1
PAULINE ELAINE PETERS
PERSONAL
Home Address:50 Regent Street
Cambridge, MA 02140
(617) 876-6064
Office Address:CID
HarvardKennedySchool
79 JFK Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
email address:
EDUCATION
1983Ph.D., Anthropology, BostonUniversity
1978M.A., Anthropology, BostonUniversity
1962PostGraduate Diploma in Social Administration, LondonSchool of Economics and Political Science
1961B.A.(Honours) First Class, Romance Languages and Literature, University College of Cardiff, University of Wales
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2008/6-present(Retired from Teaching Faculty). Professor Emeritus and Associate; Senior Research Fellow, Centre for International Development, Harvard.
2000-2008Member of Core Faculty, JFK School of Government;Lecturer, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University; Faculty Associate, Center for International Development, Harvard.
1998-2000Fellow, Harvard Institute for International Development; Research Fellow, Center for International Development;Lecturer, Department of Anthropology
1982-1998Institute Associate, HIID; Lecturer, Dept. of Anthropology
1981-1982Teaching Fellow in the Anthropology Department, Boston University, for courses on Political Anthropology, Legal Anthropology, and Introductory Anthropology
1979-1980Dissertation field work in Botswana on the topic "The Organization of Borehole (Deep-well) Ownership in the Kgatleng District of Botswana"
19721974Lecturer, Department of Human Behaviour, ChancellorCollege, University of Malawi
19621964Junior Research Fellow, East African Institute of Social Research, Makerere University, Uganda
PUBLICATIONS
BOOKS
2000(edited) Development Encounters: Sites of Participation and Knowledge. HarvardUniversity Press for Harvard Institute for International Development.
1994Dividing the Commons: Politics, Policy and Culture in Botswana. University of Virginia Press.
ARTICLES/CHAPTERS
Forthcoming“Our daughters inherit our land and our sons use their wives’ fields”: matrilineal-matrilocal land tenure, and the new land policy in Malawi. Journal of East African Studies.
In pressChallenges in Land Tenure and Land Reform in Africa: Anthropological Contributions. Special Issue, World Development, 2009 37, 8.
2008with P. A. Walker, D. Kambewa. Striving for normality in a time of AIDS in Malawi. Journal of Modern African Studies 46, 4: 659-687.
2007with D. Kambewa. Whose Security? Deepening Social Conflict over ‘Customary’ Tenure in the Shadow of Land Tenure Reform. J. Modern African Studies 45,3: 447-472.
2007with Peter Walker. Making Sense in Time: Remote Sensing and the Challenges of Temporal Heterogeneity in Social Analysis of Environmental Change – Cases from Malawi. Human Ecology35, 1: 69-80.
2006Rural Income and Poverty in a Time of Radical Change in Malawi. Special Issue, Journal of Development Studies, 42-2: 322-345.
2006Beyond Embeddedness: A Challenge Raised by a Comparison of the Struggles over Land in African and Post-socialist Countries. In Changing Properties of Property. Frantz von Benda-Beckmann, Keebet von Benda-Beckmann, and Melanie Wiber (eds). New York, Oxford: Berghahn Books, pp.84-105.
2005Commercialization. In Encyclopedia of International Development. Tim Forsyth (ed.). London and New York: Routledge.
2005Boreholes. In Encyclopedia of International Development. Tim Forsyth (ed.). London and New York: Routledge.
2004Inequality and Social Conflict over Land in Africa. Journal of Agrarian Change, 4, 3 (July): 269-314.
2004The Uses of Anthropology in Monitoring Food Security and Market Liberalization: the example of Malawi. In Development Anthropology: Beyond Economics. Yasushi Kikuchi (ed). Philippines: New Day Publishers, p.55-67.
2002Grounding Governance: Power and Meaning in Natural Resource Management. In Contested Resources: Challenges to the Governance of Natural Resources in Southern Africa. T.A.Benjaminsen, B.Cousins, L. Thompson (ed.). PLAAS, University of the Western CapePress.
2002The Limits of Knowledge: Securing Rural Livelihoods in a Situation of Resource Scarcity. In Natural Resources Management in African Agriculture: Understanding and Improving Current Practices. C.B. Barrett, F. Place, A.A. Aboud (ed.). CABI Publishing, 35-50.
