Gender, Environment and Rural Livelihoods: A Symposium of Applied Research
University of Guelph, OVC Lifelong Learning Centre Room 1713
Monday October 15, 0900-1530
 

0900

Lauren Classen, University of Toronto and Sally Humphries, University of Guelph:

Opening Participatory Spaces for the Most Marginal: Learning from Collective Action in the Honduran Hillsides

1015

Cornelia Butler Flora et al, Iowa State University:

Hopi Women's Access to Traditional Food: Identity, Culture and Health

1130

Katharine N. Rankin, University of Toronto and Yogendra Shakya, Access Alliance Health Centre:

Politics of Subversion in Development Practice: Microfinance in Nepal and Vietnam

1230 lunch

1330-1530

Mabel Cordini, Lila Engberg and Dalia Restrepo,

Nora Cebotarev’s Institutional Contributions in in Latin America

Abstracts

Opening Participatory Spaces for the Most Marginal

Community participation in collective action is increasingly put forward as the best way to eradicate poverty, marking a strong trend away from earlier technocratic, top-down approaches to development. Collective action is said to build social capital and to empower the poor, improving access to other assets in the process. However, World Bank researchers argue that evidence for participatory approaches actually making a measurable impact on poverty reduction is lacking. Elite capture of development benefits is posited as a primary reason why the poor see so few benefits from participatory development. Additionally, projects frequently target the least poor in order to show the best results in the least amount of time. By contrast, the poorest are likely to have limited social networks, reducing the effectiveness of collective action. Using a series of assessments - both quantitative and qualitative in nature - between 1997 and 2006 of a farmer participatory research and development program in Honduras, the paper looks at the checks and balances employed to open a space for participation of the most marginal in community development and to measure the impact of this participation. It also sheds light on indicators of inequality in poor and remote communities and on the nature of social organization necessary to permit the most marginal community members to begin to “aspire for change”.

Understanding Access to and Use of Traditional Foods by Hopi Single Parent Female Headed Households: Outreach to the Hopi Community and its Organizations

Cornelia Butler Flora, Iowa State University;

Matt Livingston, Pu'tavi and University of Arizona Extension;

Iva Honyestewa, Pu'tavi, Second Mesa;

Harrissa Koiyaquaptewa, Pu'tavi, Third Mesa

How do Hopi single mothers invest community capitals to increase their consumption of traditional Hopi foods? What capitals do they seek to increase by such investments? There is significant literature on the human capital and cultural capital aspects of traditional Native American diets. We look at all the capitals – natural, cultural, human, social, political, financial and human -- that single mothers mention as related to their access to and use of these foods. There is substantial evidence that the traditional diets of Native peoples contributed to their health and fitness, and that the “modern” diet of chips, fatty meats, sodas, and fried foods has contributed to an increase in obesity-related ailments, such as diabetes, stroke, gall stones, adverse pregnancy outcomes, and high blood pressure. Multiple resources have been mobilized on reservations by Cooperative Extension, the Forest Service, the Indian Health Service and not-for-profit organizations to return diets to the traditional foods. These programs not only stress the nutrient benefits of reclaiming traditions food, but also reclaiming the cultural traditions that support the production and consumption of those foods. Although the traditional diet is often equated with food insecurity, in-depth studies of traditional foods reveal a diet that was modest in terms of caloric intake, but balanced in terms of nutrients.

Politics of Subversion in Development Practice

This paper considers the ways in which beneficiaries of microfinance programs in two Asian countries routinely transgress program protocols and regulations, and fail to conform to the entrepreneurial subjectivities the programs seek to promote. It aims to develop an interpretive framework for these practices. Specifically, we take up Abu-Lughod’s injunction to ‘use resistance as a diagnostic of power’ in order to explore the political rationalities and governmental technologies of microfinance, as well as the cultural ideologies and material conditions in particular locales. We then consider the difficult question of political agency—drawing on prevailing theories of resistance to develop a typology that distinguishes among three overlapping kinds of transgressive practices. The objective ultimately is to explore how this interpretive framework might contribute to imagining more politically engaged and responsive models of development, as well as to critiquing the market-oriented foundation of existing models.

url: http://www.geog.utoronto.ca/info/faculty/Politics%20of%20subversion.pdf

 
 
For this wishing to attend the following directions may be of interest.
 

campus map - http://www.uoguelph.ca/campus/map/

Ground Travel from Toronto International Airport to Guelph:

Most visitors will travel to Guelph from Toronto Airport by Red Car Limousine Service. The Red Car is pre-booked in the traveler's name. Please contact http://www.redcarservice.com/. Red Car is located at the 'Ground Transportation' desk on the arrivals level concourse after clearing baggage claim, in each of the terminals. The Red Car will deliver to (and pick up from) any pre-arranged location in Guelph. The journey is around 50 minutes from the airport.

Travel by Car from the East and Toronto:

Take Hwy 401 Westbound to intersection #299. Take Northbound Hwy 46 (Brock Road) into Guelph. Brock Road becomes Gordon Street. The campus becomes visible at the intersection of Gordon Street & Stone Road.

Travel by Car from the South, Niagara & Hamilton:

Take Hwy 6 North. At Morriston the road crosses the Hwy 401 and becomes Hwy 46. Take Northbound Hwy 46 (Brock Road) into Guelph. Brock Road becomes Gordon Street. The campus becomes visible at the intersection of Gordon Street & Stone Road.

Travel by Car from the West, Detroit, Windsor, London:

Take Hwy 401 Eastbound to intersection #295. Take Hwy 6, Northbound to Stone Road and turn right. The campus becomes visible at the intersection of Gordon Street & Stone Road.