Feminist countertopographies of smallholder irrigation farming
Border crossing through results dissemination
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14288/acme.v18i1.1626Keywords:
postcolonial transnational feminist praxis, border crossing, countertopographies, dissemination, smallholder irrigation farming, East AfricaAbstract
Although encouraged by feminist and critical geographers, dissemination of research results back to research participants is seldom carried out and reported to the wider research community. Lack of engagement with these ethical and methodological issue goes against the call for responsible geographies, which materialize through the bridging of the divide between scholars in the Global North and researched communities in the Global South. Building upon a feminist geographical postcolonial transnational perspective, this article, co-authored by the researcher and the local research assistant, presents two episodes of active cross-cultural, cross-language dissemination that took place at the conclusion of a four-year PhD research project on smallholder irrigation farming in East Africa. We argue that by engaging with and linking two women’s groups across countries with similar struggles, triggering participant-led active dissemination activities, the researcher can use his/her privileged position to further the cause of oppressed groups. Grounded on the concepts of border crossing and countertopographies, we contend that geographers need to heighten ethical disciplinary debates by drawing inspiration from postcolonial transnational feminist praxis.
References
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Cahill, H. (2010). Re-thinking the fiction–reality boundary: Investigating the use of drama in HIV prevention projects in Vietnam. Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance 15 (2): 155–74.
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Caretta, M. A., Westerberg, L.-O., Mburu, D. M., Fischer, M., & Börjeson, L. (2018). Soil management and soil properties in a Kenyan smallholder irrigation system on naturally low-fertile soils. Applied Geography, 90, 248–256. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2017.12.008
Caretta, M. A., & Cheptum, F. J. (2017). Leaving the field: (de-)linked lives of the researcher and research assistant. Area, 49(4), 415–420. https://doi.org/10.1111/area.12342
Caretta, M. A. (2016). Member checking: A feminist participatory analysis of the use of preliminary results pamphlets in cross-cultural, cross-language research. Qualitative Research, 16(3), 305–318. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794115606495
Caretta, M. A., & Riaño, Y. (2016). Feminist participatory methodologies in geography: creating spaces of inclusion. Qualitative Research, 16(3), 258–266. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794116629575
Caretta, M. A. (2015a). Situated knowledge in cross-cultural, cross-language research: a collaborative reflexive analysis of researcher, assistant and participant subjectivities. Qualitative Research, 15(4), 489–505. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794114543404
Caretta, M. A. (2015b). Hydropatriarchies and landesque capital: a local gender contract analysis of two smallholder irrigation systems in East Africa. The Geographical Journal, 181(4), 388–400. https://doi.org/10.1111/geoj.12102
Caretta, M. A., & Börjeson, L. (2015). Local gender contract and adaptive capacity in smallholder irrigation farming: a case study from the Kenyan drylands. Gender, Place & Culture, 22(5), 644–661. https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2014.885888
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Chilisa, B. (2011). Indigenous Research Methodologies. Thousand Oaks, Calif: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Cons, J. & Kasia, P. (2010). Contested credit landscapes: Microcredit, self-help and self-determination in rural Bangladesh. Third World Quarterly, 31(4): 637-654.
Cupples, J. & Kindon, S. (2003). Returning to university and writing the field. Development fieldwork: A practical guide: 217-32.
Davies, M., Kipruto, I. J., Timothy. K., & Moore, H., L. (2014). Revisiting the irrigated agricultural landscape of the Marakwet, Kenya: Tracing local technology and knowledge over the recent past. Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa, 0(0): 1–38. https://doi.org/10.1080/0067270X.2014.979527
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Gabrielsson, S. & Ramasar, V. (2012). Widows: agents of change in a climate of water uncertainty. Journal of Cleaner Production. Accessed November 1. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2012.01.034.
Gibson-Graham, J. K., Cameron, J., & Healy, S. (2013). Take Back the Economy: An Ethical Guide for Transforming Our Communities. University of Minnesota Press.
Hohenthal, J., Räsänen, M., Owidi, E., Andersson, B., Minoia, P., & Pellikka, P. (2015). Community and institutional perspectives on water management and environmental changes in Taita Hills, Kenya. Department of Geosciences and Geography. University of Helsinki
Jazeel, T. & McFarlane, C. (2010). The limits of responsibility: A postcolonial politics of academic knowledge production. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 35 (1): 109–24.
Johnson, S. (2004). Gender norms in financial markets: Evidence from Kenya. World Development 32 (8): 1355–74.
Katz, C. (2001). On the grounds of globalization: A topography for feminist political engagement. Signs. 26 (4): 1213–34.
MacKenzie, C, A. (2015). Filtered meaning: Appreciating linguistic skill, social position and subjectivity of interpreters in cross-language research. Qualitative Research, 16(2): 167-182. doi:10.1177/1468794115569564.
