Livelihoods and the articulation of space

Livelihood studies aim to understand and contribute towards an improvement of livelihoods, primarily those of the poor. However, the spatial dimension of livelihoods is often overlooked, which results in a local bias and an overemphasis on the place, to the detriment of space. Linking up with the recent „spatial turn‟ in social science, this paper attempts to determine the relationship between contemporary livelihoods, i.e. livelihoods in the current era of globalization, and the articulation of space. It starts with a short description of globalization, followed by an overview of the origins of the modern livelihood approach and its roots in geography. These sections serve as points of departure for a discussion of the contemporary articulation of space. Instead of adopting van Naerssen‟s (1979) structuralist perspective on articulated space, the paper takes an actor-oriented perspective, with the section on the „spatial turn‟ in social science discussing present-day views on space and place and the position of livelihood studies in the light of globalization. A preliminary conceptualization of the contribution of livelihood networks to the contemporary articulation of space then follows.

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