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Future in Culture: Globalizing Environments in the Lowlands of Southern Ethiopia

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The Environmental Crunch in Africa

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Abstract

In response to new land uses in the agro-pastoral regions of Ethiopia, many actors have different views on how to handle the same territories. In the light of the rapid pace of social and environmental change induced by fast-track development plans in times of climate change, it is urgent to take a step back and reflect on the history, ecology and future of the people and the land that are in transition. Inspired by the late Zygmunt Baumann, I first picture a global dystopian view, then an utopian view of the Ethiopian context and finally present an ethnographic example from Southern Ethiopia to draw the need for alternative solutions for present challenges of climate and food insecurity and finally to redefine the notion of ‘experts’ on land. (127).

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Acknowledgements

I thank the Max-Planck-Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle/Saale and the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Goettingen, for funding and supporting my research. Jean Lydall, Lucie Buffavand, Felix Girke and Ivo Strecker have commented on earlier drafts of this chapter.

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  1. Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Göttingen University, Göttingen, Germany

    Echi Christina Gabbert

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  1. African Studies Centre, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Jon Abbink

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Gabbert, E.C. (2018). Future in Culture: Globalizing Environments in the Lowlands of Southern Ethiopia. In: Abbink, J. (eds) The Environmental Crunch in Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77131-1_11

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