University of Georgia doctoral candidate J. Brent Vickers, supervised by Dr. Donald R. Nelson, will undertake research to investigate the effects of market integration on the ability of farmers in the village of Falealupo, Samoa, to recover from droughts, which have significant consequences for subsistence-based livelihoods. Historically, the capacity to respond to droughts and other environmental events depended on social institutions related to common property management. Over the last fifty years, however, people in rural villages throughout Samoa have increased their participation in the global market and decreased their participation in traditional social institutions. The changing context presents an opportunity to understand the effects of economic development and increased market participation on households and their members when recovering from, and adapting to, environmental events.
Using a variety of quantitative and qualitative ethnographic methods, such as semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, questionnaires, and household surveys to produce empirical data and to test hypotheses. The research methods will also be used to document experiences of Samoan villagers recovering from recent droughts and adapting to ecological change. The research will also address the intellectually challenging problem of assessing resilience from an emic (insider) rather than an etic (outside expert) perspective.
The research will contribute to the theoretical understanding of the effects of increased market participation on adaptive capacity and perceptions of resilience. The research will also contribute to resilience research methodology by using emic, rather than etic, measurements to define and measure social-ecological resilience, which could inform relief efforts and planning measures in communities facing similar droughts and other environmental events around the globe. Funding this research also contributes to the training of a social scientist.
Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE Doctoral Candidate J. Brent Vickers (University of Georgia), supervised by Dr. Donald R. Nelson, undertook research that will determine effects of increased market participation on perceived adaptive capacity and resilience in the village of Falealupo, Samoa. Falealupo has been experiencing frequent droughts. These droughts have serious impacts on the peoples’ subsistence-based livelihoods, which rely heavily on taro and other rain-fed agriculture. Meanwhile, over the last century people in rural villages throughout Samoa have been participating in varying amounts in the global market. This presents an opportunity to better understand the effects that economic development and increased market participation has on people’s ability to recover from and adapt to weather events and other ecological change. This also presents an opportunity to approach the intellectually challenging problem of resilience, or the ability of systems such as households to buffer disturbances without undergoing major change, from an emic (insider) rather than an etic (outside expert) perspective. Using an emic approach and the knowledge of insiders to define adaptive capacity and resilience, the researcher will compare people’ varying market participation, measured in terms of wealth and use of market-related livelihood strategies, to their perceptions of recovery from recent droughts and resilience in relationship to future weather events and other ecological change. Over the 12 month period from August, 2012 to August, 2013, the researcher lived in the village of Falealupo, Samoa and collected primary data for this research project. For the first nine months, during the Exploratory Phase of research, the researcher used discussions, semi-structured interviews, structured interviews and observations to document community members’ experiences of recovering from recent droughts, cyclones, and other ecological change. These discussions, interviews, and observations were also used to develop an understanding of livelihoods, household decision making, adaptive capacity and resilience in the village. During the Systematic Phase of the last three months of research, the researcher surveyed all 150 households in the village using a structured interview that was developed using the data derived during the Exploratory Phase of research. The structured interview was used to record variables that measure household market participation, wellbeing, adaptive capacity and perceptions of resilience. The structured interviews, together with other research methods, have produced quantitative and qualitative data that will be used to test research hypotheses. The research is important because it will contribute to the following areas of social science inquiry: adaptation to environmental change, social-ecological resilience, and economic and ecological anthropology. In the climate change literature, the research will help to better understand the effects of increased market participation on adaptive capacity. Likewise, the research will also help to improve the theoretical understanding of the influence of economic development on the resilience, or the ability to buffer disturbances such as ecological change, of rural communities. The research will also contribute to the resilience literature by using emic, rather than etic, measurements to define and measure social-ecological resilience. Lastly, the research will contribute to the literature of economic and ecological anthropology literature by adding to the theoretical understanding of adaptation and the influences that livelihood changes, particularly those that increase market participation, have on society. The research also contributes to the anthropology literature by associating household economics to perceptions of successful recovery from ecological change and perceptions of resilience. In addition to contributing to the scientific literature, the research also has practical implications for building adaptive capacity and resilience in Samoa and in other communities of Least Developed States. By determining factors that are associated with adaptability and resilience, the research will point to possible avenues for helping rural community members to increase their capacity to cope with and respond to future climate and other ecological change. The research findings can also help rural community members in Samoa and other Least Developed States to make more informed decisions about livelihood changes, especially in the face of global climate change. In Falealupo, the researcher worked with community members to develop an understanding of adaptability and resilience in the community. The researcher also discussed preliminary findings with members of the host community, and gave a formal open-presentation to on the preliminary findings at the National University of Samoa. The research will be published locally in Samoa and in academic journals. Lastly, the research contributed to the doctoral training of an anthropology graduate student and the research methods training of three research assistants in Falealupo village. .
