Research Questions

This research aims to investigate how the adaptive capacity of Mongolian pastoralism, as a complex social-ecological system, is shaped by the situated and partial knowledges and practices of pastoral resource users.

Scope and objectives of the research

Nomadic pastoralism constitutes a highly resilient resource use strategy, involving continuous adaptation to environmental change and uncertainty through patterns of mobility, diverse and extensive resource use, and flexible social organization. Extensive livestock production offers particularly strong potential for contributing to sustainable development in Mongolia―a country whose economy and culture continue to be dominated by pastoral practices, and in which approximately a third of the population remains nomadic. In this context, the present research will investigate adaptive practices among diversely positioned pastoral resource users in Mongolia, with a view to contributing an ethnographically grounded understanding of adaptive capacity as a potential development aim and as a governable dimension of social-ecological resilience.

The proposed field research will make use of interview and audiovisual recording methods to document and interpret the adaptive strategies of mobile pastoralists and related actors circulating through two ecologically distinct study sites, linking the varied practices of these actors to differences in access to natural and cultural resources―including social, cultural, and symbolic forms of capital. Through an exploration of resource users' partial knowledge and situated practices, this project will investigate how heterogeneous access to natural and cultural resources presents both adaptive benefits and inequalities that must be addressed in rangelands governance. In so doing, the research will attempt to confront the limitations of current models for common-pool natural resource management through application to Mongolian pastoralists as highly mobile, dispersed, and differentiated resource users. Specifically, the research will bring focus to adaptive capacity at the scale of individuals and small, flexible collectivities, exploring the capacity for creative, improvisatory use of natural and cultural resources in relation to gender, ecological knowledge, markets, and similar structuring factors.

This study will involve intensive ethnographic field research with a small, stratified sample of herders and related actors in two ecologically distinct districts of Mongolia—Yero'o' sum (district) in Selenge aimag (province), and Sainshand in Dornogobi aimag (fig. 1)—to be conducted over the course of a full calendar year. Participants in each site will be selected using a purposive cluster sampling technique, focusing on a small number of "xot ail" herding units as natural clusters in each location. These xot ail units are traditional groups of two or more pastoral households, typically related by kin, which have re-emerged as the primary unit of livestock production in Mongolia following decollectivization in the mid-1990s (Bold 1996). They vary in size by region, normally including 6-7 households (i.e., individual yurts) in the forested steppe (xangai) region or 2-3 households in the Gobi; each xot ail may thus include as few as three or four individuals, or—in the case of the most sedentary herders—as many as thirty or more people, including children. Aiming to achieve a core sample of approximately 25-30 participants in each site, I intend to work with 12-15 households in each area, corresponding to approximately 5-6 xot ails in Dornogobi (Gobi region) and 4-5 xot ails in the more productive Selenge (xangai region). This selection will aim to encompass a high level of variation in terms of social group size and composition, herd type, and general production strategy.

Fieldwork within each xot ail will be as exhaustive as possible, including where feasible group and individual interviews/audiovisual field recordings with all available adult members. This research approach is expected to permit an exploration of how adaptive knowledge and practices reflect individuals' positionings within individual groups—specifically in relation to social factors such as age (generation and rank) and gender—as well as providing evidence of how similar adaptive practices are experienced across the xot ails in both research sites. Research with the core sample of herders will be complemented by semi-structured interviews with related actors in each site, including policymakers, merchants, and development workers, as well as by information from published secondary sources.

The research will be guided by the following general questions:

1. Resource access. What is the nature and extent of differences in Mongolian pastoralists' access to various types of resources as "capital" (natural, economic, social, and cultural)? How and to what extent does resource access heterogeneity enhance or constrain adaptive capacity at different scales, and how is it linked to gendered, economic, or other inequalities? How secure is pastoralists' tenure in the resources they use?
2. Production strategies. How do Mongolian pastoralists make use of the various material and intangible resources available to them in their everyday adaptive practices? In what ways are individual pastoralists' knowledge and tactical practices shaped, within the xot ail, by gender, age, or other positionings? How do variations in mobility, livestock capital, social capital, technical knowledge, and access to ecological resources relate to different production strategies among diverse groups? To what extent can cultural capital (knowledge, symbolic production) compensate for limited material resources?
3. Political ecological context: interactions with non-pastoralists. What are the direct and indirect impacts of non-herders' interactions with pastoralists, through exchange, development, governance, research, or competing resource use? How do the partial knowledge and situated practices of pastoral and non-pastoral actors relate to conflict and inequalities concerning resource access, and how might the resulting problems be addressed? How do different forms of social organization (kinship groups, economic units, governance institutions, NGOs) and transactions create distinct types of knowledge and practices?
4. Adaptive capacity, governance, and sustainable development. In what ways are resilient pastoral adaptive strategies (mobility, flexible social organization, adaptive production) and sustainable use of common-pool resources enabled or constrained by positioned knowledge and social organization-related factors? How can this analysis help to understand the successes and limitations of development, governance, and development interventions involving pastoralists and other actors (state, international NGOs, businesses)? How might current development policy and interventions be improved to take adaptive capacity into account?

