Neil Webster – författare

Available open access digitally under CC BY NC ND licence.Climate change is often understood as a main driver of human mobility in Africa, but this book demonstrates the many other factors that also come into play in households´ mobility practices including those linked to gender, finance and livelihoods.Using case studies from Ethiopia and Ghana, the edited collection reveals how the two countries’ governance structures play significant roles in shaping households’ agency and mobility options. It shows that mobility has long been practised in both countries and is important for households’ livelihoods and resilience to climate change. The book concludes with policy recommendations for institutional practices that can support adaptive climate mobility.

Current development discourse on poverty reduction mainly emphasises the respective roles of the state and the market. This book argues, via a series of original fieldwork investigations, for the importance of exploring and understanding the poor's own actions. These actions may seek to change their poverty directly. Or the poor may seek to effect change with respect to the formulation and implementation of public policy. The notion of political space is critical to understanding the possibility and potential for such actions for poverty reduction.The authors develop a concept of political space comprising institutional channels for accessing policy formulation, the content of political discourse, the degree to which it emphasises poverty as an issue, and the skill and strategies of the poor themselves. They demonstrate that the relationships between the actions of the poor and the organisations and institutions of the political arena are neither simple nor predictable. Instead the studies in this volume detail the the complex realities of political agency of the poor, the strategic use of discourse, the limits of institutional reform, the contested nature of poverty reduction, and the significance of political space for challenging conditions of marginalisation.