Beyond the Surface: The Relevance of Theory to a Livelihood Perspective on Development

The Development Crisis

From a termlivelihood perspective on development, we automatically consider two factors that guide and influence the strategies of actors as they attempt to ensure their survival and/or termsubsistence:

  • The actor's endogenous potential and means (his/her 'assets') on the one hand; and
  • Exogenous structures and processes, on the other.



This lesson presents a model, each part of which is numbered so that the user can click on it. The user can thereby assess the reasons actors, within their livelihood strategies, act and behave as they do, making use of their endogenous potential and means.

The model used to analyse these reasons is based on a conceptual framework of a four-fold theory of action in order to bring in a regional and actor-oriented perspective on development. This framework makes it possible to examine the relations between the different activities of individual actors and to analyse the interplay of local and external dynamics.

Click on the picture on the right-hand column in order to take a look at the model:

In this lesson, we are concerned with the activities of individual actors, as well as the rationale behind them.




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