IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/devchg/v26y1995i1p67-88.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Investigating Difference: Applications of Wealth Ranking and Household Survey Approaches among Farming Households in Southern Zimbabwe

Author

Listed:
  • Ian Scoones

Abstract

Wealth ranking and household survey approaches to understanding wealth stratification are applied in tandem for a sample of farming households in southern Zimbabwe. While conventional surveys usually stratify sample populations according to criteria chosen by the researcher, wealth ranking is based on criteria offered by local people. Patterns of wealth and well‐being over time, between ecological zones and in relation to local indicators are explored with focus groups of men and women. The rankings emerging from these discussions are compared with survey data for the same household sample. The wealth rankings are highly correlated with livestock ownership, farm asset holdings, crop harvests and crop sales. Wealth ranks derived from farmers' analyses are then compared with a cluster analysis of the survey data, with both discrepancies and overlaps discussed. It is concluded that wealth ranking provides an accurate indicator of relative wealth and that ranking can be a useful complementary method to be employed alongside survey assessments. In addition, qualitative discussions during ranking exercises reveal details of the historically, socially and economically constructed understandings of wealth and well‐being of different actors. The conventional assumption that surveys always provide ‘better’ data is thus questioned.

Suggested Citation

  • Ian Scoones, 1995. "Investigating Difference: Applications of Wealth Ranking and Household Survey Approaches among Farming Households in Southern Zimbabwe," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 26(1), pages 67-88, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:devchg:v:26:y:1995:i:1:p:67-88
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-7660.1995.tb00543.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7660.1995.tb00543.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1467-7660.1995.tb00543.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Scoones, Ian, 1992. "The economic value of livestock in the communal areas of southern Zimbabwe," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 339-359.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jones, Eric C., 2004. "Wealth-Based Trust and the Development of Collective Action," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 691-711, April.
    2. Hoogeveen, H. & van der Klaauw, B. & van Lomwel, A.G.C., 1970. "On the timing of marriage, cattle and weather shocks," Other publications TiSEM b204a595-6426-4108-a166-2, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    3. Shaffer, Paul, 1998. "Gender, poverty and deprivation: Evidence from the Republic of Guinea," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 26(12), pages 2119-2135, December.
    4. Hillebrecht, Michael & Klonner, Stefan & Pacere, Noraogo A., 2023. "The dynamics of poverty targeting," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    5. Schleicher, Michael & Souares, Aurélia & Pacere, Athanase Narangoro & Sauerborn, Rainer & Klonner, Stefan, 2016. "Decentralized versus Statistical Targeting of Anti-Poverty Programs: Evidence from Burkina Faso," Working Papers 0623, University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics.
    6. Appleton, Simon, 1996. "Women-headed households and household welfare: An empirical deconstruction for Uganda," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 24(12), pages 1811-1827, December.
    7. Robertson, Laura & Mushati, Phyllis & Skovdal, Morten & Eaton, Jeffrey W. & Makoni, Jeremiah C. & Crea, Tom & Mavise, Gideon & Dumba, Lovemore & Schumacher, Christina & Sherr, Lorraine & Nyamukapa, Co, 2014. "Involving Communities in the Targeting of Cash Transfer Programs for Vulnerable Children: Opportunities and Challenges," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 325-337.
    8. Hans Hoogeveen, 2000. "For Better and for Worse - How Unpaid Bride Wealth provides Security," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 00-079/2, Tinbergen Institute.
    9. Popular Gentle & Rik Thwaites & Digby Race & Kim Alexander, 2014. "Differential impacts of climate change on communities in the middle hills region of Nepal," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 74(2), pages 815-836, November.
    10. O'Faircheallaigh, Ciaran, 1998. "Resource development and inequality in indigenous societies," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 381-394, March.
    11. Shaffer, Paul, 2013. "Ten Years of “Q-Squared”: Implications for Understanding and Explaining Poverty," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 269-285.
    12. Owens, Trudy, 2004. "External Support During the Transition Phase: Roles for Humanitarian Aid and Development Assistance from a Village Perspective," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 32(10), pages 1711-1733, October.
    13. Jackson, Cecile, 1996. "Rescuing gender from the poverty trap," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 489-504, March.
    14. Jagger, Pamela & Luckert, Marty K. & Banana, Abwoli & Bahati, Joseph, 2012. "Asking Questions to Understand Rural Livelihoods: Comparing Disaggregated vs. Aggregated Approaches to Household Livelihood Questionnaires," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(9), pages 1810-1823.
