Katherine Snyder

My long-term work in East Africa has focused on how the ideology and practice of development shapes local life in rural communities.It has situated ethnographic attention to local dynamics within a broader political-economic context at national and global levels. My applied work in international research centers has concentrated on sustainable development and how rural land users' livelihoods and decisions are shaped by a broad set of political, economic and environmental factors. Topics central to my research have included local governance of natural resources, democratization and civil society, gender and agriculture, and the politics of agricultural development. My publications focus on institutional analysis, livelihood change, gender, the politics of participation and the impacts of decentralization programs.