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Exercising Time Geography in gender and disaster.
Discourse through Women Headed Household
experience during drought
Alia Fajarwati1
*
, Sukamdi Sukamdi1, Dyah Rahmawati Hizbaron1,
Umi Listyaningsih1, Zara Hadijah1, Pinta Rachmadani1
1Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Time Geography is a boundary-oriented approach to understanding human activity in
space and time. In this study, this concept is implemented to identify the daily activities of
Women Headed Household (WHH) and their survival strategies in drought disasters and
to understand their root causes through analysing capability, coupling, and authority
constraints. This research starts to fill the gap in knowledge of the Time Geography in
“Gender and Disaster”. The combination of Time Geography’s daily diary technique with
in-depth interviews is used to understand the constraining and enabling conditions in local
contexts. The results show that the socio-economic characteristics of WHH in Gunung
Butak Hamlet, Java, Indonesia, tended to be homogeneous and formed a pattern of daily
activity with low variation. Likewise, their strategy in dealing with drought. The three
geographical constraints faced by WHH in this hamlet are interrelated and do not stand
alone.
Key Words: time geography, gender and disaster, Women Headed Household (WHH),
drought, vulnerabilities, survival strategy, Java, Indonesia
Article Info: Received: August 31, 2021; Revised: February 5, 2022; Accepted: May 15,
2022; Online: May 31, 2022.
*
Corresponding author
Address: Universitas Gadjah Mada, Faculty of Geography, Yogyakarta, Indonesia 55281,
Indonesia
Phone: +62-274-6492340| Email: aliafajar@ugm.ac.id
©2022 Human Geographies; The authors
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. DOI:10.5719/hgeo.2022.161.4
54 Alia Fajarwati et al.
Introduction
Time Geography (TG) is a boundary-oriented approach to understanding human
activity in space and time. This concept was coined by Hägerstrand and is an
active and growing research domain after its initial conceptualisation in the 1960s.
TG interacts with social sciences, including gender studies, and provides the
possibility to visualize constraints, the dominance of activities, and individual
mobility range by creating images of everyday struggles between activities,
decision-making, obstacles and intervention policies from an individual
perspective at the local level geography. The analysis of space and time conditions
proved helpful in discussions about the distribution and access to resources which
are closely related to power relations, which are the core of gender studies
(Scholten et al., 2012).
This research aims to start to fill the gap in knowledge about the concept of
TG, which has never been implemented in the context of “Gender and Disaster”.
Through this research, the concept of Geography of Time was implemented to
explore the experiences of Women-Headed Household (WHH) or Female
Headed Household (FHH) as per UNESCO in daily life and dealing with drought
disasters. Analysis of spatiotemporal conditions in TG helps understand the
sources of women’s vulnerability through exploration of their daily activities as
well as identifying three types of constraints that limit human activity in the
concept of TG according to Hägerstrand, namely: capability constraints, coupling
constraints and authority constraints. Specifically, this study aims to 1) identify
WHH’s daily activities and in the context of survival strategy in drought disasters
using the concept of TG; and 2) understand the root causes of WHH’s
vulnerabilities in their daily life and adaptation to drought through analysis of
capability, coupling and authority constraints. Gunung Butak hamlet, located in
Tepus District, Java, Indonesia, was chosen as the research location because it
experiences drought every year. At this time, the people in this hamlet mainly
rely on rainwater and pipe water from the Local Government Water Company
during the dry season to meet their daily water needs.
TG recognises that humans have fundamental spatial and temporal limitations
as a boundary-oriented approach to understanding human activities in space and
time. Humans can only physically be in one place at a time, and these activities
occur in one place for a limited time (Miller, 2017). Therefore, human activities
are limited to a certain extent. Hägerstrand (1989 in Miller, 2017; 1985 in Šveda
& Madajová, 2012; 1970 in McQuoid & Dijst, 2012) defines three types of
constraints, namely: capability constraints, coupling constraints and authority
constraints.
Isaksson & Ellegård (2015); Schwanen et al., (2008); Ritsema van Eck et al.,
(2005); Pred, (1977); and Lenntorp (1999) explain that ability constraints limit
individual activity participation by demanding that most of the time be allocated
to physiological needs (sleep, eating, and self-care) and by limiting the distance a
person can travel within a specific time span. Coupling constraints limit travel and
activity participation by identifying where, when and for how long individuals
Exercising Time Geography in Gender and Disaster Discourse 55
must join others in space and time for production, consumption or transactions.
