Post on 24-Feb-2020
Studying climate change in
social sciences Valsavarenche, Val d'Aosta, Italy
27th June 2012
Dr. Olivia Aubriot, CNRS, UPR 299,
Centre for Himalayan Studies
Why such a topic?
• Collaboration btw SS & Environmental
sciences
• Aims of the course:
– an overview of studies on CC in SS
– types of questions SS have to face
– how we manage them
– why complementary types of research
Plan I- OBJECTIVES AND METHODOLOGY IN SS
1.1. Diversity among SS
1.2. Specificity of data in SS
II- CC AND SOCIETY : VARIOUS THEMES 2.1. Various themes and the main questions
2.2. Local knowledge & perception of CC by local population
2.3. Main problems to be faced in SS about CC
III- POLITICAL ECOLOGY: A CRITICAL APPROACH TO ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES
I- OBJECTIVES AND METHODOLOGY
IN SOCIAL SCIENCES
1.1 Diversity among SS
History
Demography
Economists
Agronomists
Sociologists
Geographers
Anthropologists …
1.2. Specificity of data in SS
• to collect them, to create them (not to get
data from a database, except under certain
circumstances)
o Ex. of Historical
Climatology: via archives
1971, in French in 1967
o Ex. sociology : via questionnaires
o Ex. in geography, anthropology: through open
interviews Guideline about various aspects
• Data through social actors
• Qualitative data does
not mean a lack of
methodological rigour
house
member formal association
(municipal) member
informal institution member
farmer
Women’s group president
Etc…
II- CC AND SOCIETY
• Ex. Workshop on Sociological Perspectives on
Global Climate Change. May 30-31, 2008
http://ireswb.cc.ku.edu/~crgc/NSFWorkshop/Readings/NSF_WkspReport_09.pdf
2.1. Various themes
Source: IPCC assessment report
2007, Asia
http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessme
nt-report/ar4/wg2/ar4-wg2-
chapter10.pdf
ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/009/j9271e/j9271e.pdf
Adaptation to climate change in
agriculture, forestry and fisheries:
Perspective,framework and priorities. 2007
Ex. Adaptation
Source :
Macchi, M; Gurung, AM;
Hoermann, B; Choudhary,
D (2011) Climate
variability and change in
the Himalayas: Community
perceptions and
responses.
Kathmandu: ICIMOD
2.2. Case of climate knowledge and CC
perception
• In the introduction of Crate and Nuttal,
2009, Anthropology and climate change.
« Everywhere, from high-latitude taiga and tundra regions, to high-
altitude mountain ecosystems, from tropical rain forests to near sea-
level coastlines, there are compelling similarities in the narratives,
accounts, and experiences of indigenous and local peoples who are
already seeing and experiencing the effects of climate change. For
them, climate change is not something that may happen in the near or
far future but is an immediate, lived reality that they struggle to
apprehend, negotiate, and respond to. The weather is increasingly
unpredictable and people express concern that local landscapes,
seascapes, and icescapes are irreversibly changing.”
3 examples of indigenous perception
Sánchez-Cortés, Maria Silvia, and Elena Lazos Chavero. 2011. “Indigenous perception
of changes in climate variability and its relationship with agriculture in a Zoque
community of Chiapas, Mexico”. Climatic Change 107(3-4): 363-389. on-line
1°) Mexico
Questions fuelling this study
What do local inhabitants perceive as changes
in climate variability?
Who in particular perceives these changes?
How do they explain these climate changes?
And finally, how are climate perceptions linked to
the environmental and cultural context of the
community and Zoque territory?
Perception & age, gender
Source: Sánchez-Cortés, & Chavero. 2011
Source: Sánchez-Cortés, & Chavero. 2011
2°) Ivory Coast
Brou, Y. T. and J.-L. Chaléard.
2007. "Visions paysannes et
changements environnementaux
en Côte d'Ivoire", Annales de
géographie 653: 65-87.
