The PASTRES project asked: What lessons can we learn for global challenges from pastoral systems responding to uncertainty? Together with local partners and six PhD students, we worked in six pastoral areas: China (Amdo Tibet), Ethiopia (Borana), India (Gujarat), Italy (Sardinia), Kenya (Isiolo district) and Tunisia (Tataouine area). In each case, we explored responses to uncertainty across three areas: environment/resources, markets/commodities and institutions/governance.
Through interactions with people working in different areas, whether working on banking, climate change, insurance, critical infrastructure or public health, we explored what lessons can be learned from pastoral areas for wider societal responses to uncertainty.
Our objectives were:
• Developing a novel cross-disciplinary theoretical framework
Our research developed a ‘new narrative’ for pastoralism and extensive livestock development globally. This contrasted an approach centred on risk management and control with one based on uncertainty and care. In multiple ways, across academic/practitioner/activist communities and trying to traverse language barriers through translation, we have tried to develop, share, refine and extend our cross-disciplinary framework.
• Exploring responses to uncertainties in pastoral settings
Our research took place in 6 countries led by 6 PhD students and country partners. The research examined how pastoralists live with and from uncertainty in highly variable environments, with implications for thinking about policies around mobility, migration, land-use/conservation, markets, social assistance and insurance schemes. The collective work resulted in the elaboration of a ‘new narrative’ around pastoralism, shared across many publications and events.
• Facilitating a dialogue between marginal pastoral areas and others confronting uncertainty
In 2019, together with the ESRC STEPS Centre we hosted an international symposium on uncertainty. This resulted in a major edited book – The Politics of Uncertainty: The Challenge of Transformation (Scoones and Stirling 2020, 54493 chapter requests, 157 GS citations), and a lot of interest in the theme. Follow-on work resulted in 7 collaboratively-written journal articles on themes including economics, pandemic preparedness, migration, social protection, insurance/moral economies and knowledge exchange in development. The articles were subsequently interpreted and shared in comic and animation form and shared widely (
https://pastres.org/uncertainworlds/(odnośnik otworzy się w nowym oknie)). These conversations informed the final book of the project, Navigating Uncertainty: Radical Rethinking for a Turbulent World (Scoones 2024)
• Developing team capacities, building a network and engaging with policy
Our core PASTRES team grew to over 30, including 3 core researchers, 6 PhD students, 3 country leads, 16 post-docs and affiliates and 4 communications/visual methods staff. This core group linked many institutions, beyond just IDS and EUI (the hosts). PhD students/country leads led dissemination and policy engagement work across the 6 countries, with materials translated into local languages. We engaged with the UN International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralism 2026, the UN Food Systems Summit and 2 climate COPs, bringing research insights to the table. PASTRES ‘alumni’ are now working across academic, government, UN, NGO and social movement organisations on related issues.
