Thinking the African Food Crisis - The Oxford Topic of Food, Politics, and Society - page 784

farming communities. The adaptive capacity much praised by geographers, anthropolo-
gists,andruralsociologistscouldbe,andotenwas,undercut,eroded,orlostbytheoper-
ationsofthemarket.hiswastheheartofJamesScott's(1976)inluentialbookonthe
moraleconomyofthepeasantryaterall—andthiswastheheartofwhatI triedtoargue
in Silent Violence .hisrealizationhaddirectimplicationsforwhowasvulnerable,how
ecological processes were experienced, and, in turn, how people and land might recover.
Finally,therewasaturntowarddiscursiveanalysis,ledbythelikesofMelissaLeach,
JeremySwit,andothers,topointtowhattheycalleddominantmodelsornarrativesof
environmentalcrisisthatrelectedparticularreadingsorconstructionsoflocalAfrican
conditions(FairheadandLeach,1996).Bythe1980sandintothe1990s,theseintellectual
developments—partlyrootedintheieldofpoliticalecology,partlyinecologicalscience
and science studies, and partly in anthropological critiques of development—repre-
sented a fundamental challenge to the legitimacy and standing of the conventional narra-
tivesofAfrica'senvironmentalconditions,itsactors,anditsagents.Curiously,however,
what has emerged from this critique is a new laboratory of ideas, this time shaped by the
intersection of neoliberalism and the new science of resiliency that has taken on notions
of peasant vulnerability, local adaptive capability, and empowerment and woven them
intoanall-encompassingieldtheoryofstabilization,protection,andhumansecurity.
Virtually the entire development industry addressing global climate change now rests on
building resilient peasant households and resilient communities.
Securing Sahelian Futures: Building
Resilience through Social Risk
Management
heWestAfricanSahel,accordingtotheIntergovernmentalPanelonClimateChange
(2007),willbepotentiallydevastatedbythetransformationofrainfalldynamicsdue
to continued global warming. The threat of rainfall reduction and increased variability
in heavily populated rain-fed agricultural regions has produced a wide-ranging policy
debateoverstrategiesforclimateadaptation(SchipperandBurton2009) and“drought
proofing.” At the same time, climate is now seen to be simply one dimension of a wider
set of security problems; indeed, environmental security (encompassing food, water,
energy,pasture,andsoon)providesapowerfulpolicydiscoursedesignedtohelpassist
in how rural communities across the Sahel, confronting drought and resource scarcity,
canadaptandavoidconlict(MasonandMuller2008).Goneisthelanguageofover-
population, incomplete markets, poor transportation, and local management deficits;
gone,too,isanylingeringsenseofstatewelfare.Initsplaceisamodelofsecuritytobe
achieved by supporting local adaptive capacity in the face of vulnerability, managing
risksocially,andaboveallbybuildingresiliency(WRI2008;Gubbels2011;UNDP2012;
Adger2006;Folke,OsloandNorberg2005).