The effect of negative human recognition on farmland access and well‐being: Evidence from women farmers in Malawi

• Published date: 01 February 2023
• Author: Ebelechukwu Maduekwe,Gertrud Buchenrieder
• Date: 01 February 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/rode.12937

REGULAR ARTICLE

The effect of negative human recognition on

farmland access and well-being: Evidence from

women farmers in Malawi

Ebelechukwu Maduekwe

1

| Gertrud Buchenrieder

2

1

Chair of Land Management and Tenure Security, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany

2

Institute of Sociology and Economics, Research Center RISK, Universität der Bundeswehr München (UniBw M),

Neubiberg, Germany

Correspondence

Gertrud Buchenrieder, Institute of Sociology and Economics, Universität der Bundeswehr München (UniBw M),

Neubiberg, Germany.

Email: gertrud.buchenrieder@unibw.de

1|INTRODUCTION

1

Discussions on farmland access in agrarian societies rarely include intangible forms of human

development such as human recognition. Yet human recognition plays a role in the access of

resources such as farmland and, thus, can be associated with development (Castleman, 2016,

pp. 136–140). Castleman (2016 p. 135) defines human recognition as “[…] the extent to which

an individual is acknowledged by others to be of inherent value by virtue of being a fellow

human being […].”Receipt of human recognition from others is based on positive interaction,

notably acknowledgment, respect, dignity, status, empowerment, love, and sociability

(Castleman, 2013, p. 1). Conversely, individuals can be deprived of human recognition through

negative interaction.

Human recognition affects the recipients’well-being in many ways, which, in turn,

is instrumental in supporting socio-economic development outcomes (Castleman, 2016,

pp. 135–140; Maduekwe et al., 2019, pp. 1–21; Maduekwe et al., 2020, pp. 805–824). Develop-

ment outcomes expand freedoms that people value and support, notably individuals’escape

from poverty through access to productive resources (Alkire, 2007, p. 347). However, poverty in

agrarian societies in African countries such as Malawi is more often fuelled by scarcity and

unequal access to resources such as farmland. Improving farmland access for women requires

appropriate institutions

2

that promote human recognition, legal and customary rights, and

agency (Bhaumik et al., 2016, p. 243). Clearly, access to farmland and well-being in the sense of

Received: 6 September 2021 Revised: 26 July 2022 Accepted: 22 August 2022

DOI: 10.1111/rode.12937

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distrib ution and

reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2022 The Authors. Review of Development Economics published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

112 Rev Dev Econ. 2023;27:112–133.

wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/rode

increased income for women farmers are interdependent (Mabsout & van Staveren, 2010,

p. 783; Malapit et al., 2015, p. 1098). However, the present gendered patterns of farmland access

are heavily influenced by women's positions in social institutions such as family and commu-

nity. Particularly, family members are treated as gendered individuals and resource allocation

in farm households are determined by a series of implicit bargaining positions (Agarwal, 1997,

p. 7; Katz, 1997, p. 26). These bargaining positions are influenced by formal and informal rules

that guide property rights, employment, marriage arrangements, or social networks, including

exit options. Thus, in non-cooperative family arrangements, deprivation of human recognition

is a way of ensuring limited resources are kept within the principal's (resource controller's) pref-

erences. Thus, agents (women farmers) are confined to a situation where an increase in

resource access, although beneficial to short-term income generation, is detrimental to overall

well-being (Agarwal, 1997, p. 7).

Despite the interdependency outlined above, there is little literature linking human recogni-

tion deprivation to farmland access and to overall well-being.

3

To this end, we propose a non-

cooperative model of farmland access and human recognition deprivation for women farmers.

We hypothesize that, in the absence of viable exit options, increasing access to farmland within

the household for women farmers is influenced by, among others, the level of human recogni-

tion deprivation she is willing to bear. We also outline the detrimental effects of such a non-

cooperative model on women's overall well-being, despite increased income through farmland

access. We provide empirical support using pooled cross-sectional data from the Demographic

and Health Survey (DHS) for Malawi.

2|TOPICAL LITERATURE REVIEW—HUMAN

RECOGNITION AND FARMLAND ACCESS

2.1 |Human recognition and related concepts

Castleman (2016, p. 135) prominently defines human recognition as “[…]theextentto

which an individual is acknowledged by others to be of inherent value by virtue of being a

fellow human being […].”Generally, human recognition is important for economic

development because of the constitutive and instrumental role it plays, notably through

respect, empowerment, and social capital (Castleman, 2016, pp. 136–138).

Castleman (2016, p. 140) observes that respect within ethnic or other social groups affects

human recognition at the individual level. Similarly, Grabe, Grose, and Dutt (2015,p.15)

and Meinzen-Dick, Quisumbing, Doss, and Theis (2019, p. 73) note that women with

autonomy over resources enjoy respect within their communities. Thus, acts of respect

definitely acknowledge the inherent value of its recipients as humans. Human recognition

is also related to dignity through social-/self-esteem and empowerment. Empowerment

is described by Kabeer (1999, p. 437) as the ability to make strategic decisions within the

context of choice. Receipt of positive human recognition empowers women, conferring

them with agency and authority. Human recognition is also interconnected with social

capital because social capital is an important determinant of access to productive

resources in agrarian communities. These relationships underpin the concept of human

recognition and put into perspective, women's human recognition, power relations, and

resource access.

MADUEKWE AND BUCHENRIEDER 113