Sustainable Livelihoods and Rural Development

ICAS Book Series on Agrarian Change and Peasant Studies

by Research Fellow Ian Scoones

The message of Sustainable Livelihoods and Rural Development is clear: livelihoods approaches are an essential lens on questions of rural development, but these need to be situated in a better understanding of political economy. The book looks at the role of social institutions and the politics of policy, as well as issues of identity, gender and generation. The relationships between sustainability and livelihoods are examined, and the book situates livelihoods analysis within a wider political economy of environmental and agrarian change. Four dimensions of a new politics of livelihoods are suggested: a politics of interests, individuals, knowledge and ecology. Together, these suggest new ways of conceptualizing rural and agrarian issues, with profound implications for both thinking and action.

168 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2015

Reviews

[Laya · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boringly generic, repetitive and stale. Tries to integrate theory and practice but does justice to neither and leaves both unfulfilled. Ironically the most apolitical politicisation of livelihoods analysis. The 'political economy' sections were almost laughable for me. A weak link in another wise great series. An upset from Scoones imho

The best I can say about this book is that Scoones was handed this book project and someone encouraged him to expand his paper on criticising livelihood approaches into a book. There wasn't enough juice in it to expand into a book and what you get us just extra water added to fill the volume. Maybe he was just too pressed for time to make it more book-worthy. It could be enriched with more details, specifications and explicit analytical positioning. He did not step up his analysis from the papers or add proper empirical meat to them. In fact, even the interesting ethnographies were flattened in the citations.

[Sanna Kärkkäinen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good introduction to the topics if you have not read about the theme elsewhere before. It had good case studies but the complexity was a little hard to follow as the book was really short and didn’t go in depth into the questions and discussions.

[Rewina Pratiwi · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Penghidupan Berkelanjutan & Pembangunan Pedesaan" ini merupakan buku pertama yang kurampungkan di tahun 2022. Sekarang sudah bulan April dan belum ada buku kedua yang bisa kuselesaikan. Hyungalah.

Intinya, yang kutangkap dari maksud Ian Scoones di buku ini adalah ia mengajak kita memikirkan ulang tentang berbagai pendekatan yang selama ini dipakai dalam kerja-kerja pembangunan: khususnya pembangunan pedesaan. Kata kunci pentingnya adalah penghidupan.

Dari buku ini kemudian aku mulai mempertanyakan tentang kerja-kerja livelihood yang dua tahun terakhir sudah dan masih kulakukan. Pokoknya PR banget.

Barangkali nggak akan cukup buat menceritakan buku ini hanya di takarir instagram. Maka biarkan buku ini jadi cikal bakal sumber pustaka yang berguna bagi kerja-kerja menulis dan belajarku ke depan. (Ngomong wae males cerita).

Intinya, buku ini penting buat praktisi pemberdayaan masyarakat. Aku nggak mau pusing sendirian. Eh tapi, aku juga mulai mempertanyakam arah karirku juga sih. Lho.