| dc.description.abstract | Comprehensive theories of economic change such as
world systems or dependency models fail to consider the
diversity and resilience of rural economies. To analyze
the processes of market incorporation, it is necessary to
consider several aspects of the local context, including
human ecology and administrative policy. These areas have
been undervalued both by world systems theorists and their
critics.
The market has definite impacts upon the ecosystem
which, in turn, constrains and directs market penetration.
In addition, diversities exist in the structure of local
economies and in the economic goals and motives of states.
These are reflected in the varying roles that states play
mediating between world market conditions and local
incorporation in each local economy.
economies. While human ecology and policy provide contexts
for human behavior, they do not exist separately from human
choice. It is individual choice which unites these
contexts and creates the specific history of market
This study examines the relationship between economic
behavior and processes of market incorporation in West
Pokot District, Kenya. It combines a critical synthesis of
written and oral history with an examination of current
survival strategies. A comprehensive economic and
demographic survey of 140 farming and herding families was
conducted from March 1977 to September 1978 in Kishaunet
Sub location of Mnagei Location. Data were also obtained
through extensive participant observation and structured
and unstructured interviews with key informants. The study
draws upon published and unpublished documents, colonial archives, and oral histories to place existing economic
relations into temporal and regional context.
In Kishaunet, Pokot have approached the possibilities
of market participation in a pragmatic fashion, as
potential resources to be tried out and remade to fit their
needs. Most sample families who have entered the market
have done so selectively with considerable diversification
of crops and livestock. The patterns followed insure
subsistence stability in a changing economic and political
environment | en |
