Skip to main content
View expanded cover

Women Researching in Africa pp 235–255Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

On Walking Alone and Walking with Others: Framing Research Activities by Time and Distance in Kafa Zone, Ethiopia

  • 262 Accesses

Abstract

In rural Kafa Zone southwest Ethiopia, walking is the ‘normal’ way to move from one place to another: the ‘walking woman’ links activities between the home, the field, visiting neighbours, going to church and going to the market. As these activities are framed by time and distance, insights gained through walking alone or with others, allowed Jackson to gain an intuitive understanding of her qualitative research about maternal health. Moving back and forth between personal experiences of walking, and critically thinking about women’s experiences of birth at home or in a health facility, walking is also a way to explore ‘the mystery of presence,’ as Frédéric Gros writes, ‘to the world, to others and to yourself.’ By examining women’s participation in social networks, friendship and mobility as empowering factors, Jackson suggests that paying attention to context and the gendered self as researcher can help gain deeper insights into fieldwork experiences.

Keywords

  • healthHealth Facilities
  • Participant observationParticipant Observation
  • healthHealth Services
  • genderGender
  • insiderInsider

These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-94502-6_12
  • Chapter length: 21 pages
  • Instant PDF download
  • Readable on all devices
  • Own it forever
  • Exclusive offer for individuals only
  • Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout
eBook
USD   119.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • ISBN: 978-3-319-94502-6
  • Instant PDF download
  • Readable on all devices
  • Own it forever
  • Exclusive offer for individuals only
  • Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout
Softcover Book
USD   159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
Hardcover Book
USD   159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
Learn about institutional subscriptions

References

  • Armstrong, K. 2008. Ethnography and Audience. In The Sage Handbook of Social Research Methods, ed. P. Alasuutari, L. Bickman, and J. Brannen, 54–67. Los Angeles and London: Sage.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Bergvall, V. 1996. Constructing and Enacting Gender Through Discourse: Negotiating Multiple Roles as Female Engineering Students. In Rethinking Language and Gender Research: Theory and Practice, ed. V. Bergvall, J. Bing, and A. Freed, 173–201. London and New York: Routledge, Taylor and Francis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berliner, D., M. Lambek, R. Shweder, R. Irvine, and A. Piette. 2016. Anthropology and the Study of Contradictions. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 6 (1): 1–27.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Bullough, C., N. Meda, K. Makowiecka, C. Ronsmans, E. Achadi, and J. Hussein. 2005. Current Strategies for the Reduction of Maternal Mortality. BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology 112 (9): 1180–1188.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Central Statistical Agency [Ethiopia] and ORC Macro. 2006. Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey 2005. Central Statistical Agency and ORC Macro, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Calverton, Maryland, USA. http://www.measuredhs.com/pubs/pdf/FR179/FR179.pdf.

  • Central Statistical Agency [Ethiopia] and ICF International. 2012. Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey 2011. Central Statistical Agency [Ethiopia] and ICF International, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Calverton, Maryland, USA. http://www.measuredhs.com/pubs/pdf/FR255/FR255.pdf.

  • CHANGE/ The Manoff Group. 2005. Frameworks for Skilled Care. Washington, DC. http://web.archive.org/web/20040610205318/www.changeproject.org/technical/maternalhealthnutrition/ms_toolkit/ssc_kenya/frameworks_skilledcare.html. Accessed 20 April 2010.

  • Dahl, G., and Gemetchu Megerssa. 1992. The Spirit of the Ram’s Horn: Boran Concepts of Development. In Kam-ap or Take-off: Local Notions of Development, ed. G. Dahl and A. Rabo. Stockholm: Stockhom Studies in Social Anthropology.

    Google Scholar 

  • Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Ministry of Health. 2013. Health Sector Gender Mainstreaming Manual. Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Ministry of Health, Addis Ababa. http://www.moh.gov.et/documents/26765/0/Health+Sector+Gender+Mainstreaming+Manual/8b3277ab-2215-451e-a9d2-7b9715bca5c0;jsessionid=92775E78A99F5B737A299557A2DAF691?version=1.2.

