Book Description
Shady Practices is a revealing analysis of the gendered political ecology brought about by conflicting local interests and changing developmental initiatives in a West African village. Between 1975 and 1985, while much of Africa suffered devastating drought conditions, Gambian women farmers succeeded in establishing hundreds of lucrative communal market gardens. In less than a decade, the women's incomes began outstripping their husbands' in many areas, until a shift in development policy away from gender equity and toward environmental concerns threatened to do away with the social and economic gains of the garden boom. Male landholders joined forestry personnel in attempts to displace the gardens and capture women's labor for the irrigation of male-controlled tree crops.
This carefully documented microhistory draws on field experience spanning more than two decades and the insights of disciplines ranging from critical human geography to development studies. Schroeder combines the "success story" of the market gardens with a cautionary tale about the aggressive pursuit of natural resource management objectives, however well intentioned. He shows that questions of power and social justice at the community level need to enter the debates of policymakers and specialists in environment and development planning. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

a gap filled
Shady Practices not only fills a gap in gender research, it is also interesting to read. Schroeder describes the context in which he researched in detail including his personal motivation for the research, methods andethical consideraditions. This is something far too litlle published yetuseful and informative for both junior and senior researchers.Altogetherthe book provides a comprehensive description of the rise of femalegardeners in the Gambia. Part of that description is an analysis ofchanging gender relations in the studied villages. It is here that theauthor reveals the care with which he embarked upon the project and thechallenges he faced himself as a male researcher investigating the role ofwomen in a traditionally male-oriented society. Athough the theme remainsin the foreground, carefully described, the role of the author in theresearch and the changes he experiences himself remain present. Inparticular for these reasons, i.e. the honesty of the researcher and theclarity of his writing, I recommend this book for gender researchers whoseinterest is in the theory of gender research and those who are concernedwith feminist methodologies. ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Geographical Journal, published by Royal Geographical Society on July 1, 1994. The length of the article is 4812 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the author: In the late 1700s, one of Britain's colonial outposts in The Gambia was considered for use as a major penal colony. This idea was scrapped in favour of its use, in the early 1800s, as a resettlement site for slaves intercepted in the Atlantic and repatriated to Africa's shore. This paper examines the experience of the experimental resettlement programme and draws parallels with problems of refugee resettlement in contemporary Africa.

Citation Details
Title: Guests of the crown: convicts and liberated slaves on McCarthy Island, The Gambia.
Author: Patrick Webb
Publication: The Geographical Journal (Refereed)
Date: July 1, 1994
Publisher: Royal Geographical Society
Volume: v160Issue: n2Page: p136(7)

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Book Description
This digital document is an article from The Geographical Review, published by American Geographical Society on July 1, 2002. The length of the article is 923 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Shady Practices: Agroforestry and Gender Politics in The Gambia.(Book Review) (book review)
Author: Thomas J. Bassett
Publication: The Geographical Review (Refereed)
Date: July 1, 2002
Publisher: American Geographical Society
Volume: 92Issue: 3Page: 469(2)

Article Type: Book Review

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