DROUGHT AS A REVELATORY CRISIS - AN EXPLORATION OF SHIFTING ENTITLEMENTS AND HIERARCHIES IN THE KALAHARI, BOTSWANA

This article analyses drought in Botswana as a 'revelatory crisis' in which structural contradictions as well as deteriorating socio-economi c conditions are exposed. Paradoxically, however, drought also enables such conditions to be concealed because they can be attributed to the 'crisis' and not to deeper problems and trends. In addition, crises s uch as droughts disrupt conventional routine sufficiently to allow act ors (including government policy-makers as well as rural producers) to innovate with normative codes. This fact along with the opening up of structural fault lines often leads to accelerated rates of social cha nge. Change is analysed here both in terms of the structural condition s in which it takes place (and alters) and with regard to the actions taken by individuals and institutions in order to reveal the links bet ween structure and agency. The article draws upon an extended case stu dy from Central Botswana and utilizes Sen's method of entitlement anal ysis to examine changing social processes.