Kristi Anne Stølen

Gender, sexuality and violence in Ecuador*

The following article, based on field work in a mestizo parish in Highland Ecuador, examines how women (and some men) describe and interpret marital violence. Their interpretations are analyzed with reference to the socio‐economic conditions of the area of study, and with reference to the dominant gender ideology in mestizo societies, characterized by machismo/marianismo. It is argued that discrepancies between an ideology of male dominance and a much more equalitarian practice, together with an ambiguous notion of masculinity as both powerful and extremely fragile, dependent on female sexual conduct, create an “insecurity of maleness” which under certain circumstances is dealt with in violent terms.

The emergence, persistence and current challenges of coffee forest gardens: A case study from Candelaria Loxicha, Oaxaca, Mexico

In many parts of Latin America coffee is produced in forest garden systems, which fulfill a variety of household needs, enhance food security, and conserve biodiversity. We investigate drivers in the emergence, persistence, and decline of coffee forest gardens, using a case study in southern Mexico and combining historical, socioeconomic, and institutional analysis. Social, cultural, and political benefits linked to forest gardens are important drivers of change. The analysis supports the hypothesis that forest gardens emerge in places where they complement broader land use systems, land tenure is relatively secure, and the local economy is a combination of cash- and subsistence-based activities. The article further illustrates how the international coffee agreement and social-welfare programs supported the emergence of forest gardens. Low coffee prices, changes in land tenure, and reduced availability of labor could result in the eventual abandonment of coffee forest gardens.

Local Participation in Vicuña Management

Vicuna management projects and programmes developed in the Andes follow the logic of the community-based conservation (CBC) paradigm (Robinson and Redford, 1991 ; Western and Wright, 1994 ; Hulme and Murphree, 2001) . This paradigm emerged, in the past two decades, as a strategy to link conservation and community development through local participation and sustainable use. In the case of community-based conservation of vicuna, the assumption is that commercial utilisation of vicuna fibre, obtained from live-shorn animals will generate sufficient benefits to outweigh the burden of conservation and contribute to community development, thus encouraging local people to become partners in conservation. Despite the rapid popularity of vicuna management projects and programmes, developed in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Peru, the generation and distribution of benefits to local people has, so far, been limited (Lichtenstein et al., 2002 ; Lichtenstein and Vila, 2003 ; Lichtenstein and Renaudeau d’Arc, 2005a ; Renaudeau d’Arc, 2005). This chapter addresses the key limitations of the CBC paradigm for vicuna management in the Andes. In exploring this, the chapter re-examines three cornerstones on which this paradigm is based, by comparing the myths and rhetoric with existing practice. One fundamental assumption of the CBC is that a distinct community, defined as a group of people or social unit with clear defined boundaries, can be identified. This simplification of the term community forms part of an important and debated issue in CBC (Anderson, 1991 ; Murombedzi, 1991 ; Agrawal, 2001 ; Agrawal and Gibson, 1999 ; Guijt and Shah, 1999) . In the vast majority of community-based wildlife management projects, what appears to be a community in terms of size and location may be deeply divided in terms of sociocultural values and control over different kinds of land and natural resources (IIED, 1994 ; Songorwa, 1999 ; Mazzucchelli and Ortiz von Halle, 2000) . In the case of vicuna management, the Andean community is named as the main beneficiary of vicuna use, but there is no clear definition of what and who the community is. Based on a critical review of this taken-for-granted concept, the question “ What is an Andean community today ?” will be addressed.

Introduction to the Special Issue: Frontiers of Research on Development and the Environment

The 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro culminated a process initiated in Stockholm in 1972. It is remembered as an event that marked the start of a new era. Global cooperation was seen as a new and necessary mechanism to face the challenges of climate change, population growth, pollution, deforestation, poverty, security and health. The Rio Summit had its foundation in the establishment of the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) in 1983. In 1987 the commission presented its report Our Common Future (WCED, 1987) at the United Nations General Assembly. The report achieved something unprecedented: to address environment and development as interlinked, forming one single problem. The report argued that to tackle environmental problems it was necessary to consider ‘the factors underlying world poverty and international inequality’ (WCED, 1987, p. 3). The report is most famous for launching the concept of ‘sustainable development’, defined as development that ‘meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ (WCED, 1987, p. 8). The concept thus encouraged differing interests to find common ground and to reconcile competing perspectives. On the one hand, environmental activists from the North, concerned with the limits to economic and population growth, sought to incorporate environmental concerns in development policy. On the other hand, governments and activists of the global South argued that environmental concerns could not be separated from concerns about economic growth and equality. Our Common Future also sets the stage for the establishment of several research centres around the world. One of them is the Centre for Development and the Environment (SUM) at the University of Oslo that celebrated its 25 years of existence in 2015. To mark this event, this special issue presents articles based on some of the recent research at SUM. Critical knowledge production is crucial; but also, as we have learnt, research on development and the environment is necessarily interdisciplinary and – by comparison with many academic endeavours – it is more closely connected with policy-making. Here, the frontiers of research should, we suggest, be primarily shaped by what is happening ‘out there in the world’ – both of practice and policy. This means, for example, addressing the challenging issue of consumption in the South as well as the North (Hansen, Nielsen and Wilhite); and including questions

Place and Identity among Guatemalan Returnees

Abstract The idea of a natural link between people and places has been dominant in the politics of refugee repatriation. Repatriation is conceived as the natural and logical solution to refugee displacement, a restoration of order in the relationship between people, culture and place. The case of the Guatemalan returnees discussed in this article reveals that such notions have little to do with what return means to them. Not only have they changed during exile, but so have also the communities and the people they left behind. A return to the places they came from was unattractive to most of them. The notion of home, for most, is not associated with their place of origin, but with the opportunities for change and improvement. The article explores the process of identity formation as related to historical processes of social change. Migration, exile and the return to Guatemala have brought these Guatemalan peasants into contact with a variety of new people and places, inspiring new perceptions and classifications of themselves and others as well as new forms of group formation. We will see that most of the new arenas are no longer constituted on the basis of ethnicity and, even though ethnicity is still important, its meaning has changed.