This article examines whether parental income affects decisions on children’s human capital investment and labour market participation. India’s sudden and unanticipated trade liberalisation was a national policy that created an exogenous variation in industry-specific tariff rates over time. The policy consequently led to variation in workers’ earnings according to their industrial affiliations. The disparity in earnings across industries provides a good setting for identifying the causal effect of parents’ income on child’s labour and schooling, using an instrumental variables approach. The study finds a positive effect of parents’ income on children’s schooling but a negative effect on children’s work. The magnitude of effect, however, is higher for girls compared to boys.

This article uses survey data to examine changes over time in the relationship between women’s empowerment and intimate partner violence (IPV) in six Bangladeshi villages. Prior analyses using a limited set of empowerment indicators available in both 2002 and 2014 suggested a persistent positive association between empowerment and IPV. The article’s analysis, using an updated set of measures derived from extensive qualitative studies, suggests that empowerment may be shifting from a risk factor for IPV to a protective factor. The article discusses the methodological limitations posed by the shifting manifestations of empowerment and its social meanings within and across settings.

This article draws upon music training programmes developed by Afro-Brazilian activists in the city of Salvador, Bahia, as a strategy for connecting training in musical production with computer skills. Though a seemingly incongruous pairing, we argue that for Afro-Brazilian young people learning how to create music helps provide a sense of cultural identity and consciousness that helps them then move into learning about technology. This two-step process creates a sense of “transformative empowerment” where a transformation in individuals’ sense of cultural identity facilitates changes in more professionalised areas addressed through the discourse on information and communications technologies for development (ICT4D).

Rural Kenyan households have different aspirations and income portfolio strategies, including agricultural intensification and income diversification. This article reports on a study that interviewed 624 households to explore rural aspirations and derive lessons for agricultural technology development and transfer. Though few households specialised in farming, many households self-identified as farmers and aspired to increase their agricultural income. Despite the prevalence of agricultural aspirations, few aspired for their children to have a future in farming. Combining aspirations with potential to invest, the article provides suggestions for targeting agricultural interventions. We need to start listening better to those people we call “farmers” to develop and offer innovations that meet their realities.

This article examines trade relations in alternative food networks as a space where communication practices can prove empowering for rural communities. Drawing on a theory of diverse economies, the article offers an alternative view of the global market, highlighting the social relations that underpin market transactions. These relations are then explored through a case study of a farming community in South India and their interactions with private enterprises in North America and Europe. The findings demonstrate how a dialogical communication process between the two groups can contribute to farmers’ well-being beyond economic growth, creating opportunities for more permanent social change.

A complex systems approach to innovation provides rich insights into the drivers, barriers, and key elements for innovation in rural systems. Through a case study of dry direct seeding (DDS) in smallholder systems in Laos, this article reveals a “perfect storm” of challenges and opportunities resulting in rapid adoption. Labour shortage, climate variability, and machinery availability are key factors. The lessons for the research and development community are that; every local system and situation is unique; focusing on one set of factors is never sufficient; and that timelines for change may be long and require persistence and longer term commitment from donors.

Neo-liberal ideology, as an abstract technique of self-governance and population management, is often viewed as tolerant of extreme inequality within a market economy. However, the range of policy proposals that flow from the ideology are not necessarily insensitive to development projects in marginalised areas. Sensitivity to market mechanisms may inject pragmatism in contexts where states are unable or unwilling to supply capability enhancing public goods. Through an analysis of the Center for Urban and Regional Excellence’s proof-of-concept development project in India, this article argues that a market-oriented framework can be useful in mitigating collective action problems.

Contract farming is a vital tool for linking small-scale farmers with modern supply chains. This study explored challenges resulting from contracting in the paprika supply chain in Malawi. The study used focus groups, semi-structured interviews, and email correspondence with 100 supply chain participants. The identified challenges include: inadequate input provision via the contract, a lack of opportunities to bargain and participate in contract design, and side-selling. While the contract secured the outlet for paprika, it failed to provide a reliable paprika supply for the contracting company. Thus, Malawi’s case analyses the potential of contract farming to champion the development of vulnerable economies.

This article examines how privacy is understood, lived, and negotiated by youth users of information and communication technology (ICT) in slum communities in the Philippines. In the context of shared and public access arrangements prevalent in many low-income communities in the Global South, the article discusses the intersections of space, technology, and the sharing economy underlying socio-technical practice that shape the privacy notions. It argues for rethinking the ICT for development and privacy policy discourse to integrate experiences from shared access settings.