  • Gill, K., R. Pande, and A. Malhotra. 2007. Women Deliver for Development. The Lancet 370 (9595): 1347–1357.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Gil-González, D., M. Carrasco-Portiño, and M.T. Ruiz. 2006. Knowledge Gaps in Scientific Literature on Maternal Mortality: A Systematic Review. Bulletin of the World Health Organization 84 (11): 903–909.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gros, F. 2015. A Philosophy of Walking. London and New York: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guest, G., E.E. Namey, and M.L. Mitchell. 2013. Collecting Qualitative Data: A Field Manual for Applied Research. London: Sage. Retrieved 2 April 2018. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781506374680, http://methods.sagepub.com/book/collecting-qualitative-data.

  • Gülmezoglu, A., L. Say, A. Betran, J. Villar, and G. Piaggio. 2004. WHO Systematic Review of Maternal Mortality and Morbidity: Methodological Issues and Challenges. BMC Medical Research Methodology 4 (1): 16.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Hammersley, M., and P. Atkinson. 1995. Ethnography: Principles in Practice, 2nd ed. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harrison, F. 2008. Outsider Within: Reworking Anthropology in the Global Age. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holden, S., and T. Tefera. 2008. From Being Property of Men to Becoming Equal Owners? Early Impacts of Land Registration and Certification on Women in Southern Ethiopia. http://arken.umb.no/~steiho/HoldenTefera2008From_Being_Property_of_Men_to_becoming_Equal_Owners.pdf.

  • Jackson, R. 2010. (Un)Safe Routes: Maternal Mortality and Ethiopia’s Development Agenda. PhD dissertation thesis, Deakin University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jackson, R. 2013. “Waiting-to-See” If The Baby Will Come: Findings from a Qualitative Study in Kafa Zone, Ethiopia. Ethiopian Journal of Health Development 27 (2): 118–123.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jackson, R., and D. Kilsby. 2015. “We are Dying While Giving Life”: Gender and the Role of Health Extension Workers in Rural Ethiopia. Report to the Federal Ministry of Health Women and Youth Affairs Directorate and UN agencies in Ethiopia, Geelong, Australia. http://www.eldis.org/go/latest-news/documents&id=74232&type=Document#.VqF-LllmVag.

  • Jackson, R., D. Kilsby, and A. Hailemariam. 2018. Gender Transformative and Gender Exploitative Aspects of Ethiopia’s Health Extension Program. Submitted to Tropical Medicine and International Health.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jackson, R., F.H. Tesfay, T.G. Gebrehiwot, and H. Godefay. 2017. Factors That Hinder or Enable Maternal Health Strategies to Reduce Delays in Rural and Pastoralist Areas in Ethiopia. Tropical Medicine & International Health 22 (2): 148–160.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Kabeer, N. 1999. Resources, Agency, Achievements: Reflections on the Measurement of Women’s Empowerment. Development and Change 30 (3): 435–464.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Kleinsasser, A.M. 2000. Researchers, Reflexivity, and Good Data: Writing to Unlearn. Theory Into Practice 39 (3): 155.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Koblinsky, M., O. Campbell, and J. Heichelheim. 1999. Organizing Delivery Care: What Works for Safe Motherhood? Bulletin of the World Health Organization 77 (5): 399–406.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kumar, N., and A.R. Quisumbing. 2015. Policy Reform Toward Gender Equality in Ethiopia: Little by Little the Egg Begins to Walk. World Development 67: 406–423.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Liamputtong, P., and D. Ezzy. 2005. Qualitative Research Methods, 2nd ed. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mabsout, R., and I. van Staveren. 2010. Disentangling Bargaining Power from Individual and Household Level to Institutions: Evidence on Women’s Position in Ethiopia. World Development 38 (5): 783–796.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Macfarlane, R. 2012. The Old Ways: A Journey of Foot. New York: Viking.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maes, K., S. Closser, E. Vorel, and Y. Tesfaye. 2015a. Using Community Health Workers: Discipline and Hierarchy in Ethiopia’s Women’s Development Army. Annals of Anthropological Practice 39 (1): 42–57.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Maes, K., S. Closser, E. Vorel, and Y. Tesfaye. 2015b. A Women’s Development Army: Narratives of Community Health Worker Investment and Empowerment in Rural Ethiopia. Studies in Comparative International Development 50 (4): 455–478.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • McPhee, J. 2010. John McPhee, The Art of Nonfiction No. 3. The Paris Review, 192. http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/5997/the-art-of-nonfiction-no-3-john-mcphee.

