Climate,floods, and migration in Pakistan

This commentary offers a glimpse into the complex landscape of climate-induced migration in rural Pakistan. By shedding light on the interplay between gradual ecological shifts and rapid climate shocks, it exposes the misalignment between climate policies and the mobility strategies of marginalized communities. The vulnerabilities of rural Pakistanis facing climate and ecological shocks, like the 2022 floods, are rooted in the historical mismanagement of land and water commons. The current focus on infrastructure-heavy interventions does not address the rigidity introduced by colonial and postcolonial interventions, which have undermined the seasonal mobility and fluidity of pastoralists, peasants, fishers and the landless in rural Pakistan. Thinking climate and migration together requires us to consider the socio-economic constraints and drivers of migration, burgeoning political conflicts, and the ecological consequences of infrastructure-heavy climate adaptation strategies by global investors and the Pakistani state.     

Climate Change and Societal Response: Livelihoods,Communities, and the Environment

Climate change may be considered a natural disaster evolving in slow motion on a global scale. Increasing storm intensities, shifting rainfall patterns, melting glaciers, rising sea levels, and other manifold alterations are being experienced around the world. Climate has never been constant in any location, but human‐induced changes associated with greenhouse gases and fossil fuel use are new and rapidly shifting conditions for rural communities and regions across the planet. Rural sociologists have long been carving out the contours of this topic through research on family well‐being, rural livelihoods, community, and the environment. Now climate change and subsequent policy responses present a new and fundamental source of social change. The purpose of this article is to assess lines of research and theory that consider and direct our understanding of the impacts of climate change, the ways it might be mitigated, and the coping strategies of rural people and communities that are both victims and perpetrators in the global realignment. As climate‐change impacts and policy responses begin to impinge on rural populations, the first line of resistance and participation will be the rural community. The distribution of rewards from climate‐change mitigation is broad and diffuse; the distribution of costs, compromised livelihoods, and community disruption often is focused.     

Vulnerability to climate change in rural Saskatchewan: Case study of the Rural Municipality of Rudy No. 284

With the likelihood of future changes in climate and climate variability, it is important to understand how human systems may be vulnerable. Rural communities in Saskatchewan having agricultural-based economies are particularly dependent on climate and could be among the most vulnerable human systems in Canada. Future changes in climate are likely to have significant impacts on rural livelihoods, and rural populations will face the challenge of coping with climate change in light of a multitude of other changing socio-economic and environmental conditions. The Rural Municipality of Rudy No. 284 was chosen as a case study due to its access to irrigation, a key tool in climate adaptation for the agricultural system in the area against one of its most notorious climatic features - severe multi-year droughts. Further irrigation development would continue to reduce climate vulnerabilities. Even with irrigation however, the compounding effects of climate and other socio-economic changes will likely require modifications in current practices and policies in order to secure adequate livelihoods. Climate change adaptation in the RM must ensure equitable access to water and potentially irrigation, reduce barriers to collaboration when addressing communal problems, and provide more certainty in government programs.     

The evolution of the policy environment for climate change migration in Bangladesh: Competing narratives,coalitions and power

In spite of an enormous increase in attention to climate migration in Bangladesh, institutional weaknesses have meant that unplanned migration has triggered social issues. This situation requires investigation of the main challenges and opportunities in institutional capacity and policy development for climate change induced migration. Drawing on different narratives, networks and power status of stakeholders, this study identifies two competing coalitions: ‘in‐situ’ coalition, which shares the belief that migration is a failure of adaptation, and ‘ex‐situ’ coalition adhering to the emerging slogan of “migration as adaptive strategy.” The differentiated powers of two coalitions to some extent leave the agenda of climate migration in the policy domain as a subject of informal institutional capacity rather than a formal regulatory framework. Consequently, the evolution of the policy environment for climate migration depends on how effectively a greater policy space is determined by narratives, coalitions and power. Through a political economy lens, this article seeks to clarify the potential approaches to extending the policy space regarding climate migration in Bangladesh, first by improving ideological pluralism in international climate change finance, and, second, enhancing the bottom‐up process for resource mobilization. In short, the evolution of the policy environment for climate change largely depends on the political power of the ‘ex‐situ’ coalition.     

