Description

Organizers: Jennifer Langill (McGill University) and Ann Oberhauser (Iowa State University)

Livelihoods approaches have proven valuable in driving human-centered analyses of poverty, development, and the means and agency with which people create their living. However, most livelihoods frameworks are unable to capture the gendered dimensions and constraints essential for understanding gendered economies, spatial contexts, divisions of labour, and power inequities. Gender and social difference shape all aspects of livelihoods, from available assets and activity choices to access and livelihood outcomes. In this AAG organized session, we aim to develop feminist geographies of livelihoods that foreground multiple and interacting forms of social difference, how they shape livelihoods at the individual and household levels, and how they relate to space and place.

Drawing on feminist approaches to livelihoods, this session seeks empirically rich analyses from a diverse array of Global South locations, spanning Asia, Africa, and Latin America. While highlighting the centrality of context-specificities in producing gendered livelihoods, this session aims to highlight key themes in current feminist livelihoods research, contribute to empirical and methodological knowledge bases of gendered livelihoods, and illustrate the ability of livelihoods approaches to move beyond structural frameworks and capture power, difference, and gender.