Finally, authority constraints refer to the institutional and societal context,
including laws, regulations, and norms, which imply that particular areas can only
be accessed at certain times for distinctive people to carry out specific activities.
This also means that the use of space is exclusive and has a limited capacity for
use. These three constraints should be seen as interrelated rather than
independent and complementary in practice.
In gender studies, TG provides a close, empathic, and micro-level intervention
approach that makes the barriers and constraints resulting from space-time
conditions visible and thus changeable (Scholten et al., 2012). TG also provides
the possibility to visualize constraints, the predominance of activity and individual
reach by creating pictures of everyday struggles between activities, decision
making, barriers and intervention policies from individual perspectives and at
local level geography, which is helpful in “Gender and Disaster” studies.
However, the concept of TG has never been specifically implemented in the
context of “Gender and Disaster”. TG in gender studies is generally used to
analyse activities, division of space, and mobility of workers by highlighting the
role of influencing gender relations. For example, Scholten et al. (2012) analysed
the mobility of women workers in Sweden, while Stuyck et al. (2008) analysed the
pattern of gender roles in two different industrial areas in Belgium. Kwan (2000)
used the TG approach to study gender differences in space and time limitations
and their impact on travel activity patterns for women and men in Columbus,
Ohio (USA). Jensen (2014) focused on the analysis of space-time to examine the
daily lives of underage female domestic workers in Dhaka, Bangladesh, while
Estrada (2002) discussed the spatial-time arrangement of households carried out
by female domestic workers in Tijuana, Mexico, to accommodate productive work
within the home, and emphasised its consequences for gender roles and gender
spatial relations.
Methodology
In this study, the identification of vulnerabilities and constraints of WHH in
carrying out daily activities and dealing with drought is carried out using a TG
diary. TG diaries can reveal capability, coupling and authority constraints that
affect the lives of WHH. The unique phenomenon of an individual life is
examined with four basic questions: what activities were carried out; when they
were carried out, where the activities were carried out, and with whom the
activities were carried out, but other questions can also be added (Ellegard, 1999;
Kwan, 2000; Thulin & Vilhelmson, 2012; Jensen, 2014; King & Puppa, 2020).
This research was conducted in 2021. Based on information from the head of
the Gunung Butak hamlet, there are 13 WHH, all of whom were participants of
this research. The data collection method used a semi-open diary, which means
the activity categories were defined before. This method was chosen because of
the characteristics of the participants, who are all elderly with low literacy skills
56 Alia Fajarwati et al.
and had difficulty constructing their memories sequentially, so it is not possible to
fill in the diary independently.
Creating activity categories helped WHH in recalling their memories and
setting priorities. For analysis purposes, predefined activity categories will
produce a diary with the same level of detail for each activity. The activities that
take the most time are considered the most important. In fact, the activity with
the least amount of time can be the most important activity from an individual
perspective. In this case, a time analysis perspective is formed.
Modification of the use of diaries due to the special characteristics of
participants was previously carried out by Bartlett (2012) in his study of the lives
of people with dementia. The limited ability of people with dementia to recall
things prompted Bartlett to help document the participants’ activities and feelings
through interviews, photos, and voice recordings. Through the semi-open diary
method, the researcher interacted directly with the participants to help them
construct a picture of their daily activities. WHH’s daily activities in Gunung
Butak were identified by the HETUS (Harmonised European Time Use Surveys)
Categorisation Scheme, which refers to the development of HETUS
Categorization by Ellegård (2018) from HETUS Guidelines published by the
European Union and combined with three main activities categories.
However, many researchers argue that the use of diaries should not be the
only major source of data. There are limitations in the use of diaries, such as recall
or memory problems or information being varied and misleading. That is why
the use of diaries should be complemented by other methods such as in-depth
interviews and participant observation (Kaun, 2010; Alaszewski, 2011a;
Alaszewski, 2011b). In-depth interviews were also conducted to collect more
complete data on a defined set of topics such as socioeconomic characteristics of
the family, description of the daily activities of WHH in terms of reproductive,
productive, and social functions, as well as adaptive strategies for overcoming the
drought problem. During the in-depth interview process, the seasonal calendar
instrument was also used to reveal the cycle of cropping and harvests and the use
of water influenced by the seasons. The seasonal calendar can also provide an
overview of the income and expenses of WHH to obtain water in each season.
