It is neither appropriate nor ethical to work with life histories in a way that writes the storytellers out of their own lives or that presents their words as an unexpurgated truth. The zoom framework encourages the examination of life histories from different perspectives, recognizing that no one perspective alone can reveal their full complexity. The macro-zoom focuses on the sociohistorical dimension, exploring collective meanings as they relate to individual experience. The meso-zoom reveals the personal level of values, interpretations and positioning. The micro-zoom focuses on the subtleties of the telling, examining emotions and voice, whereas the interactional-zoom recognizes life histories as a product of the relationship between narrator and researcher. By zooming in on each of the multiple perspectives, differing, complementary, and even contradictory data emerges. Most important, this model allows the researcher to acknowledge and productively hold in tension both the individual and collective meanings within life histories.

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The short- and long-term effects of climate change on Papua New Guinea's agricultural sector have generated significant debate in recent times. Current literature demonstrates that different population groups have differing levels of vulnerability and resilience to the flow-on effects of climate change, particularly drought. Yet different schools of thought on the country's food security and effects on livelihoods persist. This article draws on evidence from research conducted in the Western Highlands of Papua New Guinea as part of a bigger economic empowerment project to illustrate the vulnerabilities of one community of rural semisubsistence farmers to drought-induced food insecurity. It examines responses to drought, identifies modes of resilience, and discusses the implications for future actions.

This article describes the rationale, development, and outcomes of two place-based, dual-language picture books with agricultural messages for women farmers and their families in Papua New Guinea. The purpose of the books was to disseminate better agricultural and livelihood practices to women farmers with low literacy. The books were designed and illustrated in collaboration with women farmers from two provinces. Evaluation data were collected through focus groups with local peer educators (village community educators [VCEs]). The VCEs reported changes in family practices related to marketing, budgeting, and saving that reflected messages in the books. The books helped the VCEs who had received livelihood and agricultural training to recall and implement the training in addition to sharing their knowledge. Farmers with low literacy were able to access the messages through the illustrations. Such place-based picture books are a powerful medium for low literacy women farmers and their families to learn about and reinforce positive livelihood and agricultural practices.