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

•