Combining the diary method with in-depth interviews is the most appropriate
research method to understand the constraining conditions and conditions that
may occur in local and regional contexts (Fortuijn, 1999).
Mapping was carried out to determine the location of the distribution of
objects that play an essential role in the daily activities of women heads of families,
namely houses, fields, and lakes in Gunung Butak. Mapping was done using
ArcMap 10.3 software. Spatial data, including the location of houses, fields, and
lake were obtained by taking coordinate data using a mobile topographer
application. Meanwhile, the travel route data were obtained by digitizing the road
route according to the information obtained from participants. The geographical
distribution of these objects was used as a basis for understanding the time budget
for various daily activities, including travel time. The data related to the daily
activities of the female heads of the household obtained were then constructed
Exercising Time Geography in Gender and Disaster Discourse 57
into a graph of individual paths that are activity-oriented and display all activities
sequentially.
Results and discussions
Condition of the research location and characteristics of the WHH
Gunung Butak is part of the Tepus sub-district, which experiences drought every
year. Geographically, this hamlet is at an altitude of 261-296 meters above sea
level. The long dry season and the structure of the karst hills that make it difficult
to store water are the leading causes of drought in this hamlet (The Regional
Disaster Management Agency of Gunungkidul Regency, 2019). There is one
surface lake close by, Waliklar Lake, but it has experienced excessive
sedimentation and eutrophication, so it has lost its function as a water source.
Previously, when drought occurred, people had to buy water from tanks to meet
their needs (Suryanti et al., 2010). Now, the people in this hamlet can rely on pipe
water from the Local Government Water Company in addition to rainwater
during the dry season to meet their daily water needs.There are 13 WHH in the
Gunung Butak hamlet. All WHH in this hamlet are elderly, with no schooling
(>60 years old) and graduated from elementary school (50-60 years old). There
is only one WHH aged >60 years old who graduated from a Vocational High
School. Almost all WHH in this hamlet depend on farming for their livelihood;
only one is trading. One WHH no longer works as a farmer because she is old
and sick, but she has a son living with her who continues to cultivate the fields.
Half of the WHH live alone and have no dependents. Generally, they have been
WHH for a long time because their husband died.
Table 1. Characteristics of Women Headed Household in Gunung Butak hamlet
Participant
no.
Age
Education
Profession
Status of living with family
1
55
Unschooled
Farmer
Alone
2
76
Unschooled
Farmer
Alone, children live nearby
3
61
Elementary
Groceries seller
Alone
4
50
Elementary
Farmer
Alone, aunt lives nearby
5
68
Unschooled
Farmer
Alone
6
80
Unschooled
Farmer
With granddaughter in
law and great-grandchild
7
50
Elementary
Farmer
With child and grandchild
8
70
Unschooled
Farmer
Alone
9
62
High School
Farmer, Producing
cassava crackers
With children and mother
10
66
Unschooled
Farmer
Alone
11
65
Unschooled
Housewife
With child and grandchild
12
52
Elementary
Farmer
With child
13
62
Unschooled
Farmer
With a daughter in law
and grandchild
Source: Primary data, 2021
58 Alia Fajarwati et al.
Identifying WHH’s daily activities and in the context of survival strategy in drought
disaster using the concept of 'TG'
WHH’s daily activities in Gunung Butak hamlet using The HETUS
Categorization Scheme were combined with 3 main activity categories (Table 2).
Furthermore, the time allocation for WHH in carrying out each activity was
identified. Figure 1 shows that reproductive activities dominate WHH’s daily
activities: care for oneself, care for others, and household care.
In detail, the most dominant reproductive activities are caring for oneself,
which includes eating, sleeping, and showering. This is understandable,
considering that WHH sleep for 8-9 hours a day, and several of them claim that
they still add an hour nap after working in the fields in the morning before leaving
for the fields again in the afternoon.