Perceptions
• In the 3 zones: “before it rained all the time
and sometimes we could not see the sun
for days”.
• Causes?
– Non respect of ancestral values. Rain = gift
from god
– Disappearance of forests
=> Pb of change in the environment & impact on
perception
3°) in the western Himalayas
Vedwan, N. and R. E. Rhoades. 2001. “Climate change in the
Western Himalayas of India: a study of local perception and
response”, Climate Research 19: 109-17.
Map of Himachal Pradesh
Kullu
Aim of the research: local perceptions of the
climate variables seen as responsible for
this decline in quantity and quality of apples
Main questions:
- What are the climatic attributes that are seen as
having undergone a change?
- How do people discern ‘climate’ and climate
change? Are they limited to the traditional
categories of their local weather calendar?
Change in
• Snow: less & change in timing (later)
• Rain: no change in intensity, but monsoon
slightly displaced, beyond mid-August;
more rain in March-April + clouds
• T°: increase + shift (hottest days come
before mid-May – mid-June)
• Extreme weather phenomena
Main results:
Snow: visual salience.
But perception = not centred on average
value, but on deviation, or maximum
events
Perception = structured by apple farmers’
activities
2.3. Main problems to be faced in SS
about CC
Scale: local analysis vs global scale in CC
Temporality
perception of weather or climate?
CC= 1 factor among others influencing
practices
Uncertainty and decision making
III- POLITICAL ECOLOGY: A CRITICAL
APPROACH TO ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES
• Nature and society : not isolated entities
• Modern science = entraps nature as a
calculable coherence
• => env sc = shaped by both scientific
representations of nature and scientist’s
research cultures and interests.
• Ex : hydrology ; water cycle ; water crisis
• Some references that are cited : • - Brou, Yao Télesphore, and Jean-Louis Chaléard. 2007. Visions paysannes et changements environnementaux en Côte
d'Ivoire. Annales de géographie 653:65-87.
• - Latour, Bruno. 1993. We have never been modern. Cambridge : Harvard University Press.
• - Le Roy Ladurie, E. 1971. Times of Feast, Times of Famine: A History of Climate Since the Year 1000. Doubleday. 426
pages [in French : Histoire du climat depuis l’an mil, 1967]
• - Linton, Jamie. 2010. What is water? The history of modern abstraction. Vancouver: University of British Columbia
Press.
• - Sánchez-Cortés, Maria Silvia, and Elena Lazos Chavero. 2011. “Indigenous perception of changes in climate variability
and its relationship with agriculture in a Zoque community of Chiapas, Mexico”. Climatic Change 107(3-4) : 363-389. on-
line
• - Trottier, Julie. 2008. Water crises: political construction or physical reality? Contemporary Politics 14 (2):197-214.
• - Vedwan, Neeraj, and Robert E. Rhoades. 2001. Climate change in the Western Himalayas of India: a study of local
perception and response. Climate Research 19:109-17.
•
• Some websites:
• IPCC. Indigenous Peoples, Marginalized Populations and Climate Change: Vulnerability, Adaptation and Traditional
Knowledge was convened in Mexico City, Mexico (19-21 July 2011) by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC), http://www.ipmpcc.org/
• Indian Journal of traditional knowledge, January 2011, Relevance of traditional knowledge in disaster prediction,
management and climate change - Special issue.
http://www.niscair.res.in/sciencecommunication/researchjournals/rejour/ijtk/ijtk2k11/ijtk_jan11.asp
• Methods of collecting data: interviews and questionnaires in practice
http://www.egohid.eu/Documents/Methods%20of%20collecting%20data,%20interviews%20and%20questionnaires%20in
%20practice%20%28Dr%20Alby%29.pdf
• Adaptation to climate change in agriculture, forestry and fisheries: Perspective, framework and priorities. 2007
• ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/009/j9271e/j9271e.pdf
•