2002The Limits of Negotiability: Security, Equity and Class Formation in Africa's Land Systems. In Negotiating Property in Africa. Kristine Juul and Christian Lund (ed.). Heinemann.
2002Bewitching Land: the Role of Land Disputes in Converting Kin to Strangers and in Class Formation in Malawi. Journal of Southern African Studies, 28,1: 155-178.
2001Maps, metaphors and meanings: boundary struggles and village forest use on private and state land in Malawi. Co-authored with Peter Walker. Society and Natural Resources 14, 5 (May): 411-424.
1999Comment on “The Political Economy of Ethnicity”, by Paul Collier. In Annual World Bank Conference on Development Economics. Boris Pleskovic and Joseph Stiglitz, (eds.). Washington, D.C.: World Bank.
1998With Allan Hoben and Dianne Rocheleau, Participation, Civil Society, and Foreign Assistance to Africa. In Africa’s Valuable Assets. Peter Veit (ed). World Resources Institute.
1998The Erosion of Commons and the Emergence of Property: Problems for Social Analysis. In Property in Economic Context. Robert C. Hunt and Antonio Gilman (ed). University Press of America.
1997The Family. In The Encyclopedia of Sub-Saharan Africa. John Middleton (ed). Charles Scribner’s Sons.
1997Revisiting the Puzzle of Matriliny in South-Central Africa: Introduction. Critique of Anthropology 17,2: 125-146.
1997Against the Odds: Matriliny, Land and Gender in the Shire Highlands of Malawi. Critique of Anthropology 17,2: 189-210.
1997Another Bridge to Cross: Between "Outside" and "Inside". Commentary on L.A.Obiora, Bridges and Barricades: Rethinking Polemics and Intransigence in the Campaign against Female Circumcision. Case Western Law Review. 47,2 (Winter): 481-489.
1997 Invited Commentary on "Shared Spaces and Sub-Divided Interests in the Uncommons" by Dianne Rocheleau. The Common Property Resource Digest, no. 40.
1996Participation and Development Assistance in Africa. Policy Brief #3, PCG, WRI. Co-authored with Allan Hoben and Dianne Rocheleau.
1996 Uses of Anthropology in Monitoring Food Security and Market Liberalization: the example of Malawi. Development Anthropologist, 17(1): 30-36. Special Issue on The International Symposium on the Role of Anthropology in 21st Century Development Policy held at WasedaUniversity, Tokyo, Japan, February 10-11, 1996.
1996"Who's Local Here?": The Politics of Participation in Development. Introduction and guest editor to issue of Cultural Survival Quarterly 20,3 (Fall).
1995The Uses and Abuses of the Concept of "Female-Headed Households" in Research on Agrarian Transformation and in Policy. In Women Wielding the Hoe: Lessons from Rural Africa for Feminist Theory and Development Practice. Deborah Bryceson (ed). Berg Publishers.
1994With M.G. Herrera. Tobacco Cultivation, Food Production and Nutrition among Smallholders in Malawi. In Agricultural Commercialization, Economic Development, and Nutrition. J. von Braun and E. Kennedy (eds.). Baltimore and London: The JohnsHopkinsUniversity Press for the International Food Policy Research Institute.
1994With Eileen Kennedy and Lawrence Haddad, Effects of Gender of Head of Household on Nutritional Status. In Nutrition in the Nineties: Policy Issues. Margaret R. Biswas and Mamdouh Gabr (eds.). Delhi: OxfordUniversity Press.
1993Is "Rational Choice" the best choice for Robert Bates? An Anthropologist's Reading of Bates' Work. World Development, 21,6:1063-1076.
1993What are the Analytical and Research Issues for the Future? In Agricultural Transformation in Africa. David Seckler (ed). EPAT/WINROCK.
1992Manoeuvres and Debates in the Interpretation of Land Rights in Botswana. Africa, 62,3:413-434.
1992Household Food Security and Child Nutrition: The Interaction of Income and Gender of Household Head. Co-authored with E. Kennedy. World Development, 20, 8:1077-1085.
1991Debate on the Economy of Affection: Is It a Useful Tool for Gender Analysis? In Structural Adjustment and African Women Farmers. C. Gladwin (ed.), Gainesville, FL; University of Florida Press.
1988The Ideology and Practice of Tswana Borehole Syndicates: Cooperative or Corporation? In Cooperatives and Rural Development. Donald W. Attwood and B.S. Baviskar (eds.), OxfordUniversity Press.