Table 2. Activity categorization for WHH
Triple burden
Activity category
WHH’s activity
Reproductive
Care for oneself
Eating, sleeping, showering
Care for oneself
Taking care of family members
Household care
House cleaning, washing clothes, cooking,
shopping
Productive
Work
Farming, taking care of livestock, labouring in
other people's fields, producing cassava-based
products, trading
Public
Socializing
Meetings, social gatherings, community service
Other
Activity category
WHH’s activity
Leisure
Reflection/recreation
Praying, watching TV
Travel
Transportation
Travelling from house to farm and back
Source: modification based on highest level activity categories in the TG activity categorization scheme
by Ellegard (1999) and the HETUS Categorization Scheme
Figure 1. Construction of time allocation for WHH’s daily activities
Exercising Time Geography in Gender and Disaster Discourse 59
Pred (1977) and Lenntorp (1999) refer to this as an ability constraint that limits
individual activity participation by demanding that most of the time be allocated
to physiological needs (sleep, eating, and self-care) and by limiting the distance a
person can travel within a certain time span. Meanwhile, Kwan (1999) calls it a
time budget constraint, namely the limited time available to individuals after
deducting important self-care activities (e.g. sleep) in a day. According to Kwan,
a person has at least 15 hours per day after deducting self-care activities. In other
words, those 15 hours become a limit for someone to do other activities.
Meanwhile, the time allocation for household care is only around 1.5-4 hours/day
and not all WHH have to allocate their time to care for others because they live
alone. The second dominant use of time is work, namely working in the fields and
one of the WHH selling in her stall. One of the WHH no longer works in the
fields, so her productive time is replaced with reproductive time, namely care for
others, her grandchildren.
Figure 2 shows that the WHH’s paths in the hamlet are very narrow: from
house to field or vice versa. In fact, there are other routine activities carried out
by WHH, but not every day, namely selling crops or products to the market
(precisely every Pon-name of a day in the Javanese calendar) and various
community meetings/activities. These non-daily based activities are not discussed
in either Figure 1 or Figure 2.
Figure 2. Average of WHH’s individual paths
60 Alia Fajarwati et al.
TG shows differences in the pattern of WHH’s daily activities, although they
are micro and appear to be less significant. Ellegard (1999) mentions that using a
TG approach with a diary will show various variations. The more different the
individual characteristics studied, the higher the variation in activity patterns
produced. WHH in this hamlet tend to have the same characteristics (Table 1),
namely the same culture, the same landscape of residence, occupations that are
mostly in the agricultural sector, then the same level of economy and education:
a middle to low level. Therefore, the pattern of WHH’s daily activities tends to be
the same (Figure 1).
Reproductive activities, namely cleaning the house, cooking, washing, and
taking care of children, have a fixed nature, which tends to have a constant
pattern and are carried out regularly every day. On the other hand, productive
activities (out-home activities) are more dynamic in terms of time and place.
Therefore, they are more likely to experience changes that allow a woman to have
a wider movement of time and space (Kwan, 1999; Ranade, 2007; Ettema et al.,
2007; Jensen, 2014). However, it is necessary to consider several things such as
information and technology interventions, the difference in activity fixity level,
and the involvement of other people to identify the space and time constraints
based on the fixity nature of activities (Staeheli & Martin, 2000; Schwanen et al.,
2008; Mehta & Sai, 2021).
WHH can be divided into two groups based on the travel time required for a
round trip between their homes and fields. The first WHH group is WHH whose
farm location is in the yard of the house, so it has a very short round trip time of
about 2-3 minutes. The second WHH group is those whose farm is far from home.
The round trip time from home to fields with a frequency of 2-3 times per day
takes about 30-54 minutes (Figure 3).
In addition to the productive and reproductive activities, WHH also spend
their time on leisure activities. Most WHH have 3-5 hours of leisure time allocated
per day. The forms of leisure time for WHH in this village are praying (5 times
per day) and watching TV (Table 2). However, there are two WHH (participants
5 and 13) with only have 1-2 hours of leisure time per day because they have to
work longer in their fields, which is 8-9 hours per day.
Furthermore, related to the survival strategy carried out by WHH in this
hamlet in dealing with the drought, the location of their residence in the karst
area, threatened by drought every year, certainly presents challenges for WHH
in meeting water needs. Drought and desertification have a significant impact on
women. During periods of scarcity, women are burdened with spending more
time managing food, water, fodder, and fuel, in addition to their usual household
chores (Sahu, 2018). The work of fetching water in various parts of the world is
largely the responsibility of women, especially those who lack piped water in their
homes. This results in several hours spent on unpaid work. In Mozambique, prior
to the drought, women often spend up to 2 hours per day collecting water for
household consumption. The work of collecting water increases the burden on
women, although men and boys also contribute (Das & Hatzfeldt, 2017). The
Exercising Time Geography in Gender and Disaster Discourse 61
extended nature of the drought has meant women have had to spend more than
6 hours searching for and transporting water to their homes. As a result, younger
girls and adolescents are being pulled from school to assist their parents or other
family members with searching for and transporting water (Fischer, 2016).