Mistry J., Berardi, A., Verwer, C., & de Ville, G. (2015). Up-scaling support for community owned solutions. Project COBRA. Accessed February 24 2016. http://projectcobra.org/up-scaling-support-for-community-owned-solutions/
McCabe, T., J. (2003). Sustainability and livelihood diversification among the Maasai of Northern Tanzania. Human Organization, 62(2):100–111.
Nagar, R. & Lock-Swarr, A. (2009). eds. Critical transnational feminist praxis. State University of New York Press.
Nagar, R. (2002). Footloose researchers,’traveling’theories, and the politics of transnational feminist praxis. Gender, Place and Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography 9 (2): 179–86.
Nagar, R. (2015). Muddying the Waters: Coauthoring Feminisms Across Scholarship and Activism. Dissident Feminisms. Urbana, Chicago, and Springfield: University of Illinois Press.
Peake, L. & Kobayashi, A. (2002). Policies and practices for an antiracist geography at the millennium. The Professional Geographer 54 (1): 50–61.
Peake, L. & Trotz, A., D. (2001). Feminism and feminist issues in the south. The Companion to Development Studies, London: Arnold, 34–37.
Raghuram, P. & Madge, C. (2006.) Towards a method for postcolonial development geography? Possibilities and challenges. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography 27 (3): 270–88. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9493.2006.00262.x.
Riaño, Y. (2015). Minga biographic workshops with highly skilled migrant women: enhancing spaces of inclusion. Qualitative Research, 16(3): 267-279.
Sarna‐Wojcicki D., Perret M., Eitzel M. V., & Fortmann L. (2017). Where are the missing coauthors? Authorship practices in participatory research. Rural Sociology, 82(4): 713–746. https://doi.org/10.1111/ruso.12156
Savadogo, M.,O., Sinare, H., & Malmborg, K. (2016.) Resultats de la recherche dans le cadre de adaptation au changement climatique dans des zones sèchesle reverdissement au Sahel comme un cas de success potentiel. Stockholm Resilience Centre. Stockholm University.
Shanley, P. & López, C. (2009). Out of the loop: why research rarely reaches policy makers and the public and what can be done. Biotropica 41 (5): 535–44. doi:10.1111/j.1744-7429.2009.00561.x.
Sharp, J. (2005). Geography and gender: feminist methodologies in collaboration and in the field. Progress in Human Geography 29 (3): 304–9.
Singh, S. (2014). The effects of microfinance programs on women members in traditional societies. Gender, Place & Culture 22 (2): 1–17. doi:10.1080/0966369X.2013.855627.
Snow, K, C., Hays, D. G., Caliwagan, G., Ford, D. J., Mariotti, D., Maweu, J. et al. (2015). “Guiding principles for indigenous research practices.” Action Research, 14(4): 357-375.
Stewart, E. J., & Draper, D. (2009). Reporting back research findings: a case study of community-based tourism research in northern Canada. Journal of Ecotourism 8 (2): 128–43. doi:10.1080/14724040802696023.
Sulle, E. & Smalley, R. (2015). Study of sugarcane outgrowing at Kilombero. future agricultures. Accessed February 24, 2016. http://www.future-agricultures.org/publications/research-and-analysis/1953-study-of-sugarcane-outgrowing-at-kilombero-stakeholder-feedback-report/file
Sundberg, J. (2003). Masculinist epistemologies and the politics of fieldwork in Latin Americanist Geography. The Professional Geographer 55 (2): 180–90. doi:10.1111/0033-0124.5502006.
Tagseth, M. (2008). Oral history and the development of indigenous irrigation. Methods and examples from Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift—Norwegian Journal of Geography, 62(1): 9–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/00291950701864898
Torre, E. (1990). Drama as a consciousness-raising strategy for the self-empowerment of working women. Affilia 5 (1): 49–65.
Tuhiwai Smith, L. (1999). Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. Zed Books.
Watson, E., Adams, E. William. M., & Mutiso, S. K. (1998). Indigenous irrigation, agriculture and development, Marakwet, Kenya. The Geographical Journal, 164(1): 67–84. https://doi.org/10.2307/3060546
Webster, N. A., & Caretta, M. A. (2016). “Women in groups can help each and learn from each other”: The role of homosocial practices within women’s social networks in building local gender contracts. Multidisciplinary Journal of Gender Studies, 5(3), 1072–1097. https://doi.org/10.17583/generos.2016.1992
Whittle, R., Walker, M., & Medd, W. (2011). Suitcases, storyboards and newsround: exploring impact and dissemination in Hull. Area 43 (4): 477–87.
Boon, R. & Plastow, J. (2004). Theatre and Empowerment Community Drama on the World Stage. Cambridge Studies in Modern Theatre. Cambridge, UK; Cambridge University Press.
