have developed a
different perspective on their future. For them, their careers are not
limited to farming or herding. Instead they oriënt themselves towards
wider social, economie and ecological environments. They clearly
perceive the need for outside income and have different ambitions in
terms of employment and consumption but also in social relations and
their view of the world. Strikingly, éducation is not seen as a way of
realising thèse ambitions, at least not by most of those origmating from
thé countryside.
The rôle of patronclient relations is changing. For example, in thé
past the Dogon were subordinated to thé Fulbe but now impoverished
Fulbe herdsmen are becoming thé clients of Dogon cattle owners and if
they migrate to thé south, of Minyanka and urban cattle owners. The
Riimaybe are increasingly gaining independence as they move to town
and acquire independent sources of income, whereas their patrons are
becoming increasingly impoverished.
Though no research was conducted in this domain, thèse changes
have certainly been promoted by the amount of information available
about the outside world by means of modem communications such as
(local) radio, téléphone, télévision, which is penetrating the countryside,
and thé expériences of returning migrants. Better and cheaper means of
transport and improved infrastructure hâve also helped to open up
people's worlds.
Thirdly, thé ways in which resources are being appropriated and
distributed through society have changed enormously. As a resuit of
droughts, property relations with respect to livestock have changed
fundamentally, making it less attractive for young people to remain in
thé livestock economy. There is increased compétition over land and
water due to growing scarcity but changes in land use have also
promoted these changes as well as the fact that an everincreasing
20. THE IMPORTANCE OF SOCIOCULTURAL DIFFERENCES
359
number Ist people are settling or establishing production units outside
their home areas. Administrative interventions, the décentralisation of
administrative power, environmental and landuse planning projects,
legal reforms of land tenure and forest management have opened up
opportunities for local people to use other means of acquiring access to
resources. As a result, tenure Systems have hardened and the number of
conflicts has increased.
Fourthly, the image of the state has changed fundamentally. From an
oppressive allpowerful colonial state and its successor, it has changed
into a weak, corrupt bureaucracy. The credibility and legitimacy of the
state is declining, a development that has gained momentum with
structural adjustment programmes. Administrative décentralisation and
démocratisation have not repaired the damage because these changes
have only confirmed the image of weakness and have primarily
promoted the décentralisation and démocratisation of corruption, while
not (yet) having led to the füll participation of the population in politics.
Informal political hiérarchies have remained largely intact. State
influence differs dramatically across the study areas, from a quite active
(and in the past activist) state in Kaya to a weak bureaucracy in
Douentza, and to the tight control of the parastatal cotton development
Company (CMDT) in Koutiala.
Fifthly, an important change has occurred in the way that urban areas
and small rural centres are perceived. They are naturally the centres for
all kinds of commercial activities, which are increasing in number at an
amazing speed. At the same time they are the nodes for the exchange of
all the kinds of information mentioned above. The dynamics of these
centres are perceptible even in the most remote corners of the study areas
though the impact on the econorny is not yet being feit in the more
inaccessible places.
The increase in the number of NGOs in the région is an effect of the
semiarid climate and its variations. The droughts of the 1970s and 1980s
attracted a large number of aid agencies (bilateral, multilateral, NGOs) to
the Sahel. A stränge kind of symbiosis has developed between the
development sector and target populations. In some cases the courting of
aid agencies has developed into a substantial aspect of a household's
incomeearning activities, as described in some cases of dam building on
the Bandiagara plateau (Van Beek & Peters 1999). In some Riimaybe
villages a séquence of projects is providing a substantial part of the
income of the population in the form of food for work, salaried jobs and
the like, whereas no substantial improvement of incomeearning capacity
can be observed. Part of the réaction of aid agencies can be related to the
spécifie position of their target populations. The Riimaybe present
themselves as former slaves and thus as hardworking people (also in
their own cultural définition). The Dogon on the rocky Bandiagara
plateau are famous for their artwork and seem to be engaged in a heroic
fight to survive in their unfriendly ecosystem as a result of tremendous
360
Chapter20
physical effort. Development agents see them as such and therefore like
working with them.
Lastly, perhaps the most important innovation is thé way in which
social relations are used over distance. As we have seen, mobility is one
of the most important characteristics of stratégies to accommodate
change. This has led to an enormous broadening of the lifeworld of
Sahelian populations. There is hardly any individual who does not have a
distantly related kinsman living somewhere beyond his/her immédiate
surroundings. This geographical expansion of thé habitas and thé new
meaning and content that are given to thèse kinship relations are
extremely important for an understanding of the évolution of pathways.
Hardly any research has been carried out into this domain.