Context of the Study

The Mongolian pastoral sector

Mongolian pastoral production involves the extensive grazing of sheep, goats, horses, cattle, and camels in steppe and semi-desert areas (see To'mo'rzhav&Erdenecogt1999; Bruun1996). The centrality of pastoral nomadism to Mongolia's culture and economy over the past several centuries is evidenced in a broad range of historical sources (Rashid-al-Din2002; Onon2001; Huc1900; Pozdneyev1971; Rubruck1990; Polo1993; Carpini1996; Campbell2000; Li Chih-Ch'ang 2005; Simukov1935); in the contemporary period a majority of Mongolians continue to maintain ties, either directly or through kinship, to the pastoral sector. As of the 2008 livestock census, there were 226-thousand livestock-owning households in Mongolia (Gerelt-Od&Others2008, 16), accounting for 35% of all Mongolian households and 86% of all rural households identified in the 2007 population report (NSO2008). Most livestock-owning households keep between 100 and 300 animals, although the composition and size of herds varies considerably by household and ecological region.

The contemporary pastoral experience has broadly been shaped by the major disjunctures introduced by the collectivization and decollectivization processes of the 20th century. Whereas livestock capital and rangelands management prior to the 1940s were largely controlled by monasteries and "feudal" territorial administrators (Simukov1935; Humphrey&Sneath1999, 222-225; Fernandez-Gimenez1999; Natsagdorj1967), by 1959 herders had been gathered into state-controlled socialist cooperatives maintaining specialized herds with subsidized inputs and partially mechanized production (Shirendev&Others1975, 552-563; Humphrey1978). These cooperatives were subsequently dissolved following the collapse of the Soviet-supported socialist regime in 1990, leading to a chaotic loss of institutions for marketing, distribution, and resource management.

Nomadic pastoralism: Adaptive capacity and sustainability

The mobile or nomadic aspect of pastoralism has perhaps unsurprisingly been viewed as its major or even defining feature (Dyson-Hudson&Dyson-Hudson1980), but mobility can be viewed as one component of a broader strategy of flexible management of labour, livestock, and rangeland resources (Fernandez-Gimenez&LeFebre2006; Chatty2007; Xie&Li2008; Reid&Others2008). According to Spooner's classic formulation, nomadic pastoralism can be considered "an extreme form of adaptation which generates extreme degrees of instability of minimal social groupings and requires a high degree of fluidity of social organization" (Spooner1971, 208). Extensive resource use is achieved through the maintenance of small, mobile herds over a relatively large territory; flexibility occurs in the evolving composition and size of mixed herds, but more importantly in the segmentation and consolidation of herds and economic units in response to current needs and the evolving availability of human and natural resources.

In the Mongolian case, the capacity for flexible social-economic organization and resource use is largely sustained by the xot ail. Xot ails and their component households typically separate or congregate, or subdivide into otor (sub-household) herding units, in adaptation to changing resources and needs (Xie&Li2008; Cerenxand1987; Bold1996; Bruun2006; Mearns1993). Such groups often maintain strong ties with urban kin—permitting the reciprocal or redistributive transfer of social and economic capital between rangelands and town centre, and mitigating vulnerability to economic or ecological change through resource redistribution.

Recent scholarship has recognized the particular importance of such flexible, adaptive strategies in ecosystems governed by non-equilibrium dynamics (Behnke&Others1993; Vetter2005; see also Robinson&Berkes2010). High variation and unpredictability of rainfall and vegetation productivity in these ecosystems results in the poor applicability of stability-based livestock production strategies―notably, semi-sedentary pastoralism with fixed herd sizes and designated grazing areas―calling into question the value of conventional development policies based on rangelands privatization or intensive resource management (Davies&Others2010). Within the international development sector there has similarly been an increasing recognition of the value of pastoralism in promoting biodiversity (SBSTTA2010) and mitigating climate change (Davies&Nori2008; Nassef&Others2009), with specific reference to the inherent adaptive capacity and resilience of mobile pastoral resource use (see Robinson2009).

