Ed Carr, livelihood approaches, and recognizing local conditions

During my career I have carried out research in the have and the have not world, and spaces in between. A lot of this work employed traditional asset or income based approaches, and a lot of it has been published. During all of these research experiences, however, it was clear that land users, resource exploiters (in the most literal sense of word--"users", just did not want to repeat myself), and others rarely pointed to material gain as their goal. Keeping score vis a vis stuff seems to be mainly a conceit of the have world. Householders mentioned creating a future for their newly educated children (Mexico for example), being left largely alone by the government (Guatemala), or decreasing life on the edge of subsistence (Botswana and Namibia) as their aspirations. Income, and assets were seen as vehicles to travel to these goals, not the goals themselves.

My friend and colleague Ed Carr (go here for his thoughtful blog and resource: http://www.edwardrcarr.com/opentheechochamber/) has just published a theory and practice article on using a livelihoods approach in economic development, resilience, and vulnerability reduction (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0143622814000824) (Carr, E. 2014. From Description to Explanantion: Using the Livelihoods as Intimate Governance (LIG) Approach. Applied Geography. 52: 110-122). I recommend the article to folks interested in development, fieldwork, and research methods and to open methods and expectations more generally. It is a great example of how critical reflection can lead to improved techniques and outcomes.

One of the strongest contributions of the livelihood as intimate governance approach as Ed presents it comes from the EXPLICIT recognition that local conditions, and household aspirations are central to fostering meaningful development and resilience enhancement. Another reminder and breath of freshened air into this discussion is Carr's key point that within households, aspirations may compete or align and that even when aligned, with alignment methods for achieving the aspirations may differ. This is like many other situations that many of us encounter in research, teaching, coaching, etc. We need to understand what is important to a community, a research project, a field team, or a team on the field. The LIG approach demands work upfront but can result in improved results for the most important stakeholders and ultimately for those who support development.