Cahill, C. & Torre, M. (2007) Beyond the journal article: representations, audience, and the presentation of participatory action research. Kindon, S. Pain, R. and M. Kesby (Eds.) Connecting people, participation and place: participatory action research approaches and methods. Routledge, London: 196-206.
Cahill, H. (2010). Re-thinking the fiction–reality boundary: Investigating the use of drama in HIV prevention projects in Vietnam. Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance 15 (2): 155–74.
Caretta, M. A. (2018). Striving beyond Epistemic Authority: Results Dissemination in Smallholder Irrigation Farming Research. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 108(3), 884–898. https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2016.1261686
Caretta, M. A., Westerberg, L.-O., Mburu, D. M., Fischer, M., & Börjeson, L. (2018). Soil management and soil properties in a Kenyan smallholder irrigation system on naturally low-fertile soils. Applied Geography, 90, 248–256. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2017.12.008
Caretta, M. A., & Cheptum, F. J. (2017). Leaving the field: (de-)linked lives of the researcher and research assistant. Area, 49(4), 415–420. https://doi.org/10.1111/area.12342
Caretta, M. A. (2016). Member checking: A feminist participatory analysis of the use of preliminary results pamphlets in cross-cultural, cross-language research. Qualitative Research, 16(3), 305–318. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794115606495
Caretta, M. A., & Riaño, Y. (2016). Feminist participatory methodologies in geography: creating spaces of inclusion. Qualitative Research, 16(3), 258–266. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794116629575
Caretta, M. A. (2015a). Situated knowledge in cross-cultural, cross-language research: a collaborative reflexive analysis of researcher, assistant and participant subjectivities. Qualitative Research, 15(4), 489–505. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794114543404
Caretta, M. A. (2015b). Hydropatriarchies and landesque capital: a local gender contract analysis of two smallholder irrigation systems in East Africa. The Geographical Journal, 181(4), 388–400. https://doi.org/10.1111/geoj.12102
Caretta, M. A., & Börjeson, L. (2015). Local gender contract and adaptive capacity in smallholder irrigation farming: a case study from the Kenyan drylands. Gender, Place & Culture, 22(5), 644–661. https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2014.885888
Caretta, M. A., Westerberg, L. O., Börjeson, L., & Östberg, W. (2014). Labour, climate perceptions and soils in the irrigation systems in Sibou, Kenya & Engaruka, Tanzania. Department of Human Geography, Stockholm University. Retrieved from http://su.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A776311&dswid=1309
Chilisa, B. (2011). Indigenous Research Methodologies. Thousand Oaks, Calif: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Cons, J. & Kasia, P. (2010). Contested credit landscapes: Microcredit, self-help and self-determination in rural Bangladesh. Third World Quarterly, 31(4): 637-654.
Cupples, J. & Kindon, S. (2003). Returning to university and writing the field. Development fieldwork: A practical guide: 217-32.
Davies, M., Kipruto, I. J., Timothy. K., & Moore, H., L. (2014). Revisiting the irrigated agricultural landscape of the Marakwet, Kenya: Tracing local technology and knowledge over the recent past. Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa, 0(0): 1–38. https://doi.org/10.1080/0067270X.2014.979527
Enria, L. (2015). Co-producing knowledge through participatory theatre: Reflections on ethnography, empathy and power. Qualitative Research, 16(3): 319-329. doi:10.1177/1468794115615387.
Gabrielsson, S. & Ramasar, V. (2012). Widows: agents of change in a climate of water uncertainty. Journal of Cleaner Production. Accessed November 1. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2012.01.034.
Gibson-Graham, J. K., Cameron, J., & Healy, S. (2013). Take Back the Economy: An Ethical Guide for Transforming Our Communities. University of Minnesota Press.
Hohenthal, J., Räsänen, M., Owidi, E., Andersson, B., Minoia, P., & Pellikka, P. (2015). Community and institutional perspectives on water management and environmental changes in Taita Hills, Kenya. Department of Geosciences and Geography. University of Helsinki
Jazeel, T. & McFarlane, C. (2010). The limits of responsibility: A postcolonial politics of academic knowledge production. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 35 (1): 109–24.
Johnson, S. (2004). Gender norms in financial markets: Evidence from Kenya. World Development 32 (8): 1355–74.
Katz, C. (2001). On the grounds of globalization: A topography for feminist political engagement. Signs. 26 (4): 1213–34.
MacKenzie, C, A. (2015). Filtered meaning: Appreciating linguistic skill, social position and subjectivity of interpreters in cross-language research. Qualitative Research, 16(2): 167-182. doi:10.1177/1468794115569564.
