{"id":5680,"date":"2025-03-10T17:32:57","date_gmt":"2025-03-10T17:32:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.whpress.co.uk\/publications\/?p=5680"},"modified":"2026-02-12T15:46:36","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T15:46:36","slug":"movingdeserts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.whpress.co.uk\/publications\/2025\/03\/10\/movingdeserts\/","title":{"rendered":"Moving Deserts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Interrogating Development and Resilience in the Pastoral Drylands of Northern Kenya<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Greta Semplici<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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\u2018Enyes remembered playing with his friends, running and following shadows of clouds. Those who managed to stay protected from sun rays under the clouds\u2019 shades the longest were the winners of the game \u2026 A game for kids played at times when trees did not have a crown \u2026 when there were no bird traps to set. When there was no water to waste \u2026 It must have been a time of drought \u2026 I understood that he was speaking of the form of resilience I was researching. It is a story of movement, running bodies and drifting clouds. It is a story of transformation of the harsh reality of a drought into a game \u2026 of attention to the environment and how it constantly changes, moulded by the relationship between humans, animals, rains, wind, river, grains of sand \u2026 a story of a group of friends supporting each other \u2026 a story of games and laughter. This is the everyday form of resilience I hope to portray in this book.\u2019<\/p>Greta Semplici in ‘Moving Deserts’<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Open Access PDF<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Moving Deserts re-examines the concept of resilience, as applied in the development sector. It gives central stage to the voices, experiences, memories and everyday lives of the people whose resilience is the subject of much international attention and financial aid flows. Building a bridge between the perspectives of practitioners and local communities, Moving Deserts reveals a story about life, struggle and hope among Turkana herders, a story woven by following the movements and relations of the author’s hosts and interlocutors during fourteen months of ethnographic fieldwork. The volume argues that it is in their very mobility that the meaning of resilience resides: mobility as physical movements to reach ephemeral and unevenly spread resources; mobility as social connections to weave a social fabric that also works as safety net; mobility as fluid identities, never static but plastic, capable of taking on new shapes and adapting to changes. The drylands and their inhabitants, largely pastoral populations, are the spine of the book. Drylands often fall in the imaginary of the remote, the deserted, the unproductive, a powerful imaginary rooted in romantic narratives, as well as in political and economic interests. At a time of rising alarm about climate change, mass migrations and energy requirements, drylands are returning to the international stage with a focus on building resilience. This book asks what we can learn about \u2018pastoral development\u2019, currently discussed in the international development regime under the label of resilience, by switching perspective and following pastoralists\u2019 lived experiences?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This book is Open Access through the support of The Open Book Collective<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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THE AUTHOR<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Greta Semplici<\/strong> is a postdoctoral fellow at the Social Science department at the University of Molise, Italy. Previously she held a postdoctoral fellowship at the department of Culture, Politics and Society at the University of Turin, and a Max Weber Fellowship at the European University Institute. Greta was affiliated to the Pastoralism Uncertainty and Resilience (PASTRES) programme as post-doctoral researcher. She earned a Ph.D. from the Oxford Department of International Development with a critical study of pastoralism and development in the arid lands of northern Kenya. In her research, with the support of visuals like photographs and creative writing, she aims to bring a people, a place and a culture to life in the eyes and hearts of those who have not been there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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CONTENTS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Introduction<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chapter 1 \u2013 The Resilience Agenda<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chapter 2 \u2013 The nomadism of space. An experiential journey through the variability of drylands<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chapter 3 \u2013 The nomadism of settlements: aid like rain<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chapter 4 \u2013 Practices of mobility<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chapter 5 \u2013 On food and no-food: the mobility of identities<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Afterword \u2013 Mobility, Change, Resilience<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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1st October 2025
ISBN 978-1-912186-96-9 (PB) \u00a330
eISBN 978-1-912186-97-6 (Open Access eBook)<\/p>\n\n\n\n



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