science

Mary Tiffen

Mary Tiffen is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Mary Tiffen rather than just read about it. In short: Mary Tiffen (née Steele-Perkins; 16 July 1931 – 23 April 2020) was a British economic historian, scholar and development professional. She specialised in ancient irrigation systems and African drylands.

Key takeaways

Mary Tiffen belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Mary Tiffen to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Mary Tiffen from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Mary Tiffen (née Steele-Perkins; 16 July 1931 – 23 April 2020) was a British economic historian, scholar and development professional. She specialised in ancient irrigation systems and African drylands.

Background Tiffen was the daughter of Gwendolen (nee Carrall) and Horace Steele-Perkins, raised in Farnborough, Hampshire. Her father was an RAF officer and worked during WWII in Hong Kong. After WWII, Mary moved to India, and finished her schooling in Devon, and took a history degree at Girton College, Cambridge (1952). She then taught and worked for NGOs, from 1960 accompanying her husband on overseas missions and conducting independent research. Her Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) was from the London School of Economics (1974). From 1983 to 1994, she worked at the Overseas Development Institute in London. She then set up a policy consultancy with Michael Mortimore, Dryland Research, which ran until the 2000s.

Contributions She carried out fieldwork in Africa and the Middle East; including in Nigeria, Malawi, Kenya, Senegal, Niger, and Iraq (on irrigation). Her PhD work was in Gombe Emirate, North Eastern State, Nigeria and concerned the economics of peasant livelihoods. She was struck by the innovative success of livelihoods under harsh conditions, and developed an interest in enhancements to market systems. She is best known for a revisionist account of livelihoods in Machakos, Kenya entitled More People, Less Erosion (with Michael Mortimore and F. Gichuki, 1994). From 1991, she and Mortimore embarked on a major project with Francis Gichuki, in the Machakos Hills. This region was long held to have suffered serious erosion accompanied by population growth. The researchers – after securing funding from a variety of sources – set about testing population-environment models and relationships, discovering something unexpected. Landscapes and livelihoods had been enhanced while population density grew. Leaning on (and improving on) Ester Boserup's work, they discovered environmental enhancement occurred through multicropping and other farming methods, terracing, and strong community organisations. Mortimore and Tiffen's comparisons of photographs from 1930 and 1990 showed these trends: an improvement in landscapes and in resource management (rather than degradation and impoverishment), albeit with much higher population densities and altered labour regimes. This finding 'controverted' Malthusian thinking. The 1993 launch of More People, Less Erosion at the ODI in London was electric – several staff members of the UK Department for International Development, the World Bank, and academic researchers from East Africa were there, and the study has echoed through revisionist thinking about African degradation myths and agrarian policy ever since. It remains a controversial and talked-about thesis on African development paths. It has been cited over 2300 times.

Personal life In 1960, she married Brian Tiffen, who worked for the British Council (d. 2014). He worked in Nigeria, Malawi, Iraq and elsewhere and she developed research in these countries. She had two children, Martin and Jenny, and five grandchildren. Tiffen died at the age of 88, from Covid-19.

Selected works Tiffen, Mary (1976). The Enterprising Peasant: Economic Development in Gombe Emirate, North Eastern State, Nigeria, 1900-1968. London: H.M. Stationery Office. Tiffen, Mary; Mortimore, Michael (1990). Theory and practice in plantation agriculture: An economic review. London: Overseas Development Institute. Tiffen, M, Mortimore MJ. and F Gichuki. 1994. More people, less erosion. Environmental recovery in Kenya. Chichester: John Wiley. Tiffen, Mary; Mortimore, Michael (1994). "Malthus controverted: The role of capital and technology in growth and environment recovery in Kenya". World Development. 22 (7): 997–1010. doi:10.1016/0305-750X(94)90144-9. English, John; Tiffen, Mary; Mortimore, Michael (1994). Land Resource Management in Machakos District, Kenya, 1930-1990. World Bank. Tiffen, Mary (2003). "Transition in sub-Saharan Africa: agriculture, urbanization and income growth". World Development. 31 (8): 1343–1366. doi:10.1016/S0305-750X(03)00088-3. Tiffen, M. 2012. Friends of Sir Robert Hart: Three Generations of Carrall Women in China. Self-published. Tiffen, M. 2017. Testimony to Love. Self-published.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Mary Tiffen

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Mary Tiffen claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Mary Tiffen before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Mary Tiffen ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Mary Tiffen

In research: Mary Tiffen appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Mary Tiffen in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Mary Tiffen is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1931 births, 2020 deaths, Alumni of Girton College, Cambridge, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Mary Tiffen outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Mary Tiffen in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Mary Tiffen means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Mary Tiffen out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Mary Tiffen in simple terms?

Why does Mary Tiffen matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Mary Tiffen?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Mary Tiffen.