International Research Fellowship Program: Communication and the Politics of Participation in Pastoral Societies: An Ethno-Geographical Analysis in East Africa

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0602034GoldmanThe International Research Fellowship Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct nine to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad.This award will support an eighteen-month research fellowship by Dr. Mara Goldman to work with Dr. Robin Reid at the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi, Kenya.The objective of this project is 1) to illuminate the particular social, cultural and geographical elements which characterize informal and formal communication networks/processes in pastoral communities; how they are organized, maintained, governed, and changing; and how they facilitate and/or constrain information flow in different scales and circumstances; and 2) to investigate the ways in which translocal social networks, changing social norms, and particular communication strategies used by pastoralists interact with uneven power relations to constrain or facilitate communication in participatory conservation development projects, as introduced by different groups, including Pastoralist Organizations (PNGOs). The PI hypothesizes that the complex, trans-local social networks common to pastoralist societies have both beneficial and constraining influences on internal communication and on interactions/ involvement in participatory conservation/development projects. Understanding how pastoral geographies affect pastoral communication systems - internally, with pastoral NGOs, and with non-pastoral related groups, at multiple scales - is key to improving communication in rangeland conservation/development projects. She will test the hypothesis through a comparative analysis producing geographic, ethnographic and interview data on pastoral communication processes within a fairly controlled setting (across four Maasai sites spanning Kenya and Tanzania). Data will illustrate 1) internal communication dynamics mediating everyday and more formal (meeting) exchanges; 2) the geographic, and social organization of (formal and informal) networks which could facilitate regional co-management conservation; and 3) the ways in which cultural norms, communication mechanisms, social networks, and power relations interact with external agencies in'participatory' conservation/development projects (in both faciliatory and constraining ways). Kenya is home to a large pastoral population, increasingly the growing focus of land-use/conservation-based research. ILRI is at the forefront of pastoral-related research with a well-established network of researchers, relationships with community leaders, and ongoing research in the four comparison study sites for the project. The research findings will expand our knowledge of communication dynamics and power-relations across different geographic scales and political contexts in participatory conservation/development processes.