Mistry J., Berardi, A., Verwer, C., & de Ville, G. (2015). Up-scaling support for community owned solutions. Project COBRA. Accessed February 24 2016. http://projectcobra.org/up-scaling-support-for-community-owned-solutions/
McCabe, T., J. (2003). Sustainability and livelihood diversification among the Maasai of Northern Tanzania. Human Organization, 62(2):100–111.
Nagar, R. & Lock-Swarr, A. (2009). eds. Critical transnational feminist praxis. State University of New York Press.
Nagar, R. (2002). Footloose researchers,’traveling’theories, and the politics of transnational feminist praxis. Gender, Place and Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography 9 (2): 179–86.
Nagar, R. (2015). Muddying the Waters: Coauthoring Feminisms Across Scholarship and Activism. Dissident Feminisms. Urbana, Chicago, and Springfield: University of Illinois Press.
Peake, L. & Kobayashi, A. (2002). Policies and practices for an antiracist geography at the millennium. The Professional Geographer 54 (1): 50–61.
Peake, L. & Trotz, A., D. (2001). Feminism and feminist issues in the south. The Companion to Development Studies, London: Arnold, 34–37.
Raghuram, P. & Madge, C. (2006.) Towards a method for postcolonial development geography? Possibilities and challenges. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography 27 (3): 270–88. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9493.2006.00262.x.
Riaño, Y. (2015). Minga biographic workshops with highly skilled migrant women: enhancing spaces of inclusion. Qualitative Research, 16(3): 267-279.
Sarna‐Wojcicki D., Perret M., Eitzel M. V., & Fortmann L. (2017). Where are the missing coauthors? Authorship practices in participatory research. Rural Sociology, 82(4): 713–746. https://doi.org/10.1111/ruso.12156
Savadogo, M.,O., Sinare, H., & Malmborg, K. (2016.) Resultats de la recherche dans le cadre de adaptation au changement climatique dans des zones sèchesle reverdissement au Sahel comme un cas de success potentiel. Stockholm Resilience Centre. Stockholm University.
Shanley, P. & López, C. (2009). Out of the loop: why research rarely reaches policy makers and the public and what can be done. Biotropica 41 (5): 535–44. doi:10.1111/j.1744-7429.2009.00561.x.
Sharp, J. (2005). Geography and gender: feminist methodologies in collaboration and in the field. Progress in Human Geography 29 (3): 304–9.
Singh, S. (2014). The effects of microfinance programs on women members in traditional societies. Gender, Place & Culture 22 (2): 1–17. doi:10.1080/0966369X.2013.855627.
Snow, K, C., Hays, D. G., Caliwagan, G., Ford, D. J., Mariotti, D., Maweu, J. et al. (2015). “Guiding principles for indigenous research practices.” Action Research, 14(4): 357-375.
Stewart, E. J., & Draper, D. (2009). Reporting back research findings: a case study of community-based tourism research in northern Canada. Journal of Ecotourism 8 (2): 128–43. doi:10.1080/14724040802696023.
Sulle, E. & Smalley, R. (2015). Study of sugarcane outgrowing at Kilombero. future agricultures. Accessed February 24, 2016. http://www.future-agricultures.org/publications/research-and-analysis/1953-study-of-sugarcane-outgrowing-at-kilombero-stakeholder-feedback-report/file
Sundberg, J. (2003). Masculinist epistemologies and the politics of fieldwork in Latin Americanist Geography. The Professional Geographer 55 (2): 180–90. doi:10.1111/0033-0124.5502006.
Tagseth, M. (2008). Oral history and the development of indigenous irrigation. Methods and examples from Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift—Norwegian Journal of Geography, 62(1): 9–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/00291950701864898
Torre, E. (1990). Drama as a consciousness-raising strategy for the self-empowerment of working women. Affilia 5 (1): 49–65.
Tuhiwai Smith, L. (1999). Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. Zed Books.
Watson, E., Adams, E. William. M., & Mutiso, S. K. (1998). Indigenous irrigation, agriculture and development, Marakwet, Kenya. The Geographical Journal, 164(1): 67–84. https://doi.org/10.2307/3060546
Webster, N. A., & Caretta, M. A. (2016). “Women in groups can help each and learn from each other”: The role of homosocial practices within women’s social networks in building local gender contracts. Multidisciplinary Journal of Gender Studies, 5(3), 1072–1097. https://doi.org/10.17583/generos.2016.1992
Whittle, R., Walker, M., & Medd, W. (2011). Suitcases, storyboards and newsround: exploring impact and dissemination in Hull. Area 43 (4): 477–87.
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Published
2019-01-28
How to Cite
Caretta, M. A., & Cheptum, F. J. (2019). Feminist countertopographies of smallholder irrigation farming: Border crossing through results dissemination. ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, 18(1), 25–48. https://doi.org/10.14288/acme.v18i1.1626
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