1987Embedded Systems and Rooted Models: The Grazing Lands of Botswana and the 'Commons' Debate. In The Question of the Commons: The Culture and Ecology of Communal Resources. Bonnie J. McCay and James M. Acheson (eds.), University of Arizona Press.
1987With Jane I. Guyer, Introduction in Conceptualizing the Household: Issues of Theory and Policy in Africa, Development and Change, April 1987. 18(2). (Special issue guest-edited by Jane I. Guyer and Pauline E. Peters.)
1986Proceedings of a Conference on Conceptualizing the Household. Jane I. Guyer and Pauline E. Peters (eds.) for the Joint Committee on African Studies, ACLS/SSRC.
1986Household Management in Botswana: Cattle, Crops, and Wage Labor. In Understanding Africa's Rural Households and Farming Systems. Joyce L. Moock (ed.) Westview Press.
1984Struggles Over Water, Struggles Over Meaning: Cattle, Water, and the State in Botswana, Africa, 54,3:29-49.
1983Gender, Developmental Cycles, and Historical Process: A Critique of Recent Research on Women in Botswana, Journal of Southern African Studies, 10,1: 98-122.
UnlistedBook Reviews in miscellaneous journals
UNPUBLISHED PAPERS, PRESENTATIONS (2000 to present only)
2009Keynote speech “The social and cultural dimensions of AIDS: interpreting ‘family’, ‘community’ and ‘sexuality’ in Southern Africa”, Conference on Integrating Biomedical and Socio-cultural Approaches to HIV/AIDS in Africa, University of Oregon, April 3-4.
2008Paper “Orphans, the matrilineal extended family and community groups in Malawi”, presented to the Annual Conference of the American African Studies Association, Chicago, November 13-16.
2008Paper “What is customary about ‘customary tenure’: the case of Malawi”, presented to the Biennial Conference of the International Association of the Commons, UK, July 14-18.
2008Invited paper “Questioning property’s role in deepening rural social inequality in Africa”, Workshop on Property and Rural Inequality, Norwich University, UK, September 1-2.
2007Commentary (as External Adviser) to Symposium on Promoting Tenure Security for the Poor and Vulnerable, Cape Town, South Africa, November 5-8, 2007.
2007Public Lecture: “Development and Social Conflict over Land”, Martin Institute Forum, MartinSchool of International Affairs, University of Idaho, October 25.
2007Invited speaker “Social Science and Environmental Sustainability: an African Example”, Workshop on Sustainability Science, Center for International Development, KennedySchool, September 21.
2007Invited speaker presenting “Whose security? Deepening social conflict over ‘customary’ land in the shadow of tenure reform’ to Seminar Series on Environmental Politics, Institute of International Studies, UC-Berkeley, May 4.
2006Keynote address “AnthropologistsDebatingLand: Tenure, Use and Reform”, Workshop on Land Reform, Land Tenure and Land Use: Assessing the Linkages, Humboldt University, Berlin, May 25-27.
2006Discussant for Keynote Speech; and Paper given on “Social conflict over access and transfer of land in Malawi: disjunctures between practice and land reform”, International Symposium “At the frontier of land issues: Social embeddedness of rights and public policy”, ERD, Montpellier, France, May 17-19, 2006.
2005Discussant on Panel on The Politics of Land: Flexibility and Change within African Systems of Land Tenure, Annual Meetings of the African Studies Association, Washington, DC., November 17-21.
2004The Differential Effects on Rural Income and Poverty of a Decade of Radical Change in Malawi, 1986-97. Invited paper prepared for Second Conference on Combating Persistent Poverty in Africa: Structure, Causes and Solutions, WashingtonDC, November 15-16.
2004Traveling Ideas, Changing Environments and Global Currents. Invited paper prepared for Conference on Globalization, Environment and Historiography, Taichung, Taiwan, June 4-6.
2004Co-chaired (with Professors White, Law School and Elkins, Department of History) Workshop on Power, Authority and Governance: the case of Land, sponsored by the Committee on African Studies and the Radcliffe Institute, February 5-6, Harvard University.
2003 The Challenge of Achieving Food Security in a Poor, Agrarian Country: the Case of Malawi. Paper prepared for BASIS-CRSP Conference on Combating Persistent Poverty in Africa: Structure, Causes and Solutions, held at CornellUniversity, November 14-15.