However, women’s unpaid work, such as collecting water, has decreased due
to increased coverage of infrastructure such as water and sanitation (Das &
Hatzfeldt, 2017). The same thing happened in Gunung Butak. About 40 years
ago, this hamlet was very dependent on rainwater and the lake, so the residents
had to take water from the lake to meet their water needs in the dry season. Then,
the construction of road access made it easier for vehicles to enter this village so
that the residents’ water needs could be helped by supplying water from other
areas using tanks. Starting in 2013, the Local Government Water Company has
been actively operating in this hamlet. Since then, similar to other household
heads, WHH do not need to spend time walking to the lake to collect water, and
their daily water needs are met with rainwater which is collected in storage tanks
and supplemented with pipe water in the dry season. The distance between
settlements and Waliklar Lake is about 1 km or 1.5 hours’ round trip (Figure 3).
In previous years, the inhabitants of this village had to go to the lake 2-3 times
a day, so about 3-4.5 hours of their time were spent collecting water. However,
currently, there are 3 WHH who really depend on the rainwater stored in the
tanks to meet their daily water needs because they live alone, so the need for water
is not much.
Figure 3. WHH’s daily route from house to the fields
62 Alia Fajarwati et al.
Currently, during the dry season, when the water supply in storage tanks is
running low, WHH only need to get water from a neighbour who has a house
connection pipe. This water-supplying activity does not consume their time
because it can be done while WHH perform other activities. Therefore, WHH
currently have two strategies to deal with drought. First, during the rainy season,
WHH will fill the storage tanks. Second, during the dry season or when they
almost run out of rainwater in the storage tanks, they will supply water from
neighbouring houses that have a connection (HC) from the Local Government
Water Company before the tank is empty because sometimes it takes 2 weeks to
fill the tank. Meanwhile, 3 WHH’s strategy that only relies on rainwater is to
conserve water use.
Understanding the root causes of WHH’s vulnerabilities in daily life and
adaptation to drought through analysis of capability constraints, coupling
constraints and authority constraints
The root causes of WHH’s vulnerabilities in their daily life and adaptation to
drought in this study were identified using the analysis of constraints in the TG
concept, namely capability constraints, coupling constraints and authority
constraints.
Like most people in Gunung Butak, almost all WHH in this hamlet work
mainly as farmers and farm labourers. Working as farmers or farm labourers as
the only source of livelihood is very risky. First, the lack of water resources
precludes the possibility of irrigating rice fields. The only possible type of
agriculture is rain-fed agriculture, which depends on rainwater. Second,
agricultural land generally has a narrow and terraced area following the
topography of Dusun Gunung Butak (Photo 1). The main agricultural
commodities are limited to drought-resistance crops such as cassava, peanut,
corn, and Gogo rice. Third, WHH have to walk through high topography, steep
terrain with sharp stones and clay, and limited road infrastructure to work in the
fields. Table 3 shows that three WHH spend between 1 - 2 hours a day walking
to and from the fields. When it rains, access to the fields becomes more difficult
because the clay becomes slippery, and there is a high risk of accidents.
Photo 1. WHH on their way to the field (left); Gunung Butak’s agricultural fields with terraces
(right)
Exercising Time Geography in Gender and Disaster Discourse 63
Table 3. Estimated travel time between house and farm
Partici-
pant
no.
House-
Farm
Distance
(km)
Round
Trip
Time
(hour)
Round
Trip
time
(min.)
