Recruitment procedures

Insofar as this project aims to explore and contrast the diverse experiences and practices of Mongolian pastoral resource users, selection of xot ail clusters will be oriented toward establishing a maximally stratified sample. Initial selection will occur through the identification of key informants, who are known as a result of prior research, collaboration, and kin ties in the study sites. Through interviews with these informants, a tentative list of potential collaborators will be drawn up, on the basis of which individuals from approximately five xot ails will be recruited in each of the two study sites. A larger sample of individuals with more focused or peripheral experiences in relation to pastoral resource use―including development workers, merchants, and local government officials―will also be maintained as a basis for ethnographic interviews or site visits. Where appropriate and as opportunities arise, overt participant observation will also be conducted in relevant community workshops, public meetings, or similar events organized by development organizations or local government in the study sites.

Selection of xot ails will aim to take into account variability according to the dimensions of mobility, livestock capital, size and composition of the xot ail and encompassing social network, production strategy, and access to ecological resources, as well as other relevant factors that may arise. Within each xot ail, attention will be given to including a balance of male and female pastoralists, where possible involving women and men from within the same household, and both older and younger herders.

The following criteria will be taken as a checklist for ensuring a stratified sample:

Mobility

herders who have migrated from elsewhere and remain "outsiders", and those who consider themselves "indigenous" to the local region; highly mobile and relatively sedentary herders.

Livestock capital

prosperous herders with large herds, and pastoralists who operate closer to a subsistence level.

Social capital

herders operating in small, relatively independent xot ail units and those positioned within larger groups and kin networks.

Production strategy

specialist and generalist livestock producers; including specialized producers of milk, dairy products, cashmere, wool, hides, racehorses, airag, traditional medicines, and handicrafts.

Experience

herders who come from multi-generational herding families and those who have entered pastoralism more recently.

Access to ecological resources

pastoralists in the xangai (Yero'o') and Gobi (Dornogobi) ecological regions; those with proximal access to markets, water, and productive grazing areas, and those who are situated in more marginal areas.

Non-herders will be selected purposively for ethnographic interview to represent perspectives on the following core activities presenting direct or indirect impacts on pastoral resource use.

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