2003 Discussant on two panels at the Annual Meetings of the African Studies Association, held in Boston, October 30 - November 2. Panel on Water in Africa: Assessing Community resources, rules and rights. Panel on Reconsidering Botswana’s “exceptionality”: Critical Reflections and Future Challenges.
2003Beyond Embeddedness: A Challenge Raised by a Comparison of the Struggles over Land in African and Postsocialist Countries. Paper presented to the Conference on Changing Properties of Property, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle, Germany, July 2-4.
2003Discussant of paper presented to conference on Emergence and Epidemic: Ecosystem Change, Social Change and Emergent Disease on the Tropical Economic Frontier, WeatherheadCenter for International Affairs, HarvardUniversity, April 27-28.
2003Presentation to Conference on Panel Studies: Methodological Issues to Increase Validity and Reliability, sponsored by the National Science Foundation and held at the AmericanAcademy of Arts and Sciences, Cambridge, Massachusetts, March 27-8.
2002The Struggle for Africa’s Land: Are the experiences of post-Socialist countries “good to think with” on this issue? Paper presented on Panel on “Property Relations in an Era of Global Change”, the Annual Meetings of the American Anthropological Association, New Orleans, November 20-24.
2002Discussant, Conference on Social Research in the CGIAR System, held at CIAT, Cali, Colombia, September 11-14.
2002Discussant, Conference on Portuguese/African Encounters, held at the Thomas J. Watson Institute for International Studies, BrownUniversity, April 25-28.
2002Discussant, Workshop on Surviving the Present, Securing the Future: Social Policy for the Poor Countries, held at IDS (Institute for Development Studies), Sussex, Britain, March 25-26.
2002Discussant, Workshop on Methodologies for Studying Collective Action, held in Nyeri, Kenya, by CAPRI (CGIAR System-wide Program on Collective Action and Property Rights), February 24-March 2.
2001Reinserting Power and Meaning into Analytical Frameworks for Resource Management. Paper presented on Panel on “Decentralization and New Environmental Institutions” at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meetings, WashingtonD.C., November 28-December 2, 2001.
2001Commentator on paper given at Workshop on “Culture Goes Public: Anthropologists Speak Back on War, Race, Gender, and Globalization”, organized by Hugh Gusterson and Catherine Besteman, MIT, Cambridge, MA, October 19-20.
2001Invited speaker in workshop “Breaking Through Language and Paradigms”, The Graduate Consortium in Women’s Studies, The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Cambridge, Mass., September 29, 2001.
2001Invited commentator on paper, “Land Policy and the Institutional Framework”, Consultation Meeting on Land Policy and Administration, hosted by The World Bank and USAID, WashingtonD.C., April 24-26, 2001.
2001Agricultural Commercialization, Social Differentiation and Class: the Case of Malawi. Invited paper presented to the Institute for Global Studies in Culture, Power, and History, JohnsHopkinsUniversity, Baltimore, April 12, 2001.
2000Grounding Governance: Power and Meaning in Natural Resource Management. Keynote Address to International Symposium on Contested Resources: Challenges to Governance of Natural Resources in Southern Africa. Cape Town, October 2000.
2000Presentation as part of Panel on "Africa: A Discussion of its Future", Carroll L. Wilson Reunion, Lexington, MA, 22-24 September 2000.
2000Bewitching Land: the role of land disputes in converting kin to strangers. Paper presented at Conference on Current Social and Historical Research in Malawi, University of Malawi, June 25-29, 2000.
2000The Limits of Knowledge: Securing Rural Livelihoods in a Situation of Resource Scarcity. Public lecture delivered at CornellUniversity, April 27, 2000.
2000"Authentic Development", Invited Presentation to Harvard National Model United Nations 2000, Boston, February 18, 2000.
MAJOR REPORTS
2007The Effects of Increased HIV/AIDS-related Illness and Death on Rural Families in Zomba District, Malawi: a Longitudinal Study. Final Report to RENEWAL (IFPRI), Lilongwe, November 2007.
1998Agricultural Commercialization, Rural Economy and Household Livelihoods, 1990-1997. Final Report to USAID/Malawi and FSNU, Ministry of Economic Planning and Development, Government of Malawi, August.
