Gender and Desertification
This theme will consist of two sessions:
- Gender, Water and Development Panel
Although many nation-states are in the thrall of economic globalization and 'development', at the local level 'traditional' cultural ways of thinking about the social roles of women and men remain powerful. Water and land use policy, planning and project management often adopt a top-down approach even when attempting to recognize and accommodate local people's different worldviews about women and men. These, in turn, create complications at the local level that impact gender equality. This panel describes why 'development' in relation to water and drylands must be gender sensitive. It presents examples of the social, economic, political and biological factors that impact women's and men's differing access to and use of water and land and offers ways in which gender can be more effectively integrated into water and land use practices.
- Nomadic Subjects and the State
The recent literature on the relations between nomadic subjects and state systems had challenged the widely-held assumption about the dichotomy between nomadic forms of existence and centralized state power. Instead of positing two distinct and uniform societal formations, a new scholarly work has explored different articulations of nomadic existence (e.g. pastoral vs. non-pastoral, service nomadism; full-nomadism vs. part-time nomadism, migrating nomads vs. sedentarized nomads) b. examined the various, at times contradictory, manifestations of state power and the specific manner in which they shaped nomadic people's lives and c. allowed a discussion of cultural and socio-political understanding of such relations in addition to the widely accepted economic and ecological models. Our purpose in this panel is to examine these new approaches to the study of the interactions between states and nomadic people through specific case studies from India (the Banjara), Israel (Bedouin), Ireland (Travelers), Iran (Baluch) and elsewhere.
We ask: How do nomadic people deal with a modern state that offers them free health care and public education? How do post-nomadic people construct their social space in their camp dwellings? And how do they construct a memory, an identity, and a claim to territory in the face of a state that portrays them as landless itinerants?
Theme Organizers:
Dr. Pnina Mutsafi-Haller
Director of Gender Program, Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben Gurion University, Israel
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Dr. Pnina Moztafi-Haller is senior lecturer at the Blaustein Institutes for desert Research at Ben Gurion University, Israel. She is the author of Fragmented Worlds, Coherent Lives: The Politics of Difference in Botswana and the editor of several volumes including Women and Agriculture in the Middle East. She has recently completed a book manuscript based on her ethnographic work among Mizrahi women in the Israeli desert town of Yeruham. Her current research work is among the Banjara nomads in Rajasthan, India, where she examines the relations of the nomadic and settled populations with the state from a feminist critical perspective.
Invited Guests:
Mrs. Priscilla Achakpa
Women Environmental Programme, Nigeria
Title Of Abstract:
Relationship between Gender and Dryland Management
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Mrs. Priscilla Achakpa is Executive Director of Women Environmental Programme (WEP), which is a non-governmental, non-profit, non-religious and voluntary organization established in 1997 by a group of grassroots women in Nigeria, whose major aim is to address the gender injustices on issues relating to environment, economic and social rights of women, children and youths in the society. She is a graduate of Benue State University where she received a Masters Degree in International Relations and Strategic Studies. She also holds a National Diploma in Environmental Management from Kaduna Polytechnic in Kaduna Nigeria. She has worked in various organizations such as Savannah Bank where she was Head of Operations and Catholic Ecclesiastical Province of Abuja Office of Health and Justice Development and Peace Commission (JDPC) where she served as a consultant. In her current role as Executive Director of WEP she is the operational head of the organization supervising a team of fifteen fulltime staff members, two interns, two international volunteers and two national volunteers and consultants with operational offices in two geopolitical zones (North central and North east) of Nigeria.
Dr. Helen Johnson
University of Queensland, Australia
Title of Abstract:
Women, Water and Liquid Natural Gas Development in Australia
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Helen Johnson joined Coffey Environments as a Principal in 2010 with over sixteen years of experience in social science, anthropology, gender studies and community development. Helen has a PhD in Anthropology from Monash University and has written and edited numerous publications on women and gender, cultural diversity, international development and rural communities, with a particular focus on the Asia Pacific Region. Helen has worked in both academic and consulting capacities in Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Singapore and the Solomon Islands and can operate in five languages. Helen's experience and social research skills include data collection, drafting and editing of environmental and social impact assessments; community analysis and household surveys; gender impact assessment; gender and development training; facilitation of visioning and post-project/closure workshops; project design and management; and social policy development.
Ms.Anna Hoare
University College London, United Kingdon
Title of Abstract:
Architectures of Post-nomadic Sociality among Irish Travellers
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Anna Hoare is currently completing a PhD in
Anthropology at University College London, based on fieldwork among
Irish Travellers in Ireland and the UK. This study explores the
mediating role of architectures between Irish Travellers and the
state, and among Travellers themselves, considering spatial-material
architectures both as lived environments and as legal and political
relations.
The study develops earlier research as part of an MRes in Anthropology
on the transformation of a long-term camping coalition to a site
community, and a study of social, economic and geographic patterns of
nomadic movement and camping in mid-20th century Ireland, contributing
to a Masters in International Vernacular Architecture at Oxford
Brookes University. Before studying the Anthropology of Architecture,
Anna had a career as a furniture designer and maker, and worked on
historic buildings as a skilled restorer and consultant. She has long
been interested in promoting gender equality in science, engineering,
construction and information technology (SECT), and spent three years
as Southeast project manager for a European project in gender and SECT
in the UK, developing widening participation through training and
consultancy in industry and the education and training sector.
Dr. Patricia Hamilton
Australian Women in Agriculture, Australia
Title of Abstract:
Crossing Boundaries:Building A Creative And Connected Learning Community Through Weaving Networks
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Dr Patricia Hamilton is President of Australian Women in Agriculture Ltd (AWiA) which is a national organisation of dedicated women that brings diversity, experience, and networking to the development and support of primary production and rural communities, in partnership with industry and governments.
Dr Hamilton has skills in teaching and an Honours Degree in Anthropology and English and a PhD in Rural Sociology: From farmer's wife to business partner: Empowerment of women as leaders and decision-makers in the Australian Grains Industry (2003-2007). She has experiences as a secondary principal, a sheep farmer, a researcher, and board and committee membership and in mentoring the growth of young people in agricultural industries.
Her leadership and management experiences and the involvement in research, development and evaluation with both education and rural industries have equipped her with a wide range of processes and experiences to be a valuable contributor to the advancement of women in agriculture.
During 2009 and 2010, AWiA under Dr Hamilton's leadership has been successful in gaining grants from the Australian Government to strengthen rural women's leadership, decision-making and communication skills across five Australian states and has coordinated training workshops and developed networking opportunities which enable young women entering or involved in agriculture, fisheries and forestry industries in Australia to shape their own and their industry's future.
Dr Hamilton is passionate about creating opportunities for women to develop and grow their leadership and management skills through a culture which celebrates life-long learning in a creative, supportive and innovative environment based on success.
