Does Awareness of Climate Change Lead to Worry? Exploring Community Perceptions Through Parallel Analysis in Rural Himalaya

Mountain Research and Development

article

Ritodhi Chakraborty¹  Anne Sophie Daloz³  Manish Kumar⁵  A. P. Dimri⁶ 

[1] 1Centre for Excellence: Designing Future Productive Landscapes, Lincoln University, Lincoln;2Department of Geography, University of Wisconsin-Madison;3CICERO;4Space and Science Engineering Center, and Center for Climatic Research, University of Wisconsin -Ma" />;5Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment;6School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University

关键词: Climate change;    community perceptions;    epistemologies;    Himalayas;    political ecology;    Uttarakhand.;   

DOI  :  10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-19-00012.1

来源: BioOne

【 摘 要 】

Human dimensions ofclimate change (HDCC)research overwhelminglypresents communityperspectives on climatechange and its impactsthrough single epistemicframeworks. This limits thepossible platforms that community voices can access withinscientific scholarship. Many HDCC interdisciplinarycollaborations pursue the goal of data triangulation and attemptto address complex social–ecological problems throughanalytical integration. This raises questions about thecomparative validity of different epistemologies and often leadsto unequal power sharing between the different disciplinarypractitioners. Our research addresses both of these issues byoperationalizing a plural epistemological framework thatdepends on parallel analysis. This framework consists of aquantitative approach, inspired by hazards theory and landchange science research, and a qualitative approach, frompolitical ecology. We explored perceptions of climate change inrural households in Uttarakhand in the Indian Himalayan region.While the results reveal a high awareness of climate changewithin the community, most individuals and households do notconsider the impacts of climate change to be a significantworry. The results for each approach complement each other.They provide the community with more than one platform tovoice their experiences and reveal the complex relationshipsproducing climate change knowledge in the region. Futureresearch should attempt such parallel analysis in otherlocations to validate its utility in addressing issues of equity andmarginalization between research epistemologies, as well asbetween experts and local communities.

【 授权许可】

CC BY