  • Miles, M., and A. Huberman. 1994. Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Sourcebook, 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, London, and New Delhi: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mills, C.W. 1978. The Sociological Imagination. London: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mohanty, C.T. 2011 [1991]. Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses. In The Women, Gender and Development Reader, 2nd ed., ed. N. Visvanathan, L. Duggan, L. Nisonoff, and N. Wiegersma, 83–88. London and New York: Zed Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pankhurst, H. 1992. Gender, Development and Identity: An Ethiopian Study. London and Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Zed Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Patterson, A. 1997. Critical Discourse Analysis: A Condition of Doubt. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 18 (3): 425.

    Google Scholar 

  • Poluha, E. 2002. Learning Political Behaviour: Peasant-State Relations in Ethiopia. In Contesting ‘Good’ Governance: Crosscultural Perspectives on Representation, Accountability and Public Space, ed. E. Poluha and M. Rosendahl, 101–136. London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reeves, H., and S. Baden. 2000. Gender and Development: Concepts and Definitions. BRIDGE, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex. http://www.bridge.ids.ac.uk/sites/bridge.ids.ac.uk/files/reports/re55.pdf.

  • Reinharz, S., and L. Davidman. 1992. Feminist Methods in Social Research. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scialabba, G. December 1997/January 1998. The End of the Novel of Love: Vivian Gornick. First published in Boston Review. http://george.scialabba.net/mtgs/199712/the-end-of-the-novel-of-love-b.html.

  • Sen, A. 1999. Development as Freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sen, G., V. Govender, and J. Cottingham. 2006. Maternal and Neonatal Health: Surviving the Roller-Coaster of International Policy. http://www2.ids.ac.uk/ghen/resources/papers/MaternalMortality2006.pdf.

  • Shiffman, J. 2000. Can Poor Countries Surmount High Maternal Mortality? Studies in Family Planning 31 (4): 274–289.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Shiffman, J., and S. Smith. 2007. Generation of Political Priority for Global Health Initiatives: A Framework and Case Study of Maternal Mortality. The Lancet 370 (9595): 1370–1379.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • Skeggs, B. 2001. Feminist Ethnography. Sage, 31 January 2018. http://methods.sagepub.com/book/handbook-of-ethnography.

  • Thaddeus, S., and D. Maine. 1994. Too Far to Walk: Maternal Mortality in Context. Social Science and Medicine 38 (8): 1091–1110.

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

  • WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, World Bank Group and United Nations Population Division. 2015. Trends in Maternal Mortality: 1990–2015. http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/194254/1/9789241565141_eng.pdf?ua=1.

  • Woldemicael, G., and E. Tenkorang. 2010. Women’s Autonomy and Maternal Health-Seeking Behavior in Ethiopia. Maternal Child Health Journal 14 (988–998).

    CrossRef  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Deakin University, Geelong, VIC, Australia

    Ruth Jackson

Authors
  1. Ruth Jackson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ruth Jackson .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria, Australia

    Ruth Jackson

  2. Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria, Australia

    Max Kelly

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Jackson, R. (2019). On Walking Alone and Walking with Others: Framing Research Activities by Time and Distance in Kafa Zone, Ethiopia. In: Jackson, R., Kelly, M. (eds) Women Researching in Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94502-6_12

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94502-6_12

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-94501-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-94502-6

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)