Climate‐Change Adaptation and Mitigation: Implications for Land Acquisition and Population Relocation

In response to the challenge of climate change developing‐country governments are evolving adaptation and mitigation programmes for which they are seeking international financing. This article presents the findings of a review of national action programmes and other interventions to assess their likely societal impacts with an emphasis on land‐use change, future land acquisitions, population displacement and resettlement. It considers the policy and development challenges involuntary resettlement in particular will pose, and assesses the robustness of current governance arrangements to manage them and cautions that at present the financing arrangements do not prioritise the legal protection of affected populations.     

Sustainable lifestyles for all? Disability equality,sustainability and the limitations of current UK policy

In recent years, various environmental threats have been highlighted in relation to disability. Growing knowledge of the effects of climate change and particular impacts on disabled people have been highlighted by a number of authors, including a recent critique of disabled people’s ‘vulnerability’ with respect to environmental hazard. This article focuses on the issue of citizen involvement with climate change mitigation – and more broadly individual and household-level efforts to reduce our impact on the environment. These more mundane aspects of climate change mitigation, for example through transitions to more sustainable lifestyles, also have significant implications for disabled people. The article argues that disability equality is a key component of sustainability. Limitations are demonstrated in policy designed to address these issues using the example of current UK policy, and it is suggested that policy approaches to sustainability should also be a concern of disability studies.     

Trade unions and climate politics: prisoners of neoliberalism or swords of climate justice?

ABSTRACT

Contemporary climate change politics, dominated by neoliberal and ecological modernization framings, has reached an impasse. This article utilizes literature on the environment and employment relations to interrogate the largely neglected field of trade union activities on climate change. The main findings are that some trade union climate representatives (‘green representatives’) in some sectors have made an independent contribution to climate mitigation and adaptation strategies in the workplace. There is evidence of trade unions instigating transformation change and expanding climate awareness in the workplace. The principal conclusions are that workers have the interest and collective capacity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, to address the differential impacts of climate and climate policy, and to coalesce workers to tackle climate change. The recent experience of UK trade unions suggests they have a vital role to play as climate actors and, suitably reconfigured, the capability to renew their role in the twenty-first century.     

Global Surpluses of Extraction and Slow Climate Violence: A Sociological Framework

This review article examines the concept of slow violence in relation to the current climate collapse. It outlines the extractive relationship between states in the Global North and Global South, and explores how this relationship creates and sustains disproportionate climate violence for the Global South. It critiques proposed adaptation and mitigation solutions for the Global South that emphasize market-led proposals and a return on investments that mostly benefit the Global North. It argues that these proposals fail to critically engage with the root causes of vulnerability to climate change and Greenhouse Gas emissions that cause climate change. The review uses World Systems Theory to analyze the power differentials between South and North, and concepts such as the “Color Line,” “Necropolitics,” and “Slow Violence” to underline the post-colonial character of this relationship. These provide historical context to the current hegemonic role of the Global North in carbon emission negotiations and responses. In doing so, the article highlights the need to think about climate change, and solutions to climate change, as a driver of slow violence and surplus climate violence by the Global North against the Global South.     

Climate‐influenced migration in Bangladesh: The need for a policy realignment

Recent research into migration in Bangladesh has highlighted that people migrate for better livelihoods, not necessarily in response to climatic stresses and shocks. If facilitated appropriately, internal and international migration can help build adaptive capacity to future environmental and climatic hazards. In this framing, migration happens in the context of a growing city‐centred economy that promotes remittances to villages. However, a textual analysis of current and recent policies concerning climate change, development and poverty alleviation, and disaster management shows that the economic and adaptive roles of internal migration are often not included in policy framing. We argue that if migration works as a positive step towards adaptation, then the key challenge is to align the policies with this new understanding.     

Social Work and Disadvantage: Addressing the Roots of Stigma through Association

Abstract

This paper reports on a small-scale research study that explores the impact of climate change on rural women. Qualitative data were collected through interviews with 7 women, who came from a regional centre and were either employed by women's services or who had activist roles within the community pertaining to women's services. Outcomes of the study identified a range of areas of impact, including increased hardship for rural women, implications of household roles, and subsequent organisational responsibilities. A high level of concern, particularly for the vulnerability of women in crisis, was identified among participants. We contend that the effects of climate change are becoming increasingly relevant to the social work profession and that specific groups such as women are at risk of further disadvantage unless collective action is taken to circumvent the impact of climate change. Strategies for social work practice and policy initiatives are considered.     

