Abstract
The Sustainable Livelihoods Approach (SLA) is often proposed to holistically capture vulnerability in assessments of livelihoods in aid and development programs. The full capacity of the approach has however only rarely been used in these assessments, lacking a clear account of processes of change and flexibility of assets, as well as the ability to quantify all capital assets of a livelihood system. The descriptions of livelihoods so far are in fact non-holistic. This paper attempts to use SLA in its full capacity through a quantification of the different capitals covered; natural, physical, economic, social and human. Further, the relationships between capitals are explored in a Chinese rural context of changing climate and land-use, and examples are given on how investments in one capital in reality can end up being accounted for in other capitals. The results indicate that through an analytical and process-oriented SLA, an effective tool for assessment of vulnerability can be developed. Such a tool would assist development organizations and policy-makers to target poverty traps and escape routes in the face of rapid and multiple changes.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adger, W.: 2000, ‘Social and ecological resilience: are they related?’ Progress in Human Geography 24, 347–364.
Adger, W., Huq, S., Brown, K., Conway, D. and Hulme, M.: 2003, ‘Adaptation to climate change in the developing world’, Progress in Development Studies 3, 179–195.
African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, DFID, Directorate-General for Development (European Commission), Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (Germany), Ministry of Foreign Affairs — Development Cooperation (Netherlands), Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, UNDP, UNEP, and the World Bank: 2004, Poverty and Climate Change. Reducing the Vulnerability of the Poor through Adaptation. http://lnweb18.worldbank.org/ESSD/envext.nsf/46ByDocName/Publications
Baumann, H. and Tillman, A.-M.: 2004, The Hitch Hiker's Guide to LCA. Studentlitteratur, Lund, Sweden.
Boyd, C. and Turton, C.: 2000, The Contribution of Soil and Water Conservation to Sustainable Livelihoods in Semi-arid Areas of Sub-Saharan Africa, ODI Agricultural Research & Extension Network. Network Paper Nr. 102.
Chambers, R. and Conway, G.R.: 1991. Sustainable Rural Livelihoods: Practical Concepts for the 21st Century, Institute of Development Studies DP 296:1991. University of Sussex, Brighton.
Gunderson, L.: 2000, ‘Ecological Resilience — In Theory and Application’, Annual Review of Ecological Systems 31, 425–439.
Hageback, J. and Sundberg, J.: 2002, Climate variations in relation to local scale land use and farmers perception of climate in Danangou watershed on the Loess Plateau, China, Earth Sciences Centre, Göteborg University B335.
Hageback, J., Sundberg, J., Ostwald, M., Chen, D., Yun, X. and Knutsson, P.: 2005, ‘Climate variability and land-use change in Danangou watershed, China — Examples of small-scale farmers adaptation’, Accepted in Climatic Change.
Hu, W.: 1997, Household land tenure reform in China: Its impact on farming land and agroenvironment. Land Use Policy 14, 175–186.
Huq, S. and Reid, H.: 2004, ‘Mainstreaming Adaptation in Development’, IDS Bulletin 35(3), 11–15.
IPCC: 2001, Climate Change 2001: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Summary for Policy Makers. Cambridge Universtiy Press.
Khan, F.I., Sadiq, R. and Veitch, B: 2004, ‘Life cycle iNdeX (LInX): a new indexing procedure for process and product design and decision-making’, Journal of Cleaner Production 12, 59–76.
Kelly, P. and Adger, W.: 2000, ‘Theory and Practice in Assessing Vulnerability to Climate Change and Facilitating Adaptation’, Climatic Change 47, 325–352.
Knutsson, P.: 2005a, ‘Deconstructing the sustainable livelihoods approach? The application of an analytical framework for assessment of knowledge integration’, Submitted to Human Ecology Review.
Knutsson, P.: 2005b, ‘The inequality of rural livelihoods in two neighbouring villages in Shaanxi Province, China’, Proceedings of the IRSA (International Rural Sociology Association) XI Congress, Trondheim, Norway, July 2004. Submitted to The International Journal of Agrarian Change.
Lindenberg, M.: 2004, ‘Measuring household livelihood security at the family and community level in the developing world’, World development 30, 301–318.
Liu, G.: 1999, ‘Soil conservation and sustainable agriculture on the Loess Plateau: Challenges and prospects’, Ambio 28, 663–668.
Lu, M. and Wang, E.: 2002, ‘Forging ahead and falling behind: Changing regional Inequalities in post-reform China’, Growth and Change 33, 42–71.
O'Brien, K., Eriksen, S., Schjolden, A. and Nygaard, L.: 2004, What's in a Word? Conflicting interpretations of vulnerability in climate change research. CICERO Working Paper 2004:04. Oslo, Norway.
Ostrom, E.: 1999, ‘Coping With Tragedies of the Commons’, Annual Review of Political Science 2, 493–535.
Ostwald, M., Chen, D., Xie, Y., Knutsson, P., Brogaard, S., Borne, K. and Chen, Y.: 2004, Impact of climate change and variability on local-scale land use, Shaanxi Province, China, Earth Sciences Centre, Göteborg Universisty, C61.
Reilly, J. and Schimmelpfennig, D.: 2000, ‘Irreversibility, uncertainty, and learning: Portraits of adaptation to long-term climate change’, Climatic Change 45, 253–278.
Scoones, I.: 1997, Sustainable Rural Livelihoods: A Framework for Analysis. Institute of Development Studies Working Paper 72:1998. University of Sussex, Brighton.
Scoones, I.: 2004, ‘Climate change and the challenge of non-equilibrium thinking’, IDS Bulletin 35, 11–15.
Skinner, M.W., Kuhn, R.G. and Joseph, A.E.: 2001, ‘Agricultural land protection in China: A case study of local governance in Zhejiang Province’, Land Use Policy 18, 32–340.
Solesbury, W.: 2003, Sustainable Livelihoods: A Case Study of the Evolution of DFID Policy. ODI Working Paper 217. London. June 2003.
The Task Force on Climate Change, Vulnerable Communities and Adaptation: 2003, Livelihoods and Climate Change. Combining disaster risk reduction, natural resource management and climate change adaptation in a new approach to the reduction of vulnerability and poverty. International Institute for Sustainable Development, International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources and Stockholm Environment Institute.
UNDP: 2002, Calculating the Human Development Indices (Technical Note 1 in Human Development Report).
Yeh, A.G. and Li, X.: 1999, ‘Economic development and agricultural land loss in the Pearl river delta, China’, Habitat International 23, 373–390.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Knutsson, P., Ostwald, M. A Process-Oriented Sustainable Livelihoods Approach–A Tool For Increased Understanding of Vulnerability, Adaptation and Resilience. Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Change 28 (Suppl 1), 1–20 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11027-006-4421-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11027-006-4421-9