Freq/
day
Travel
Time
(hour)
Productive
Time
(hour)
Travel +
Productive
Time
(hour)
Repro-
ductive
Time
(hour)
Leisure
Time
(hour)
1
0.59
0.50
30
2
0.99
4.5
5.49
15.0
3.50
2
0.10
0.08
5
2
0.17
5.5
5.67
13.5
4.83
3
0.00
0.00
0
0
0.00
6.0
6.00
12.5
5.50
4
1.07
0.90
54
2
1.80
6.0
7.80
12.2
4.00
5
0.86
0.72
43
2
1.44
9.0
10.44
11.0
2.50
6
0.28
0.24
14
2
0.47
5.0
5.47
14.0
4.50
7
0.35
0.29
18
3
0.88
6.5
7.38
15.0
1.60
8
0.02
0.02
1
2
0.03
7.0
7.03
12.25
4.72
9
1.04
0.87
52
2
1.75
7.0
8.75
10.25
5.00
10
0.01
0.01
1
3
0.03
6.5
6.53
13.5
3.97
11
0.33
0.28
17
0
0.00
0.0
0.00
19.5
4.50
12
0.02
0.02
1
2
0.03
5.5
5.53
14.5
3.97
13
0.28
0.24
14
2
0.47
8.0
8.47
14.0
1.53
Source: Calculation based on primary data, 2021
Even so, the elderly WHH who are physically weaker still have to go to the
fields because no one can replace them for these productive activities. In addition
to the difficult terrain, WHH also have to carry heavy loads such as farming
equipment and crops, that are tied and carried on their backs. The demand for
meeting their daily needs discourages WHH from being absent from their work
in the fields. This phenomenon illustrates one of the constraints of WHH, namely
their limited physical ability as elderly women who work as farmers on
challenging land.
Another source of WHH’s vulnerability is their solitude which is a form of de-
coupling constraint. WHH who still have to support their families may be
economically vulnerable. However, WHH who live alone are also very vulnerable
psychologically. Elder people living alone are one of the most vulnerable groups
in society (Mui, 1998; Xu et al., 2015; Singh & Misra, 2009). Compared to elderly
people who live with a family member or spouse, elderly people who live alone
usually have poorer health, lower self-esteem and life satisfaction, are more prone
to depression, and are most likely to receive less support from their family and
environment (Kim & Lee, 2015; Srivastava et al., 2021). Several WHH who live
alone said that they often could not sleep at night because they are lonely and
miss their husbands, children, or grandchildren. Loneliness and social
immobilization are one form of response to pain and anxiety due to traumatic
events that occur in a person’s life, such as the death of a loved one (Rokach, 2001;
Rokach et al., 2004). Loneliness also forces them to do everything on their own
without the help of family members, including cultivating their fields. WHH who
do not have enough money to pay farm labourers prefer to do everything
themselves, so the productivity is not optimal. There is even one WHH who no
longer grows rice because her younger brother, who used to help her, has died.
In public life, WHH participate in various community activities. Their position
as the head of the family obliged them to participate in various community
activities. The social activities of the community in Gunung Butak are quite
64 Alia Fajarwati et al.
diverse. The activities that WHH participated in included community
service/mutual assistance, PKK (Pemberdayaan Kesejahteraan Keluarga - Family
Welfare and Empowerment), social gathering, savings and loan activities, and
KWT (Kelompok Wanita Tani - Women Farmers Group). These community
activities are routinely carried out. Participating in community social activities
brings benefits to a WHH’s life. WHH can socialize with the community through
cooperation activities that can reduce their feeling of loneliness, especially for
those who live alone. Here, community social activities are social capital forms that
help WHH meet their needs. For example, through savings and loans activities,
several WHH borrow money to meet their daily needs, help sick neighbours, or
contribute to wedding celebrations. Through KWT, WHH can get seed loans in
the planting period.
On the other hand, WHH’s obligation to participate in community activities
presents its own challenges. Women are considered to have higher constraints to
carry out activities outside the home than men (Kwan, 1999). WHH’s role in
community service activities depends on the policy of each neighbourhood
association. In one neighbourhood association, WHH’s role in community service
or activities is equated with the role of a male-headed household, such as helping
to transport materials used for paving roads. However, in other neighbourhood
associations, WHH are given lighter jobs than male-headed households, for
example, sweeping roads and pulling grass. Local-level policies that are not
supportive of women can be a source of vulnerability for WHH, which is a clear
example of authority constraints sourced from capability constraints.
Furthermore, several hamlet activities are conducted at night; WHH can not go
out at night because of the lack of lighting and road infrastructure. This is also a
coupling and also authority constraint for WHH to participate.
In conclusion, policies regarding programs/assistance/activities based on
family heads in this hamlet can be a source of vulnerability that comes from
authority constraints for WHH. On one side, in terms of obligations, WHH are
required to participate in the same activities as male-headed households, even
though WHH have different limitations from the male-headed households.
However, there has been no special assistance or attention for WHH whose
conditions are more vulnerable than male-headed households.
