Research Roundtable Video: Rural Aspirations in Africa

Mismatched and Conflicting. How are Rural Aspirations Contested?

Rural aspirations differ, conflict, and are in a constant state of change. While these features characterizing aspirations may present an ever tense and contested perspective of ideologies, they provide the foundational basis towards understanding how aspirations are formed and how they interplay with different developmental approaches.

The Research Roundtable; Rural Aspirations: Livelihood Decisions and Rural Development Trajectories, held on the 26 August 2021, provided a platform for the editors and contributing authors to discuss themes and key findings, from The European Journal of Developmental Studies, Rural Aspiration Special Issue (Volume 33, issue 4, August 2021).

The Issue featuring contributions from Future Rural Africa researchers, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF), and Bangor University as well as other authors, offered an ensemble of new approaches for understanding these aspirations and their implications for development planning.

Watch the live recording of the discussions here.