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CONTRASTING LIVELIHOODS CHANGES AND SCOPE FOR DIVERSIFICATION IN SIRBA (OROMIA) AND HARRESAW (TIGRAY) [Abstract ID: 1205-17]
This paper will examine the impact of globalization on economic achievement in rural Ethiopia by exploring whether and how any form of globalization found in selected rural communities (notably information and communications networks, imported technologies, international trade, investment and aid, as well as ideas and ideologies) influenced the trajectories of economically successful individuals living in them.
There is no doubt that the advancement of globalization has a significant impact in interconnecting the world’s communities and is playing a great role in shaping and reshaping the political, economic, and social spheres of societies in various ways. Nowadays, it has become difficult to think of communities of the world not affected by globalization, though the degree of exposure varies greatly across places and for different individuals. Ethiopian society in general, and rural communities as part of it, have not escaped this reality. Drawing mainly on the WIDE longitudinal research, the paper will use data made on twenty communities in fieldwork conducted between 2010 and 2013, as well as data from upcoming fieldwork in four of the twenty communities planned to take place in early 2018. The paper will identify the linkages, if any, between economic opportunities and the different forms of globalisation that may be found in each community. Focusing on locally recognized economically successful individuals, it will discuss how, and what types of individuals succeeded in grasping the opportunities linked to globalization to become or remain successful or further grow, comparing with less successful individuals in the community, and touch upon whether and how individuals’ differential exposure and use of globalization dimensions might have led to differences in economic trajectories. Drawing on typologies developed by the WIDE research in earlier works, the paper will also compare and contrast how the influence of globalisation on economic success varied across the communities, in terms of both the extent of success of individuals and the type of economic activities they engaged in.