From an economic perspective, WHH in Gunung Butak have a low economic
level. It shows a capability constraint in everyday life which amplifies during
droughts. WHH’s livelihood sources that depend on rain-fed agricultural
activities are very vulnerable to climate change and will be hampered if the change
in the rainy season and the dry season does not match their calculations. If the
rainy season arrives late, WHH must postpone their planting activities. However,
if the rainy season is short, it is likely that crops will fail due to a lack of water to
irrigate the fields. If the WHH’s main source of livelihood is disrupted, food
security and other aspects of life will be disrupted. WHH’s economic condition
can also be seen from the physical condition of their houses, which are generally
classified as semi-permanent; characterised by soil floored houses, plywood house
walls, wooden house structures, and without ceilings. In addition, there are some
Exercising Time Geography in Gender and Disaster Discourse 65
WHH who do not have permanent toilets yet. Furthermore, most of the WHH
also have rainwater storage tanks that are not up to standard, so they are unable
to maintain the quality of the water stored in them. They generally have open-
type rainwater storage tanks where rainwater enters without a filtering process so
that the stored water is very likely to be contaminated (Photo 2).
To increase their income, during the rainy season, some WHH take additional
jobs as labourers in other people’s fields. However, the need for labour is not
always met and becomes one of the coupling constraints for WHH farmers. This
is due to the simultaneous planting and harvesting seasons in this village, so
fighting over farm labourers to work the fields might happen. WHH who work
as farm labourers must adjust their schedule to the owner of the field they are
working on. In this case, we can see that there is also an authority constraint where
the owner of the field has the power to determine who will work, the field to be
worked on, when and with whom the work will be carried out.
While WHH who work as labourers can sometimes work on several fields in a
day, WHH who own large fields sometimes have to work on their fields with
minimal assistance due to the lack of workers. During the dry season, the intensity
of work in the fields generally decreases, so some WHH fill their activities by
processing agricultural products such as making lempeng and geplek (cassava-
based products) which are then sold outside the village.
The interaction between WHH and farm labourers also shows that an
individual’s space for activities is limited by the activities of other individuals and
the access they have. Access depends on the place of residence, which determines
the distance to the workplace, the role or occupation of the individual, as well as
their resources, such as financial resources; the ability of WHH to pay farm
labourers; or vice versa, namely human resources for WHH who use their
strength and knowledge to work in a farm. Since the individual agendas of all
parties need to be considered, confirming the feasibility of joint activities in space
and time is a complex process (Neutens et al., 2007). However, despite its
complexity, joint activity planning is essential to get a good insight into how,
where, and with whom an activity will be successfully carried out and to avoid
losses that may occur due to a couple of constraints.
Photo 2. WHH house (left); Rainwater storage tanks condition (right)
66 Alia Fajarwati et al.
In general, WHH’s dependents can be the sources of their vulnerability. In
this hamlet, seven WHH live alone, while the other six WHH live with their
families, including their children, grandchildren, and children’s in-laws. If
women who live alone face more de-coupling constraints, women who live with
their families face more capacity constraints because their expenses are higher.
WHH who live alone must carry out all activities themselves. They do not have
free labour to help maintain the fields, repair damaged houses, and earn extra
income. In addition, they must take care of themselves when they are sick and do
not receive affection and love from their family members.
Finally, the location of Gunung Butak, which is isolated and has rugged
terrain, results in poor access to main roads and public transportation (Photo 1).
Therefore, the community’s living environment tends to focus only on houses,
fields, and (in the past) lakes, so their individual paths are relatively narrow.
The root causes of WHH vulnerability to drought are pretty much related to
the location of their residence in the karst area. A drought that threatens every
year presents its own challenges for WHH in meeting their water needs. In
addition, there are several factors that increase their vulnerability to drought
disasters. First, all WHH in this hamlet do not have water house connections.
Currently, there are 12 House Connections (HCs) from the Local Government
Water Company in this Hamlet, but none of WHH has her own house connection.
In addition to the house’s location, homeowners also have to pay a HC installation
fee of around 500,000 rupiahs (about 35 USD). That amount of money is a lot for
the WHH in this hamlet, which are classified as poor. This shows the capability
constraint of the WHH in meeting water needs or in dealing with drought
disasters. Houses that do not have HC have to supply water from houses that have
HC at the cost of around 10,000 – 12,000 rupiahs/cubic meters. This cost does not
include the cost of renting a water hose. The cost of renting a roll of water hose is
around 5,000 rupiahs, which will cost more if the WHH’s houses are far from the
neighbouring houses that have HC. The furthest distance between the house of
the WHH and the HC is 23 meters; meanwhile, the closest distance is 5 meters
(Table 4).
