Understanding Long-Term Change in Rural Tanzania

This chapter introduces the book as a whole. It explains the subject of interest—change in assets in rural areas. It also explains the methods used to examine them: longitudinal studies—revisits to previously surveyed villages and domestic units. It also outlines the argument. This is that contra to critics of smallholder farmers who decry their lack of activity and critics of neoliberal economic policies for the poverty they cause, the authors have found, surprisingly, that there is more wealth, in terms of assets than they were expecting to find. The chapter explains how the authors selected their study sites and presents brief summaries of each case and the chapters to come.