6.07 Echi Christina Gabbert; Dereje Feyissa Dori
Power, Peripheries and Land: Development across the last frontiers of Ethiopia
In the last decade, peripheral regions of Ethiopia have become subject of development planning of the Ethiopian government. In the course of fast track development plans, regions mainly home to pastoral and agropastoral people practising subsistence economies are mapped out for and turned into investment zones for commercial use for national and international investors. Different actors and groups of actors represent divergent views on these development efforts and more than often their views seem irreconcilable moving between hope, fear, and anger. Whereas some calculations promise benefit for all through overall economic gain, others foresee a sell-out of Ethiopian natural and cultural resources and resulting impoverishment of people. Especially the establishment of new commercial farms have already induced new sources of violent conflict (e.g. in Gambella and SNNPR). We are interested in contributions, empirical and theoretical, from all disciplines that discuss examples and divergent views on livelihoods and development planning in Ethiopia, encompassing policies, economic, juridical and cultural considerations across the „last frontiers of Ethiopia“ (Markakis 2011). We want to discuss how the present development dynamics mirror centre-periphery relations and how historical responsibilities as layed out in the Ethiopian Constitution may help to reflect on emergent pathologies of development schemes to work out constructive criticism on contested arenas of development. Questions for dicussions can be: How can we integrate divergent interests to gain a realistic overview of the situation? How measurable and accountable are cost- benefit calculations? Which relevant points of historical responsibilities need to inform feasable policies for the peripheries?Can Ethiopia still set an example for sustainable development that does not repeat mistakes made at other places and/or at other times and if so how can this be achieved?
ACCEPTED PAPERS
| Mr | ASEBE REGASSA DEBELO | Commodification of Land and Questions of Indigenous Peoples’ Land Right in the Ethiopia’s South Omo Valley |
| Dr. & Ms. | MAKNUN ASHAMI & Jean LYDALL | What has really changed? A look at the history of planned development in the Awash Valley since the 1960s |
| Mr | BEZA NEGEWO ODA | Discourse Coalitions in Development Induced Displacement and Resettlement (DIDR) Lower Omo Valley South Ethiopia |
| Mr | BIRHANU MEGERSA LENJISO | Unsecured Tenure Security: 40 years without viable answer for the land question in Ethiopia |
| Dr. | BUFFAVAND Lucie | The Costs of Ignoring Socio-Anthropological Knowledge in Development Planning: the Case of the Kuraz Sugar Development Project |
| Dr. | DEREJE FEYISSA | Local Responses to “land grabbing” in Ethiopia : A Case Study of the Gambela Region |
| Mr | DESALEGN AMSALU | Large scale development intervention and a quandary of Kumpal marginalization in Northwest Ethiopia |
| Mr | EULENBERGER Immo | The Nyàngatom of South Omo as subjects of development |
| Mr | FANA GEBRESENBET | Villagization: ‘Muting’ Dispossessions and Development in Gambella |
| Dr. | GABBERT Echi Christina | The global neighbourhood concept – an anthropological approach to divergent positions on development across the last Ethiopian frontiers |
| Mr | HOUTTEMAN Yvan | Recent changes among the Daasanech in South-West Ethiopia |
| Dr.&Dr. | LATOSKY Shauna & ZEHLE Jana | Education and the Environment in Southern Ethiopia: Lessons on Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) for Policy Planning and Practices |
| Prof. | MARKAKIS John | Emergent Lowland Periphery |
| Prof. | SCHLEE Günther | The Land and the People(s): Forms of Territoriality, Tenure, Belonging and Ownership |
| Prof. | STRECKER Ivo | The Hamar Integrated Pasture Project |
| Dr. | TEFERI ABATE ADEM | Land Governance under Three Ethiopian Regimes |
| Dr. | WALELIGN TADESSE ROBELE | Livelihood and Social identity in the newly ‘villagized’ communities of south-west Ethiopia, Gambela and South Omo |
| Mr | WEDEKIND Jonah | Reconfiguring access to land and labour in Ethiopia through agricultural investments: Reconceptualising frontiers |
This panel is part of the Lands of the Future Research Network (LOF) with kind financial support of the Max-Planck-Institute for Social Anthropology, Germany.
