‘Clash of Institutions? Researching Social Cohesion in a Post-Conflict Agrarian Society (Sierra Leone)’

Paul Richards

Visiting Professor, School of Environmental Studies, Njala University, Sierra Leone; Emeritus professor of Technology and Agrarian Development at Wageningen University, The Netherlands; Honorary Professor at the University College of London (UCL).

Escaping from poverty depends on the rules governing access to vital resources. Rural societies are a historically determined mix of varied and sometimes competing “formal” and “informal” institutions.

The focus of this research is to investigate whether a “clash of institutions” is a factor determining poverty in Sierra Leone, with a specific focus on land, labour, seeds and rural credit.