For my thesis we decided to use a framework in order to analyse our data against. The “hanging- in, stepping-up, stepping-out” theory is a useful analytical framework to look at the factors surrounding the land-livelihood nexus of coconut farmers in the Philippines (Pritchard et al., 2017).
There are two basic propositions that help to set the analysis. The first proposition is that people aim to maintain their livelihood situation, and also aim to develop it through the assets and activities which they are involved with. The second proposition is that people can try to expand their existing activities and aim to move into new activities also. Taking these propositions into account Dorward explains how we can then look at three different types of livelihood strategies, “Hanging-in, Stepping-up and Stepping-out”.
“Hanging in” describes how households and individuals engage in the same activities and work with the same assets in order to maintain the livelihood that they have already formed. “Stepping-up” introduces the idea that individuals make investments in their assets in order to expand activities. “Stepping-out” looks at the possibility of engaging in existing activities in order to accumulate assets which in turn could help to lead to individuals involving themselves in new activities, which need some investment requirements to start off (Dorward et al., 2009).
Sources:
Pritchard, B., Vicol, M., & Jones, R. (2017). How does the ownership of land affect household livelihood pathways under conditions of deagrarianization? ‘Hanging in’, ‘stepping up’ and ‘stepping out’ in two north Indian villages. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 38(1), 41–57. https://doi.org/10.1111/sjtg.12180
Dorward, A., Anderson, S., Bernal, Y. N., Vera, E. S., Rushton, J., Pattison, J., & Paz, R. (2009). Hanging in, stepping up and stepping out: Livelihood aspirations and strategies of the poor. Development in Practice, 19(2), 240–247. https://doi.org/10.1080/09614520802689535