Browsing by Author "Derman, William"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6

Changing Land-Use in the Eastern Zambezi Valley: Socio-Economic Considerations
(1996) Derman, William
From Introduction: "The report examines land use policy and practices in the Eastern Zambezi Valley that includes the valley portions of Guruve, Muzarabani and Mount Darwin Rural District Councils. The Eastern Valley is defined for this report's purposes as the area from the Chewore Safari Area to where the valley escarpment meets the Mozambique border south east of Mukumbura. The report examines past, present and future bases of land use planning. It assesses the strengths and weaknesses of present and future plans, and the degree to which these approaches fit with the complex social realities of eastern valley life at the end of the twentieth century. It is hoped that this report will be used by residents, development practitioners, and researchers to assist them in contextualizing land use changes in the eastern Zambezi Valley."
Cultures of Development: Committees, Workshops, and Indigenous Knowledges
(2002) Derman, William
"This paper is situated in a set of analytically uncomfortable and complex intersections and contestations between indigenous knowledges, development policies and practices, and anthropology. The indigenous knowledge literature emphasizes how smaller-scale societies and cultures have lived in harmony with nature and practiced sustainable development. In doing so these societies are often said to have constructed profound knowledge of their environments, which is in danger of being lost and/or appropriated. The assertion of the importance of indigenous knowledge and practices is used in Africa to counter the notions that only western development can bring progress. In North and South America, notions of indigenousness have been used in a more politicized fashion by groups attempting to maintain some autonomy for their land, languages and cultures."
Preliminary Reflections on Research Issues and Strategies for a Long-Term Study of Common Property and Natural Resource Management with Particular Emphasis upon the Zambezi River
(1987) Derman, William
"This paper is intended to aid in the process by which interested parties within and without the University of Zimbabwe can refine, criticize, and redefine the critical issues in Zambezi River Basin development, how they might be best researched (combining both relevant policy and basic research), and what other actions might be appropriate. In setting out some of the social science issues involved, it becomes immediately evident that involvement of other disciplines is necessary. While one could draw up a list of the essential ones, processionally these should come from other university units in the Zambezi area, and from the actual and proposed development programs and projects. It is suggested that these studies avail themselves of the latest methodologies in participatory research, monitoring, and evaluation to provide an interface with local populations. Indeed, it is hoped that these studies will provide an experiment for testing different methodologies and adopting those most appropriate for Zimbabwe."
Recreating Common Property Management: Government Projects and Land Use Policy in the Mid-Zambezi Valley, Zimbabwe
(1993) Derman, William
"In this paper, I explore two models of collective action in Zimbabwe; The Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE) and the Mid-Zambezi Rural Development Project (MZP). These two models are being followed in adjacent areas in the eastern Zambezi Valley and have very different implications for efforts to manage 'the commons.' The CAMPFIRE Programme represents the application of a theory of collective action based upon the development of self-organizing and self-governing groups at the producer community level. The MZP is based upon an external and inflexible plan which ignores local knowledge, practices and institutions. The project by design is resettling large numbers of both long-term and migrant valley residents. By designating where people may live and cultivate large numbers of valley residents are being rendered landless by the project. In contrast, CAMPFIRE seeks to utilize and build upon local knowledge, organization and management skills. The MZP greatly restricts local collective action as it relies upon the 'purposive rationality' of land planners who do not take the knowledge and hopes of rural populations into account in their programmes, policies and plans. Thus, the MZP has much greater continuities with the past while CAMPFIRE becomes a test case of the government's resolve to devolve power to local communities."
The Unsettling of the Zambezi Valley: An Examination of the Mid-Zambezi Rural Development Project
(1990) Derman, William
"My objective today is to explore one vision for, the Zambezi Valley, that emerging from the Mid-Zambezi Project and to present some alternative possibilities for the area. This should lead actors to rethink the alternative and often competing visions for the future. In particular it is important how the Centre for Applied Social Sciences (CASS), World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) and Zimbabwe Trust (ZimTrust) will position themselves relative to the most massive undertaking of top-down planning to reshape the valley since the construction of Kariba. The Mid-Zambezi Project also has clear implications for the wider national debate about the land question and how and in what ways small-scale agriculturalists' knowledge can and will be utilized in the restructuring of Zimbabwean agriculture. "In this paper I will outline the major features of the Mid-Zambezi Rural Development Project, summarize some reactions by both migrants and long-term residents to the project, analyze some longer-term issues within the Valley that the Project does not appear to address, and offer some suggestions for an alternative way to proceed. I begin by commenting on what I regard as a desirable approach to rural development: that based not on an opposition to planning but planning with the full-involvement and participation of those who are being planned for - those most often termed beneficiaries."
Whose Commons? Fishermen, Developmentalists, and Conservationists on Lake Malawi
(1990) Ferguson, Anne; Derman, William; Mkandawire, Richard
"We report on the early stages of a research project studying the growing crises in Africa's Great Lakes. Our presentation focuses upon the perceptions and understandings of Lake Malawi and its management held by fish biologists, fisheries department personnel, National Parks administrators, multinational oil companies, private aquarium interests, commercial fishing concerns and lakeside peoples. Lake Malawi contains almost 300 identified fish species (with more than an equal number not yet fully identified) and has a novel and newly established lakeside national park whose primary attraction is the colorful aquarium fish. The park provides a lever for environmentalists to lobby for alternative and sustainable uses of the lake in opposition to those whom one can loosely group as developmentalists. Among these are advocates of aquaculture. Malawi has recently seen a burgeoning of interest and 'onfarm' research in aquaculture. The flow of resources in aquaculture has diverted many qalified personnel and scare training funds away from management of the lake. In our paper we discuss the terms of the debate between the developmentalists and environmentalists -- how these different interests understand the lake as 'commons' and what constitutes its appropriate management. We conclude with the all too familiar finding that the least understood part of the lake system has been its fishing peoples. We briefly outline how they make sense out of the policies and decisions put forth by these two interest groups."