Introduction : climate and society in Central and South Mali

This collective volume presents studies on local actors as loci of change and adaptation to climate variability and climate change in the Douentza-Bandiagara and Koutiala area in Mali. The focal point of the studies is the role of risk in decisionmaking. The decisionmaking units in the studies are mostly individual actors and small units based on kinship. A common approach was defined towards the study of decisionmaking and the decisionmaking unit. This approach consisted of two elements, viz. 'pathways' (a concept to analyse the evolution of decisionmaking units over time, as a result of the decisionmaking process) and 'habitus' (a concept to analyse the cultural means used by the decisionmaking units while making decisions). Following the Introduction (by Mirjam de Bruijn and Han van Dijk), the volume includes chapters on climatic, ecological and human influences on vegetation (Yvonne M. de Boer); rural transformations in the Dogon heartland (Walter van Beek); coping strategies of Dogon cultivators (Aline Brandts); millet cultivation and climate variability in a Dogon village (Pieter Maas); coping strategies of the Riimaybe (Selma Griep); the caravan trade of cereals and salt (Mark Rutgers van der Loeff); the dynamics of a small town - Douentza - as a rural centre (Renate Zondag); rural migration of Dogon farmers (Karin Nijenhuis); migration and survival of Fulbe pastoralists in southern Mali (Josée van Steenbrugge) and in Central Mali (Mirjam de Bruijn and Han van Dijk). [ASC Leiden abstract]