The concept of adaptive capacity as used in this context refers to "the ability or capacity of a system to modify or change its characteristics or behaviour so as to cope better with existing or anticipated external stresses" (Adger&Others2004, 34). It is distinct from short-term "coping capacity" or "reactive strategies" (Lioubimtseva&Henebry2009) insofar as it involves experimentation and learning with long-term effects (Walker&Others2002; Berkes&Turner2006). Adaptive capacity is explicitly identified by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as a "vital and beneficial" response to climate change and uncertainty (IPCC2007). As a core concept of resilience theory (Folke2006; Gunderson&Holling2002; Folke&Others2002; Berkes&Others2003), adaptive capacity has been associated with learning to live with uncertainty and change, promoting biological and institutional diversity, combining scientific and indigenous knowledge, and building opportunities for systems to be self-organizing (Folke&Others2003).

Governance and governability

Despite these adaptive benefits of nomadic pastoralism, the ecological value of extensive livestock production has received relatively little attention by Mongolian policymakers, who often acknowledge extensive livestock only for its "traditional" value (e.g., Mongolia2009). In the area of adaptation to climate change—one of the areas of greatest potential importance for mobile pastoralism—the contributors to Mongolia's recent Assessment Report on Climate Change (Dagvadorzh&Others2010) acknowledge the vulnerability of herders to environmental change, but associate successful adaptive strategies with increased science and technology rather than with extensive resource use. While a few observers have specifically underlined the long-term sustainability value of nomadic pastoralism in Mongolia (Agriteam1997; Mearns2004), recent development activities and government policy have in practice most often prioritized "intensification" strategies (MOFA2008; Minzhigdorzh&Myaxdadag 2004). These measures may present compelling economic advantages but also significantly increase pastoralists' vulnerability to economic uncertainty and environmental hazards, by creating dependence of pastoral producers on other actors (e.g., fodder suppliers, wholesalers) while eliminating the possibility of mobility and flexible production strategies. As the recent experience of household land tenure and grazing area enclosures in neighbouring Inner Mongolia (China) has shown, intensification measures can lead to overgrazing and increased economic difference due to the reduction of mobility-contingent adaptive options (Sneath2000; Williams1996, Williams2002; Ho2000a, Ho2000b; Jiang2004, Jiang2006; Taylor2006). Disaster relief and insurance policies can also reduce adaptive capacity and resilience by engendering dependence on relief for droughts (Nelson&Finan2009) or―in the Mongolian case―zud, a heavy snow cover that prevents foraging.

Drawing on the insights of commons theory (McCay&Acheson1987; Ostrom1990; Berkes1989), some scholars have suggested that extensive, customary forms of livestock production can remain sustainable in Mongolia given better rangelands governance institutions to coordinate resource use among xot ails, and to protect the interests of herders against those of competing resource users (Mearns1993, Mearns1996, Meanrs2004; Fernandez-Gimenez2002; Fenandez-Gimenez&LeFebre2006). On this question there is a need for further research into the capacity for the xot ail to serve as an effective component of adaptive governance. The particular challenge in this area is that the very qualities of the xot ail that support pastoralists' adaptive capacity—flexible composition, mobility, and evolving production strategies—limit the governability of the pastoral sector by conventional means. Conversely, integration of xot ails into formal governance structures may limit their effectiveness: efforts in the past decade to protect xot ails' tenure of winter grazing areas according to the revised Land Law, for instance, can be seen to have reduced adaptive capacity by requiring that pastoral groups maintain a fixed membership, and have led to stratified mobility patterns (Fernandez-Gimenez&Batbuyan2004).

Situated practices

Although some ecologists have noted that system-level adaptive capacity requires adaptive practices at the level of the individual (Fazey&Others2007), the scale of analysis in studies of adaptation has typically been the "society" or "community" (Tompkins&Adger2004; Smit&Wandel2006), as empirically supported by case studies focusing on resource use among relatively small-scale, bounded groups of resource users (e.g., Peloquin2009; Hunn&Others2003; Brinkman&Others2007; Dumaru2010; Crate2008). Drawing on Ostrom's observations that small, homogeneous groups tend to present more successful commons management (Ostrom1990), various theorists have argued that adaptive capacity and resilience are strengthened by collective action based on shared identities, knowledge, and goals (Tompkins&Adger2004; Armitage2005). Beyond concerns raised about the simplified, undifferentiated notion of "community" applied in such analyses (Li2002), however, this approach is evidently problematic in the case of nomadic pastoralists, who―far from constituting stable, bounded groups―are mobile, shift between "nomadic" and "sedentary" resource use strategies (Barth1961), and make use of extensive grazing areas that may be transected or appropriated by competing resource users (Galvin2008). Relations among Mongolian pastoralists are rarely guided by collective purpose, but more frequently by negotiated relationships of trust and distrust within networks of kin and people of a shared "nutag" or birthplace (Bold1996 ; Humphrey1998, 445).