4.7
.<•„'
.J
Pathways
Though individual pathways are extremely varied and are almost
unique inventions by individuals, families and higherlevel social
organisations, some général patterns can be detected in the three research
areas and a characterisation of pathways can be made. This typology will
naturally not be exhaustive and no claim can be made that thèse pathway
types will be the most dominant in thé future as thé conditions under
which they hâve evolved may change rapidly. Pathways also have a
dynamic of their own and as we will see some are deadend streets and
will disappear over time when conditions are (un)favourable. Several
activities may be combined simultaneously or sequentially as options
open up or disappear.
A pathway evolves over time as a combination of contextual factors,
the way in which thé social actors perceive these factors (habitas) and
thé cultaral and psychological prédispositions and assets owned by thé
actor. In addition it is clear that there is a considérable degree of chance,
arising from variations in climatic and économie conditions. An
évaluation of pathways and decisionmaking by actors and other
decisionmaking units needs, therefore, to be carefully evaluated against
the background of all these factors.
A classification of pathways must distinguish first between those that
are more and those that are less mobile, though thé degree of mobility
may change in thé course of their évolution. Cultural prédispositions
may provide part of thé explanation for thé amount of mobility and thé
choice of activities. Fulbe herdsmen tend to be more mobile than farming
Riimaybe, Dogon and Mossi, though thé Kaya case study clearly shows
that this distinction is not watertight. Likewise, people with a herding
background tend to refrain from manual labour and opt for herding,
trade, and services. People from a farming background seem to invest
more in access rights to landed resources than people with a herding
background. Urban pathways are présent in both groups.
20. THE IMPORTANCE OF SOCIOCULTURAL DIFFERENCES
361
AnotherirTBstii
Ünstinction must be made between winners and losers. One
must not forget that thé people we observe today are those who hâve
survived, in other words have been able to cope with climate variability,
drought, and economie trends. Gloser inspection of impoverishment
pathways reveals that thé différence between failure and success is often
minimal. Several cases discussed in De Bruijn & Van Dijk (2001) and
Breusers (2002) show this ail too clearly, with some ending in extrême
poverty, chronic illness sometimes with psychological origins,
psychological problems and even an untimely death (Chapter 13 and 14
this volume).
Another important feature of thé évolution of pathways is the
émergence of what has been labelled multispatial livelihoods (Foeken &
Owuor 2001). Risks are not only spread through a diversification of
activities but also by geographically dispersing thé members of decision
making units. Mossi farmers in particular, as well as représentatives of
other ethnie groups, have created complex livelihoods where thé
boundaries of thé decisionmaking unit or livelihood are sometimes
difficult to draw because people are moving around thé various parts of
thé unit in a very flexible manner. The multispatial units formed in this
way can be quite large and are based on a variety of social relations, of
which kinship remains the most important.
This extension of pathways over multiple locations seems to run
counter to another observed trend, namely, the increasing fragmentation
of decisionmaking units. However, this contradiction is only apparent.
Fragmentation indeed occurs in most places under thé impact of
problems related to climate variability and the ensuring of survival. The
departure of members of decisionmaking units causes a lot of this
fragmentation. Moreover it seems that risk avoidance puts a premium on
investing in smallscale units because of the covariance of the
conséquences of climate events (thé case of drought in Douentza) and
market fluctuations (thé case of cotton in Koutiala).
4.8
Conclusion
The studies on decisionmaking have made it clear that wideranging
factors have to be taken into considération when investigating pathways
of spécifie individuals and groups. Studies of decisionmaking tend to be
limited to onsite variables such as land, availability in the household and
personal assets. The circles of relevant spaces hâve to be extended
enormously. The variables taken into account by decisionmakers cover
a far wider range than thé household or thé village or even the district,
By following people from one area to another, a more complète analysis
can be made of responses to climate variability and possible reactions to
climate change.
Since the research executed within this subproject was limited to a
small number of settings and social groups, it is obvious that not all the
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ît'
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Chapter 20
underlymg patterns hâve émergea at this ^stage. More carefully
contextualised and focused field research is needed to make up for this
lack of data. Economie data will have to be built into thèse efforts from
the start but thé intégration of sociocultural and économie approaches
can only be successful when nonlmear éléments are incorporated mto
simulation models and wider sets of data covering not only onsite
conditions can be used.
People make use of a variety of resources and networks to earn an
income and to survive calamities. Choices made about undertaking a
particular activity are never permanent. People shift regularly from one
activity to another in a variety of locations. Pinpointing who chooses
which pathways and under which conditions is important for any
projection of people's responses to climate variability and climate
change. The methodology has demonstrated its ability to make more
sensitive analyses of thèse processes of decisionmaking. It has to be
supplemented by more quantitative assessments of the économie
behaviour of people, and more basic and original data gathering and field
research. The linkages between the mdividual level and higher order
phenomena at village, regional and national levels still require more
attention.
PART C
CONSEQUENCES FOR POLICY