    15. Morsello, Carla & Delgado, Juliana Aparecida da Silva & Fonseca-Morello, Thiago & Brites, Alice Dantas, 2014. "Does trading non-timber forest products drive specialisation in products gathered for consumption? Evidence from the Brazilian Amazon," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 140-149.
    16. Hargreaves, James R. & Morison, Linda A. & Gear, John S.S. & Makhubele, Mzamani B. & Porter, John D.H. & Busza, Joanna & Watts, Charlotte & Kim, Julia C. & Pronyk, Paul M., 2007. ""Hearing the Voices of the Poor": Assigning Poverty Lines on the Basis of Local Perceptions of Poverty. A Quantitative Analysis of Qualitative Data from Participatory Wealth Ranking in Rural," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 212-229, February.
    17. Hillebrecht, Michael & Klonner, Stefan & Pacere, Noraogo A., 2020. "Dynamic Properties of Poverty Targeting," Working Papers 0696, University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. B.M. Campbell & P. Bradley & S.E. Carter, 1997. "Sustainability and peasant farming systems: Observations from Zimbabwe," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 14(2), pages 159-168, June.
    2. Mahabile, M. & Lyne, Michael C. & Panin, A., 2005. "An empirical analysis of factors affecting the productivity of livestock in southern Botswana," Agrekon, Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA), vol. 44(1), pages 1-19, March.
    3. Crook, David R. & Robinson, Brian E. & Li, Ping, 2020. "The Impact of Snowstorms, Droughts and Locust Outbreaks on Livestock Production in Inner Mongolia: Anticipation and Adaptation to Environmental Shocks," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    4. Susana MEJIA & Andres Ramirez HASSAN, 2016. "Determining the optimal selling time of cattle: A stochastic dynamic programming approach," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 62(11), pages 517-527.
    5. Robert E. Smith, 2008. "Cattle's effect on land and labour productivity: Evidence from Zambia," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(7), pages 905-919.
    6. Hans Hoogeveen, 2000. "For Better and for Worse - How Unpaid Bride Wealth provides Security," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 00-079/2, Tinbergen Institute.
    7. William Cavendish, 1999. "Empirical regularities in the poverty-environment relationship of African rural households," Economics Series Working Papers WPS/1999-21, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    8. Bosman, H. G. & Moll, H. A. J. & Udo, H. M. J., 1997. "Measuring and interpreting the benefits of goat keeping in tropical farm systems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 53(4), pages 349-372, April.
    9. Ayalew, W. & King, J. M. & Bruns, E. & Rischkowsky, B., 2003. "Economic evaluation of smallholder subsistence livestock production: lessons from an Ethiopian goat development program," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(3), pages 473-485, July.
    10. Campbell, B. M. & Costanza, R. & van den Belt, M., 2000. "SPECIAL SECTION: LAND USE OPTIONS IN DRY TROPICAL WOODLAND ECOSYSTEMS IN ZIMBABWE:: Introduction, overview and synthesis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 341-351, June.
    11. van der Linden, Aart & Oosting, Simon J. & van de Ven, Gerrie W.J. & de Boer, Imke J.M. & van Ittersum, Martin K., 2015. "A framework for quantitative analysis of livestock systems using theoretical concepts of production ecology," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 100-109.
    12. Horman Chitonge, 2013. "Land Use and Rural Livelihoods in South Africa: Emerging Evidence from the Eastern Cape," Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy, Centre for Agrarian Research and Education for South, vol. 2(1), pages 1-40, April.
    13. Cavendish, William, 2000. "Empirical Regularities in the Poverty-Environment Relationship of Rural Households: Evidence from Zimbabwe," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(11), pages 1979-2003, November.
    14. Gannon, Kate & Crick, Florence & Atela, Joanes & Babagaliyeva, Shanna & Batool, Samavia & Bedelian, Claire & Conway, Declan & Diop, Mamadou & Fankhauser, Samuel & Jobbins, Guy & Ludi, Eva & Qaisrani, , 2020. "Private adaptation in semi-arid lands: a tailored approach to ‘leave no one behind’," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 102537, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    15. William Cavendish, 1999. "Empirical regularities in the poverty-environment relationship of African rural households," CSAE Working Paper Series 1999-21, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    16. M. Meltzer, 1995. "Livestock in africa: The economics of ownership and production, and the potential for improvement," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 12(2), pages 4-18, March.
    17. Campbell, B. M. & Dore, D. & Luckert, M. & Mukamuri, B. & Gambiza, J., 2000. "SPECIAL SECTION: LAND USE OPTIONS IN DRY TROPICAL WOODLAND ECOSYSTEMS IN ZIMBABWE: Economic comparisons of livestock production in communal grazing lands in Zimbabwe," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 413-438, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:devchg:v:26:y:1995:i:1:p:67-88. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0012-155X .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.