Supporting the agency of cities as climate migration destinations

As climate migration has garnered the interest of research and policy communities over the last two decades, the focus has been on whether, how and where climate stresses might precipitate out-migration, and how to assist and protect those affected. Less attention has gone to the places that receive climate migrants, and how their arrival might affect adaptation at destination. Against the backdrop of increasingly severe climate disruptions, this paper examines the likelihood of climate-related movements going into urban areas, and the challenges that this may entail for those who move and for urban governance. With much of climate migration projected to feed into existing urbanization trends, we see the need for data and research to help bolster the agency of communities and cities to plan and act locally, and across geographies, for inclusion and resilience, and to advocate collectively for enabling policy frameworks and increased national and international support.     

Extending the boundaries of climate change research: A discussion on agriculture

Global environmental change is one of the most significant research and policy issues facing humankind. Although vast financial and human resources are being allocated to climate change research, there are numerous knowledge gaps between understanding climate variations and human responses, particularly in the area of farm adaptation. In this paper, we argue that four issues need to be addressed, in order to narrow these gaps. First, greater attention needs to be directed towards impact assessment. Second, future researchers should consider critical methodologies and theories clearly articulated in cognate disciplines. Third, we need to have an improved understanding of how present agriculture adapts to both climatic and societal forces. Lastly, we need to have an improved understanding of the decision-making process. We address these issues by drawing upon three areas of research: (i) the climate change and impact assessment literature; (ii) the natural hazards literature; and (iii) the agricultural restructuring literature, drawn primarily from the disciplines of rural geography and rural sociology. From a review of this literature, we argue that each area provides an incomplete assessment of the relationship between climate change and agriculture in developed countries. Consequently, we conclude that an approach which situates farm-level decision making in relation to both broad structural (including biophysical) and internal forces, provides for a greater understanding of the nexus between climate change and farm adaptation.     

Understanding the relationship between social change and its impacts: The experience of rural land use change in south-eastern Australia

This study investigated socio-economic impacts of land use change, giving explicit attention to the relationships between independently observed land use change and associated socio-economic changes, perceived land use change and socio-economic change, attributed cause of change, and experienced impacts of change. Using a case study region in south-east Australia, we examined the impacts of growth in use of land for dairy farming, cropping, blue gum plantations and rural residential development on (i) rural population trends, and (ii) the amount and nature of employment available in the study region. Perceptions and impacts of change were assessed using multiple qualitative and quantitative methods. Results demonstrate that local residents were not always aware of the extent and nature of land use change, and had difficulty attributing social changes and their impacts to the land use changes that underlie them. Furthermore, the felt impacts of land use change appeared dependent on a person's awareness of that change, and on their beliefs about the causes of social change. These findings highlight avenues for theoretical development to better specify the processes by which social change processes are experienced as human impacts. The findings also have implications for land use policy and social impact assessment, illustrating the importance of understanding both perceived and actual social change.     

Cross-border mobility,inequality and migration intermediaries: Labour migration from Nepal to Malaysia

This article aims to contribute to labour recruitment policy by demonstrating the relations between cross-border mobility and inequality through the lens of migration intermediaries. Drawing on thematic analysis of the MIDEQ project's in-depth interviews with Nepalese labour migrants (n = 20) in Malaysia, this research reveals the range of migration intermediaries along the recruitment chain, and shows contradictory roles played by migration intermediaries: they help migrant workers access employment and other opportunities thus overcoming inequality in mobility, whilst simultaneously reproducing socio-economic inequalities and the unequal power relations experienced by migrants. Hence, we identify a “middle space effect” that links migration processes with migration outcomes, reconstructing socio-economic inequalities in mediated migration. We highlight the role of state policies regarding migration and labour in co-producing such inequalities, and the embeddedness of middle space intermediaries in unequal global power dynamics, and we offer policy suggestions on regulation of labour recruitment and employment.     

