Tracking Livelihood Change: Theoretical, Methodological and Empirical Perspectives from North-East Ghana

Abstract

This paper discusses a methodology in which livelihood change is investigated through the livelihood strategies of individually traced households that have been studied at two separate points in time. The area studied is in the north of Ghana, where anthropological fieldwork was carried out in 1975 and again in 1989. The paper discusses significant changes in the macro-context between the two dates and then examines three linked case-study households. Some of the processes of household accumulation and impoverishment become evident in the detailed accounts of changes in household membership and in livelihoods. The case studies show individuals and household heads making strategic choices, in circumstances where the room for manoeuvre is very limited. Climate change, government economic policy centred on adjustment measures and changes in the local and national markets for labour and products created a highly constrained and unpredictable environment for individuals and households. However, to make these arguments, the paper also draws on the findings from the author's quantitative surveys from several nearby communities and from more macro-level research, so the use of the matched case studies is set within research of considerable complexity and duration. Some of the most significant processes are uncovered when case-study data collected in qualitative surveys are filled out with data collected in the course of ethnographic research. Equally important is the additional secondary and historical research that allows links to be made between microand macro-levels. The paper concludes that using panel case studies is a potentially very useful complementary method, but it is not a short cut.