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- Convenors:
-
Felipe Roa-Clavijo
(Universidad de los Andes)
Claudia Rodríguez-Castellanos (London School of Economics)
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- Format:
- Roundtable
- Stream:
- Agriculture, rural livelihoods, food systems, and climate change
Short Abstract:
This roundtable highlights rural spaces as key to resilience and transformation in crises of conflict, climate, and governance. Exploring grassroots innovation, climate adaptation, and post-conflict recovery, it reframes rural perspectives as central to sustainable development and global change.
Description:
In times of global crisis, rural spaces—often sidelined in development discourse—emerge as critical arenas for resilience, innovation, and transformation. This roundtable explores the vital role of rural areas, rural populations, and rural development in addressing the overlapping crises of conflict, climate change, and governance. By reframing rural perspectives as central rather than peripheral, the roundtable offers fresh insights into navigating uncertainty and fostering sustainable, inclusive development.
Guided by three core questions, the roundtable interrogates:
1. Why should rural spaces, rural people, and rural development remain pivotal considerations in the context of conflict, peacebuilding and climate change?
2. How have crises rooted in conflict, climate, or governance spurred transformative and sustainable development opportunities?
3. What lessons can grassroots and community-led initiatives provide for resilience and positive change in the face of current crises?
Drawing on empirical case studies and diverse theoretical perspectives, the roundtable seeks to discuss how rural communities act as agents of transformation. Contributions may include but are not limited to climate adaptation strategies driven by local actors, post-conflict recovery efforts anchored in rural livelihoods, and grassroots governance innovations. Together, these discussions will highlight the opportunities embedded in crisis and underscore the importance of centering rural perspectives in development policy and practice.
This roundtable aims to bridge theory and practice, fostering dialogue on how rural spaces can not only withstand crises but also drive systemic transformations in global development.
Accepted contributions:
Session 1Contribution short abstract:
Urban-to-rural migration serves as a response to climate challenges like flooding, yet remains underexplored in Ghana. This study on migrant farmers highlights key push and pull climate factors, gendered disparities and social support while recommending policy needs for sustainable land practices
Contribution long abstract:
Environmental variability is increasingly recognized as a major driver of global migration, with climate-induced changes such as disruptions in food and water security, extreme weather events, and rising sea levels, prompting migration as a survival strategy. In Ghana, urban-to-rural migration has emerged as a response to climate-related challenges, though it remains underexplored compared to rural-to-urban migration. This study examines the interplay of climate change, social capital, and urban-to-rural migration as a livelihood adaptation strategy, focusing on migrant farmers in Mangoase, Akwapim North Municipality. Using a qualitative phenomenological approach, data was purposively collected from nine participants who initially migrated from northern Ghana to Adjin-Kotoku, a peri-urban area in Greater Accra, and subsequently to Mangoase due to climate-related disruptions. Thematic analysis using NVIVO revealed key environmental push factors such as flooding, sand mining, urbanization, and poor land management, which caused loss of arable land and unsustainable urban livelihoods. Pull factors to rural Mangoase included access to fertile land, favourable land-use terms, market proximity, and job stability, which supported sustainable livelihoods. The study highlights gender disparities, with migrant women farmers facing greater challenges in land use and ownership. Climate change impacts, including reduced incomes, job insecurity, and health complications, were mitigated by social support in the form of emotional, financial, material, and labour-intensive aid. Recommendations emphasize comprehensive land-use policies, education on sustainable land management, gender-inclusive land rights, and rural development initiatives such as healthcare, education, and agro-processing industries to enhance rural sustainability and support urban-to-rural migration as a climate adaptation strategy.
Contribution short abstract:
Natural disasters significantly affect human mobility in vulnerable rural areas. The study focuses on an earthquake in southern Italy, using 19 in-depth interviews to understand its impact on household mobility decisions. Findings indicate that the earthquakes influence mobility and social factors.
Contribution long abstract:
Natural Disasters significantly influence human mobility, particularly in vulnerable rural areas that struggle to adapt. This study examines the earthquake as a natural disaster, focusing on its impact on individual mobility decisions by exploring households’ experiences during and after the disaster. It also focuses on social factors like family commitments and ties to the place of origin. By investigating the Irpina earthquake in the small municipality of Lioni in southern Italy, the study conducted 19 in-depth interviews. Results indicate that while natural disasters such as earthquakes directly influence mobility decisions, social cohesion and other factors also play a critical role. Moreover, natural disasters such as earthquakes typically lead to short-term internal mobility and some individuals being trapped due to financial or social constraints.
Contribution short abstract:
This work will discuss how flood and riverbank erosion re-theorizes livelihood practices due to the disappearance of ‘matti’ (land) and ‘jeevika’ (livelihood) and its materiality based on walking ethnography done in different districts of the north and south banks of Brahmaputra for 18 months.
Contribution long abstract:
Annual Inundation and riverbank erosions have always been part of the everyday lives of riverine communities around the world and especially in the Brahmaputra valley and that has reshaped the valley due to the dual process of flood and riverbank erosion. The twin processes of flood and riverbank erosion have been a significant part of Brahmaputra valley's natural landscapes and livelihood ‘creation’ or ‘destruction’ and also threatened the traditional livelihood systems of the valley which were dependent on the natural resources and have undergone significant changes. However, in the last few decades, the intensity of floods and riverbank erosion has worsened the situation due to climate change and most significantly due to the large-scale hydrocractic infrastructures and intervention projects that show their inability to tame or control the ‘untameable’ Brahmaputra. Hence, this paper seeks to explore and document the lived experiences of disasters, rural transformation, accounts of loss or bearings, and the process of making climate-induced refugees in their homeland due to the disappearance of ‘matti’ (land) and ‘jeevika’ (livelihood). Hence this paper will draw on a broader scholarly endeavour to advance resilient non-structural/ non-technocratic approaches for Disaster Risk Reduction and by doing this, it will not only contribute towards the field of livelihood scholarships but also shed light upon the concerns over livelihood changes and sustainability. This paper is based on walking ethnography done in different districts of the north and south banks of Brahmaputra.
Contribution short abstract:
Can rural lower classes ensure their political and economic interests through regime type changes? A case of rural class struggle suggests that popular counter-power may be of greater important to democratic and developmental politics than formal distinctions between democracy and authoritarianism.
Contribution long abstract:
How can rural lower classes ensure their political and economic interests despite changes in regime type? The relationship between agrarian policy and regime types has long been a key topic in development politics. Scholars argue that landed elites prefer dictatorships to protect property rights and ensure cheap labor. Yet, recently, elites have accepted democratization as property rights are safeguarded or mechanization reduces reliance on labor control. Regardless, rural lower classes suffer from landlessness, poor employment, and political marginalization, prompting a rethinking of democracy’s purpose. This study examines a puzzling case in northern Pakistan, where a transition from democracy to a military regime, backed by landed elites, saw peasants retain economic gains. I argue that power shifts did not align neatly with regime changes but depended on what each regime deemed effective, given the balance between elites and armed peasant movements. Both military and civilian regimes upheld elite autonomy when useful for controlling peasants. However, where peasant counter-power challenged elite dominance, regimes adopted similar techniques of consent and coercion. The paper rethinks distinctions between democratic and authoritarian regimes by highlighting popular counter-power as central to democratic and developmental politics.