1996Maize, Food and Tobacco in Zomba: Situation Report, August, 1996. Report to USAID/Malawi and Food Security Unit, Ministry of Economic Planning and Development.
1995Persistent Drought and Food Security: Assessing the Inputs Programme of 1994/5 and Lessons for The Drought Inputs Recovery Programme of 1995/6. Memorandum I, August 1995. Report to USAID/Malawi and Food Security Unit, Ministry of Economic Planning and Development.
1995Developments in the Liberalization of Marketing Maize and Burley: Implications for Food Security. Memorandum II, August 1995. Report to USAID/Malawi and Food Security Unit, Ministry of Economic Planning and Development.
1994Household Food Security and Drought in Southern Region: Situation Report, 1994. Report to Ministry for Economic Planning and Development (Government of Malawi) and USAID/Malawi, October 1994.
1993Maize and Burley in the Income and Food Security Strategies of Smallholder Families in the Southern Region of Malawi, 1993. Report to the Department of Economic Planning and Development, OPC (Office of President and Cabinet) and USAID/Malawi, October 1993.
1992Monitoring the Effects of Grain Market Liberalization on the Income, Food Security and Nutrition of Rural Households in Zomba South, Malawi. Report to USAID/Malawi and World Bank.
1989Cash Cropping, Food Security and Nutrition: the Effects of Agricultural Commercialization Among Smallholders in Malawi. Report (co-authored with M.G. Herrera and T.F. Randolph) to USAID/PPC, Washington, D.C.
FUNDED RESEARCH
2006 (Jan-Dec)Research on The Effects of HIV-related Death and Illness in Zomba, Malawi: a longitudinal study, 1986-2006. Funded by Fulbright-Hayes, IFPRI-RENEWAL, and Harvard Kennedy School Dean’s Faculty Research Fund.
2001-2004Researcher, BASIS Collaborative Research Program, USAID Global Bureau. Project on Institutional Dimensions of Water-Land Intersections in Malawi.
1997-2001Regional Program Leader for Southern Africa, BASIS Collaborative Research Program, USAID Global Bureau and selected missions. 1999-2001: Chairperson of BASIS Technical Committee and member of BASIS Executive Committee.
1997-1999Completion of ten-year study of Agricultural Commercialization and Smallholder Farmers, Income, Food Security and Welfare. Funded by USAID/Malawi.
1995-1996Fellow, Program on Agrarian Studies, YaleUniversity.
1993-1995Monitoring Research on Smallholder Farmers' Income, Food Security and Welfare. Funded by USAID/Malawi.
1992-1993Household Welfare Effects of Agricultural Policy Reform in Malawi (with Thomas Tomich). Funded by World Bank.
1990-1992The Effects of Grain Liberalization on Income, Consumption and Nutrition of Small-holder Families, Malawi. Funded by USAID/ Malawi and World Bank.
1986-1988Production, Investment and Consumption Patterns of Smallholder Farmers in Malawi. Funded by USAID PPC/PDPR.
1985-1987Market and Non-Market Resource Mobilization Strategies: Issues of Differentiation and Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. Funded by the Ford Foundation. Co-Principal Investigator (with Dr. Christine Jones).
1982-1985Program on Women in Development: Research, Teaching, and Policy Analysis. Funded by the Ford Foundation. Project Manager and Principal Investigator.
1979-1980Doctoral dissertation research in Botswana, funded with grants from SSRC and NSF.
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
Non-Harvard:
Member of International Advisory Board, Journal of Agrarian Change 2009-
Member of Advisory Panel on Gender, Institutions, and Participation, Water for Food Challenge Program, IWMI, CGIAR, 2003-04.
Member of International Advisory Group for Program on Accountability, Decentralization, and the Environment, WRI, 2000-4.
Member of Advisory Board for CGIAR System-wide Program on Collective Action and Property Rights (CAPRI, organized by IFPRI), 1996-2006.
Policy Consultative Group on Environmental Policy, World Resources Institute and AID/Africa Bureau, 1992-1997.
Advisory Group, Project on African Agriculture, Joint Committee on African Studies, ACLS/SSRC, 1984-1992.
Working Group on Research on Agrarian Transformation in Sub-Saharan Africa, Joint Committee on African Studies, ACLS/SSRC, 1983-1986.
Panel on Common Property Resources, National Academy of Science, 1983-87.