| dc.description.abstract | The motivation behind the research documented here was the
observation that an incongruence existed between the experienced
reality of agricultural change by women and men, on the one hand, and
the theories which explicitly or implicitly informed the formulation, of
.agricultural policy in Kenya from the early years of the twentieth
century, on the other. The first three chapters examine existing
theory, the objective being to develop a framework within which rural
structure and process in an area of smallholder agriculture in Kenya
could be analyzed. Three areas of theory are discussed: geographical
literature as it pertains to the conceptualization of space in Africa;
feminist literature in terms of concepts which could bridge the
material and ideational spheres; and literature on agricultural
development which focuses on the differential relationship of men and
women to processes of rural change.
From elements of these domains, a theoretical perspective is
developed whose central concern is to identify the interrelationship
between the sex/gender system and socio-spatial organization/division.
The main elements conditioning the sex/gender system are defined as:
women and men's relative participation in the central institutions of
society and the relationship between these institutions; access
to/control over the means and reSQurces of production; how production
is organized, within the household and outside it, and whether the
forces of production support or undermine relative access to the mea~s
of production; gender participation in strategically indispensable
labour; how the reproductive sphere is organized; and how this sphere
"fits" with that of production.
The relative significance of these variables in historical
process, and the spatiality of this process, is examined with reference
to a model of agricultural change which distinguishes between
precolonial, colonial and post-land reform eras in Murang'a District,
Kenya. The concept of intra/inter-scalar organization of relations of
production, of reproduction, and of productive forces forms the
theoretical premise on which the model is based. This, together with
the concept of socio-spatial division/separation is used in the context
of changes in productive mode to link elements of the sex/gender system
with processes of agricultural change.
Forms of organization based on kinship on the one hand and on
local, extra household bonding on the other, emerge as focal points in
the analysis of agricultural change in Murang'a District. Their role
in defining contradictions in the rural environment is examined in this
context. It is shown, for example, that through time, women have
sought, by organizing on a local 'basis, to counter male solidarity
based on bonds of kinship and to achieve their own solidarity in order
to address the economic and ideational contradictions they face as
individuals. Most recently, this has involved the formation of groups
whose purposes range from those of rotating savings societies to those
of income generation. | en |