These concerns point to the need for further research on adaptive capacity among Mongolian pastoralists that focuses on the agency of individual resource users, as shaped by differential access to economic, social, and cultural capital resources. Social-ecological resilience theorists acknowledge that social-ecological change and adaptation occurs most rapidly and frequently at the smallest scales (Gunderson&Holling 2002); yet the nature and purpose of this micro-level change have been under-explored in this field, in part due to the focus on medium-to-large-scale institutional organizations. Such limitations might in part be overcome by a stronger engagement between ecology and environmental anthropology (Scoones1999), particularly in adopting interpretations of human behaviour that move beyond mechanistic feedback models (Vayda&McCay 1975). Specifically, modern anthropological approaches rooted in practice theory (Bourdieu1977; Ortner1984) can be helpful in drawing attention to the interplay of structure and agency at the level of individual actors' adaptive strategies.

Given the highly differentiated nature of Mongolian pastoralists' experience, the proposed research will investigate Mongolian pastoral adaptive practices in situated terms―looking specifically at the differences among pastoral resource users' knowledge and experiences, and linking these to the situated knowledges and positionings of diverse subjects. "Adaptation" in the context of this analysis will encompass not only adaptive uses of ecological resources as a function of change and uncertainty, but also ways in which resource users negotiate―and sometimes subvert―legal and customary rules and discourses (Escobar1991). The anthropological understanding of "adaptive capacity" that can arise from this research approaches Bourdieu's concept of "practice", in referencing the agent's "capacity for invention and improvisation" in everyday activities (Bourdieu1990, 13). Adaptive practices can thus be viewed as active and creative forms of interaction with received cultural and natural resources and systems, placing focus on tactical "ways of operating" (mētis) embedded in everyday practice (DeCerteau1984, 81-84; Scott1998).

While social capital has increasingly been linked to adaptive capacity (Pelling&High2005), little research has investigated the specific and contingent ways in which access to more broadly-defined intangible cultural resources―including social networks, ecological knowledge, symbolic products, and status―influences adaptive practices. Whereas differential access to social and cultural capital, such as privileged knowledge or outside contacts, can undermine group-level adaptive capacity, differences among actors can also lead to positive outcomes by contributing overall diversity (Armitage2005). As such it can be important to consider both positive and negative dimensions of heterogeneous resource access in enhancing adaptive capacity but also as contributing to social difference. Making use of Bourdieu's scheme (Bourdieu1986), this research will explore the interrelationship of three distinct types of capital resources: (1) economic capital, encompassing natural resources, livestock, and material property to which access is assured by legal title or customary tenure; (2) social capital, encompassing relations among kin, people from a shared birthplace (nutag), and exchange partners; and (3) cultural capital, encompassing knowledge of production processes, embodied practices (habitus), and symbolic products (on capital in resilience theory, see also ResilienceAlliance2007, 38).

The importance of social capital is manifest in Mongolian herders' struggles to maintain claims to grazing areas, where the strength of land tenure is tied to individual households' standing with other herders and their positioning in relation to local authorities (Fernandez-Gimenez&Batbuyan2004). Faced with low economic and social capital, many Mongolian herders will attempt to build cultural capital through symbolic production strategies, which are not dictated entirely by rational economizing but rather position pastoralism, in political ecological terms, as superior to urban-industrialism. Examples of such efforts include the production of airag (koumiss) and shimiin arxi (liquor distilled from fermented milk), which are highly labour-intensive processes generating products for which there is almost no market, but which present very strong cultural value; and varied interactions with natural sacred sites, as a means of asserting the spiritual value of the pastoral landscape. Processes such as these underline the political dimensions of pastoralists' everyday practices, as situated tactically within a broader political ecological context—the parameters of which are evident from ongoing, active debates in the public and private spheres concerning the future role of the pastoral sector in Mongolia's national development. These debates expose fundamental tensions between various development goals, such as economic growth, resource conservation, democratic governance, improved material livelihoods, spiritual wellbeing, or the promotion of cultural traditions.

