Doctoral Dissertation Research: Missing Links: Investigating the Socially-Differentiated Effects of Land Cover Change in a Rural Zambian Frontier

University Of Kentucky Research Foundation, Lexington KY

Investigators

Abstract

University of Kentucky Doctoral Candidate Allison D. Harnish, supervised by Dr. Lisa C. Cliggett, will undertake research on how variability in gender- and age-based divisions of labor, socioeconomic status, and household composition affect the experience of natural resource declines that are increasingly common throughout the world. The research moves beyond debates regarding the causes of environmental change to uncover measurable effects of environmental change on humans. Incorporating conventional ethnographic techniques with participatory methods and geographic information science, the research will foster continued growth and policy relevance in the area of environmental anthropology. Harnish will carry out the research in Chikanta, a rural farming frontier in southern Zambia abutting Kafue National Park. This study integrates an existing 650-household demographic survey with analyses of a time series (1970, 1986, 2000) of remotely sensed (aerial and satellite) imagery as well as in-depth and follow-up interviews, two mapping exercises, and participant observation. The project also will contribute to an ongoing longitudinal assessment of the social and environmental consequences of relocation for a population of Gwembe Tonga who were displaced by Kariba Dam in the late-1950s. This will including building a visual representation of land cover change and extractive labor that plots (a) the distribution of environmental resources relative to migrant homesteads and (b) the time and distance required by different actors for the collection of environmental resources. This research is important because changes in land cover are likely to bear substantial and substantially unequal consequences, not just for Chikanta residents, but for people worldwide who depend on natural resources for their livelihood. This project will contribute to understanding the intricate interconnections between gender, development, and environment at a time when proliferating concern for women's vulnerability is shaping international development and conservation priorities. Depictions of rural women as more linked to the natural environment by virtue their domestic labor and, so, more vulnerable to environmental change may lead researchers and policymakers inadvertently to marginalize the experiences of men and youth, and to downplay other variables, such as age and class, that also affect people's relationships with the natural environment. By focusing on the socially-differentiated effects of environmental change and emphasizing the heterogeneity of all social categories, this project will help to counter stereotypical portrayals of rural peoples and Third-World women. The project also supports the education and training of a social scientist.