The diversification of pastoralist herding

Navigating Socio-Climatic Risk via Mobile Technologies

Bibliographic Data

ID3639629
AuthorsIngrid Boas (0000-0001-7842-5883)
Year2022
Volume48
Issue14
Pages3433-3449
Publication date2022-10-26
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueNew Community (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0047-9586 • E-ISSN: 1469-9451
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/1369183x.2022.2066262
OpenAlexW4281386847
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited42

This paper examines the diversification of pastoralist herding practices in the context of socio-climatic change and the ways in which mobile technologies shape this diversification. It does so to offer a plural perspective on the relation between climate change and human mobility, showing the heterogenous and socially embedded ways in which it unfolds. Pastoralists have been moving in response to rains and droughts for centuries. This mobility is, however, faced with numerous challenges, related to privatisation of land, processes of urbanisation impacting on pastoralist livelihoods and changing rainfall patterns making decision-making on livestock mobility increasingly complex. This paper examines how pastoralists are navigating these challenges through the use of basic phones, smartphones and social media, via a case study of the Kenyan Laikipia Highlands. It demonstrates how these mobile technologies enable herding practices to endure and for them to be reshaped by taking on a mix of physical and digital forms. This happens through social media platforms, virtual herding and through pluralised networks of information exchange on grazing strategies navigating the socio-climatic limitations imposed on them

Agriculture · Business · Climate change · Context (archaeology · Diversification (marketing strategy · Economic growth · Economics · Environmental planning · Environmental resource management · Geography · Herding · Livelihood · Livestock · Pastoralism · Urbanization · Climate Change, Adaptation, Migration · Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology · Transboundary Water Resource Management · Ecology · Marketing

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Open DOIOpen Access