Dissertation

Figuring rural development: concepts and cases of land use, sustainability and integrative indicators

Promotores: Prof. dr. G.R. (Geert) de Snoo, Dr. E. (Ester) van der Voet

Author

Marieke Hobbes

Date

04 March 2010

Links

Thesis in Leiden Repository

 Sustainable economic development is essential for hundreds of millions of poor households in rural areas. This book represents a merger of environmental science and rural development economics. It elucidates the linkage between rational choice theory and theories on land use change. It builds a quantitative framework to connect the environmental method of Material Flow Analysis to basic issues of rural development such as agricultural intensification and food security. And finally, it develops a unique measuring rod of wealth and poverty called Freely Disposable Time, which integrates time and cash flows of households. With this indicator, we can quantify the much-cherished concepts of freedoms and development capacity. Along the way, the book provides critical discussions on ‘standard’ Material Flow Analysis, systems versus actor-based approaches, and the oversupply of inductive studies in land use and development science. Empirical data are drawn from the Philippines, Vietnam, India, Laos and the Netherlands, in a comparative perspective.

• actor-based
• ecological economics
• environment
• food security
• freely disposable time (fdt)
• land use change
• livelihoods
• material flow accounting (mfa)
• poverty
• rural development