The second capability constraint relates to damage in the storage tank or the
gutter to the tank because WHH cannot repair those damages alone. The third
source of WHH’s vulnerability to drought is related to time. The time for
supplying water from neighbouring houses that have HC sometimes takes longer
than usual. Sometimes the water does not flow for about 2 weeks, not to mention
the need to queue up with other neighbours who also supply water from the same
HC. It shows a coupling constraint.
Conclusion
The TG concept helps us understand the very dynamic concepts of time and
space. One of them is that time is highly structured by human activities which are
strongly influenced by the characteristics of the space in which humans live.
Exercising Time Geography in Gender and Disaster Discourse 67
Table 4. Estimated distance between WHH houses and the nearest house connection (HC)
Participant no.
HC code
House-HC Distance (Km)
1
HC 1
0.18
2
Not using HC
-
3
HC 1
0.16
HC 2
0.18
4
HC 2
0.01
5
Not using HC
-
6
HC 3
0.01
HC 4
0.005
7
HC 1
0.03
8
HC 5
0.07
9
HC 6
0.04
10
Not using HC
-
11
HC 5
0.04
12
HC 7
0.01
13
HC 8
0.02
Source: Calculation based on primary data, 2021
While the daily activities of the elderly in Gelderland, the Netherlands, are
structured by mealtimes (Fortuijn, 1999), WHH activities in Gunung Butak are
structured by activities around houses and fields. WHH’s daily activity patterns in
Gunung Butak tend to be the same, considering their similar characteristics. The
same applies to their strategy in dealing with drought. In the context of gender
and disaster, the WHH’s experiences in daily life and when dealing with drought,
it is clearly seen that the three constraints of TG are interrelated and do not stand
alone.
Understanding how and why gender relations function, the pattern of time
budgeting to carry out daily activities together with the constraints they face, as
well as evolving spatial pathways, where women’s spatial pathways are more
complicated than men’s, are the first step in addressing and resolving the issue of
gender inequality (Stuyck et al., 2008). Through gender studies, it is shown that
time-geography is not limited to studying trajectories or movements and that
emotions are lost in this concept; however, TG deals with spaces dominated by
the patriarchy or masculine spaces (Scholthen et al., 2012).
WHH who become farm labourers may work in more than one field daily. The
more jobs are taken, the higher the income for the day. However, the individual
has ability constraints because physically, she cannot be in two fields at once, and
she cannot work in many fields simultaneously. Therefore, the most likely thing
to do is to finish the one activity as quickly as possible, then move on to another.
According to Ellegard (1999), this phenomenon builds a daily time perspective,
which states that activities are prioritized over time, namely when a person is
ready to continue doing activities if the previous activity has been completed.
Through the TG approach, it can be seen that the choice of activities and their
sequence set by an individual on one day will limit the range of other activities
that may be carried out for the rest of the same day.
68 Alia Fajarwati et al.
Lastly, based on WHH’s experience in rural areas, the concept of TG can be
developed to accommodate the concept of time according to the local wisdom of
each region. Each country/region has a unique calendar, which does not follow
the Gregorian calendar, and is the main calendar in some rural or remote areas.
For example, local markets in some rural areas on Java Island only operate on
certain days following the Javanese calendar called Pasaran days (there are five
Pasaran days: Pon, Wage, Kliwon, Legi, and Pahing). Likewise, various
community activities still follow the Javanese calendar: social gatherings every
Pon, community service every Wage, and so on.
This paper adds to the discourse that the concept of TG is very likely to be
developed in various fields, including in the context of gender and disasters. The
concept of TG is beneficial in exploring daily human activities and adapting to
the environment they live in, which sees a disaster risk that adds to the constraints
in their livelihood. This paper also shows that the sequential reconstruction of
daily activities also helps to develop the concept of time, where time in carrying
out daily activities is structured by various important factors in human life, and also
by the environment in which they live.
Acknowledgement
We express our deepest gratitude to the Ministry of Research, Technology, and
Higher Education of the Republic of Indonesia. We also thank the Faculty of
Geography, Universitas Gadjah Mada, which always encourages research
development through the Independent Lecturer Research scheme. Our third
gratitude goes to the Doctoral Program in Geography, Faculty of Geography,
Universitas Gadjah Mada. We also extend our gratitude to all WHH in Gunung
Butak Hamlet along with the hamlet head and his wife and all parties who have
assisted in this research.
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