Sahelian action spaces: an examination of livelihood configurations in a rural Hausa community

The premise of this article is that understanding how people are connected in time and space can provide important insights for policies that seek to improve the livelihoods of the poor. The concept of action space is presented as means of situating the individual within their unique set of temporal and spatial connections. Data from a rural Hausa community in Niger are examined regarding three inter-related factors connecting individuals: marriage, personal communities and migration. The article concludes with a discussion of how the mobile telephone throws into focus the fundamental problems of managing these connections. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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