Approaching Vulnerability, Rural Livelihoods in the West Bank, Palestine

Publication Type
Book
Authors
Dengler Bettina
Year of publication
2005
Pubisher
Margraf , Weikersheim
Series/labeling
Kommunikation und Beratung
Page (from - to)
246
Keywords
Living standard, Lokales Wissen
Abstract

While Palestine and respective pictures of violence are almost daily on the agenda of news magazines, this book approaches the West Bank, the people and their realities from an illuminat-ing and different perspective. Departing from three rural villages in the West Bank, the priorities, resources and strategies of households and individuals are profoundly described and analysed. The core questions of the research are 'What are the rationales behind people's action? How are common principles of ac-tion constituted?' and 'How does the crisis effect actions, options and outcomes?'. The result is an absolutely comprehensible picture of Palestinian realities, which is supplemented by back-ground information on recent history, the economy and agriculture. A further merit of the book is the presentation of a theoretical model to the analysis of liveli-hoods. By placing special emphasis on non-economic assets and interests of households and individuals, the model allows to comprehensively assess social organisation and livelihoods. It further offers to identify potential areas of intervention without loosing sight of eventual impacts on the whole system.

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