| 1. |
- Hårsmar, Mats, 1961-
(författare)
-
Relations Key to Innovations : Peasants, Institutions and Technical Change on the Mossi Plateau in Burkina Faso
- 2013
-
Ingår i: African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation and Development (AJSTID). - : Informa UK Limited. - 2042-1338 .- 2042-1346. ; 5:1, s. 15-18
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- How can technical changes within food crop cultivation in a country like Burkina Faso be explained? This is an important question for the reduction of poverty, for enhanced food security as well as for economic growth. Poor countries, where agriculture is dominating broad based economic growth, require increased productivity in food crop cultivation. This study builds on fieldwork from three villages, undertaken in 2001/2002 and in 2010. The villages are situated on the ‘Mossi plateau’ in central Burkina Faso, where chronic poverty is widespread. The study finds the character of diffusion channels and the role of social relations to be decisive in explaining access, choice and adoption of new techniques. The innovation system theory is found relevant, not least because of its focus on power structures and relations between actors. To further strengthen such systems, intermediary organizations should be supported and informal institutions transformed.
|
|
| 2. |
|
|
| 3. |
- Hårsmar, Mats, 1961-
(författare)
-
Understanding poverty in Africa? : A navigation through disputed concepts, data and terrains
- 2010
-
Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In any international comparison, sub-Saharan Africa is the region with the most pervasive poverty. The study of African societies requires the study of numerous dynamics, processes and situations with links to poverty issues. Recent methodological innovations hold that research into poverty should be multidimensional, dynamic and cross-disciplinary. But how can such research be undertaken? This volume comprises two separate articles. The first provides an overview of major conceptual positions on poverty. With the focus on theoretical and methodological issues, it argues that the epistemological and normative elements have not been sufficiently emphasised in the attempts to bring different disciplinary approaches together. Such elements constitute fundamental dividing lines in the poverty debate. However, the article goes on to argue that the capability approach has promising potential for bridging these divides.The second article is an empirical study of recent poverty developments in Tanzania and Burkina Faso. Common to both countries – one in East and the other in West Africa – is that a largely subsistence agricultural sector dominates their economies. The article combines quantitative and qualitative methods to show that regional differences in the structures of agricultural production may in large part explain variations in poverty.
|
|