This research aims to contribute a deepened understanding of the political ecology of Mongolian pastoralism by applying new data concerning herders' and other actors' subjective practices, motivations, and perceptions of nomadic pastoralism in explaining the situated nature of these divergent goals and perspectives. In this regard the theoretical approaches suggested by standpoint theorists (Haraway1988; Smith1987; Harding1991) can be helpful in interpreting how nomadic herders act upon their lack of social and economic privilege within Mongolian society, with particular reference to public knowledge production processes (science, governance, development, and similar discourses within the "public sphere") that devalue marginalized actors' knowledge and experience by providing limited opportunities for participation. The general epistemological goal of this research project is thus to seek means of understanding and communicating the gendered, embodied, first-person knowledge of Mongolian pastoralists, as relevant and vital to governance and development debates.

Expected benefits

This research is expected to contribute directly to our understanding of the potential role of mobile pastoralism in sustainable development. The study will build on current discussions in the fields of anthropology, ecology, and development, situating pastoralism as a low-impact, adaptive resource-use strategy suitable for environments presenting relatively low biological productivity and high ecosystem variability. As distinct from much existing work, however, this research will focus on the small-scale dynamics of creative practices and knowledge as a source of diversity and adaptation. By taking into account the agency of diversely-positioned individual resource users, the research is expected to contribute a deepened understanding of the consequences of heterogeneous access to natural and cultural resources in Mongolian pastoral society. This project will thus result in better knowledge of how to assess and promote adaptive capacity, with reference to partial and situated knowledges and practices as potentially enhancing adaptive diversity, but also creating heightened power differentials and exclusions.

Specific products of this research project will include (1) a digital archive of raw ethnographic field recordings, interviews, and transcripts describing contemporary resource use strategies employed by Mongolian pastoralists; (2) an analysis of Mongolian pastoralists' adaptive capacity grounded in documented resource use practices, knowledge, and decisions, and linked to the literature on social-ecological resilience, commons theory, and ecological knowledge; and (3) a set of policy recommendations synthesized from the research analysis, and taking into account comments by project participants and Mongolian policymakers.

The results of this research will potentially inform discussions affecting rangelands governance issues and policy among herders, government officials, development workers, and other actors in Mongolia. To that end, the field records and results of this research will be shared and discussed with collaborating pastoralists and, insofar as possible, with colleagues in the Mongolian Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry and in local research and governance organizations in the project study sites. More broadly, the research is expected to contribute to theoretical discussions of common-pool resource management, situated ecological knowledge, social and cultural capital, tactical practices, and political ecology. The creation of a digital archive presenting ethnographic field recordings and interview transcripts produced during the course of this project will enable subsequent uses of ethnographic field data (see AAAExecutiveBoard2004), and enhance the potential intertextual applications of the ethnographic records and narratives (Fabian2002, Fabian2008).

This research is expected to benefit a variety of groups connected to the Mongolian pastoral economy, by providing for greater reflection on the advantages and challenges of adopting "adaptive capacity" as a development aim, and by highlighting the diversity of contemporary pastoral experience in Mongolia. The research will be of direct interest to Mongolian herders, government officials, NGOs, development organizations, and other actors who contribute to—or are affected by—rangelands governance policy, by suggesting practical measures for supporting sustainable development in the pastoral sector, while remaining sensitive to the varied needs and resources of diversely positioned stakeholders. Additionally, the research will be of interest to scholars working in the areas of anthropology, human ecology, commons theory, and international development. This research will also contribute to discussions of gender inequalities among pastoralists and current gender policy in Mongolia (NCGE2007), complementing existing data on gender and socio-economic change since decollectivization (Robinson&Solongo2000; ADB&WorldBank2005) and building on prior studies of Mongolian women's roles as pastoralists and as natural resource users (e.g., Cooper&Gelezhamstin1994; Ykhanbai&Others2006).

Since the research involves an iterative process of discussion and field recordings undertaken over the course of a year, feedback to participants will be ongoing as an integral component of the study process. Additionally, steps will be taken to ensure that all project results and materials are accessible to participants in the format of their choice. Non-confidential field recordings and other project materials will be made available for consultation and loan through the libraries in Yero'o' and Sainshand. Additionally, VCD/DVDs of field recordings, and print copies of photographs and interview transcripts will be prepared for participants as requested; indication of this preference is requested on the informed consent form.

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