ABSTRACT
In the Introduction I pointed to two competing schools of thought on pastoralism, and argued in favour of the one that underpins this book: pastoralism as a sophisticated livelihood that is ‘modern, mobile and here to stay’ (IUCN 2006: 1). This chapter substantiates this position, developing a livelihoods-orientated conceptual framework that is, I will argue, critical to analysing mobile pastoralists’ education deprivation. I will identify and confront misconceptions about pastoralism, deeply embedded in development discourse, that have shaped formal education provision, and then draw on the ‘mobility’ paradigm of pastoralism (e.g. IIED 2009; Niamir-Fuller 1999; Scoones 1995) to reframe pastoralism as a ‘complex […] system seeking to maintain an optimal balance between pastures, livestock and people in uncertain and variable environments’ (Nori, Taylor and Sensi 2008: 3). Building on this livelihoods perspective, I further develop the integrated analytical framework on education inclusion that I apply in later chapters by drawing on poverty theorists’ work on adverse incorporation and social exclusion (AISE), and relating livelihoods and AISE to three-dimensional well-being. This framework combines to offer the analytical heuristic ‘terms of inclusion’ that I use as a lens for investigation in Parts II and III.
