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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Drought and the Commitment to Growth
Author:Spencer, PaulISNI
Year:1974
Periodical:African Affairs: The Journal of the Royal African Society
Volume:73
Issue:293
Period:October
Pages:419-427
Language:English
Geographic terms:Africa
Kenya
Subjects:population growth
droughts
Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment
Drought and Desertification
Development and Technology
Economics and Trade
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/720080
Abstract:The extent to which environmental constraints impinge on societies and limit their economic response and structural form is normally either explicit or implicit in contemporary discussions. In this article the author considers the extent to which the reverse is also true: that in a sense the environment is socially determined. In the context of drought in Africa, he examines the special relevance of growth as a social ideal. He emphasizes that the problem of insatiable growth is basically ideological and depends i.a. on a widely assumed need for growth linked with a confidence in the ability to grow. The basic solution to overtaxing the resources, of which drought is just one symptom, is to replace the perceived need for growth with a world-wide climate of confidence to survive without it. The examples are primarily cited from northern Kenya. Notes.
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