牧民应对气候变化的社会脆弱性——以内蒙古荒漠草原的一个嘎查为例

在全球变暖的影响下,干旱区本身易变的气候条件呈现暖干趋势和更高的不可预测性。面对变化的自然条件,牧民适应能力的强弱取决于当地的社会经济制度是否有利于牧民采取有效的应对和适应策略。本文选择内蒙古锡林郭勒盟荒漠草原的一个嘎查为例,基于近40年的气象数据以及两次田野调查数据,从社会脆弱性的两个过程——风险暴露和应对能力——出发,分析案例地牧民应对自然灾害能力的脆弱性。研究表明,在全球气候变暖的影响下,案例地近40年有暖干趋势,协同灾害增多;而草场划分到户和市场机制的引入不仅增加了牧民的风险暴露程度,而且使牧民原有低成本的灾害应对策略失效,牧民不得不依赖高成本的贮备和移动策略。此外,中央和地方政府实施的一系列草场保护项目又给牧民的灾害应对施加了诸多限制,由此导致牧民应对气候变化的能力减弱,脆弱性增加。     

Migration as an Adaptation Strategy for Atoll Island States

Adopting a policy of migration can be one possible adaptation strategy against climate change. It has been forecasted that if the worst predictions regarding climate change and sea level rise become reality atolls around the world could become submerged in the future. This would render them uninhabitable and could lead to questions about whether Atoll Island States could still be considered as States. The international community has been avoiding any commitment to create a convention that would protect people displaced by climate change. In order to solve such potential problems, the authors will argue that a framework of bilateral agreements, initiatives, and national policies could constitute a viable solution for the various interested parties. The article will discuss the characteristics of Atoll Island States, touching on possible solutions for climate change displacement which have been discussed by the governments and civil society of the affected States.     

Southern knowledge online? Climate change research discoverability and communication practices

The networked age promises global digital cultures with flattened power relations, given the affordances of information and communication technologies to collapse distance, enable easier cross-country collaborations and create new opportunities for knowledge production and sharing. In the academic domains, indications are that knowledge patterns continue to reflect physically based geopolitical realities – where knowledge from the South is still peripheral while knowledge from the North still dominates in terms of all the conventional metrics. This study explores the potential role of digital affordances to challenge structural Northern bias and generates questions about knowledge production and dissemination in the climate change knowledge domain. It is framed by the field of scholarly communication within an African setting and by the emergent field of climate change which is fraught with debates and contestations, particularly regarding mitigation and adaptation. It draws on Southern theory which interrogates the global dynamics of knowledge production and dissemination. It explores the intersection of the discoverability and visibility of local climate change research methodologically from the outside in, through an experiment of searches for ‘climate change/South Africa’ and from the inside out by reviewing the online presence of one climate change group in a top-ranked African university.     

Adoption for adaptation: A theory-based approach for monitoring a complex policy initiative

This paper explores some of the challenges involved in designing a monitoring framework for a complex policy initiative designed to support climate change adaptation in a highly varied and dynamic implementation environment. It looks specifically at the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) initiative called Action on Climate Today, a five-year programme that aims to support the mainstreaming of climate change adaptation into policy systems in five countries and ten locations in South Asia.This paper presents a theory-based approach to designing a monitoring system for the ACT programme that seeks to account for the programme’s design and implementation complexities. It does so by providing an example for monitoring the causal processes and mechanisms that underpin the programme’s theory of change. The paper highlights a systematic approach to context monitoring through periodic context assessments and evaluative indicators; the use of categorical indicators to capture a diverse portfolio of support; and a flexible results framework structured around the adoption and implementation of programme outputs into the targeted policy systems.     

Public Policy Implications of Elderly Interstate Migration to Oregon, 1985-1990

Abstract

Several Oregon counties received a noticeable influx of elderly migrants from other states during the 1980s. Oregon policy regarding taxes, land use, and long-term care is examined for possible influence on migration. Models of elderly migration are examined for insight into how public policy influences migration, and previous research regarding the effects of elderly migration on public policy is reviewed. Data regarding disability and financial vulnerability among elderly by migration status are analyzed for possible influence upon public policy.

Change in the population aged 65 and older mirrored state and national patterns for 1980 to 1990 and 1990 to 1999. Interstate elderly arriving in attractive counties reported a low prevalence of disability and financial vulnerability, indicating a low risk of demanding public assistance. Interstate elderly arriving in population centers reported a relatively high prevalence of disability but a low prevalence of financial vulnerability. This may suggest that Oregon's long-term care policy influenced elderly migration.     

Re-assembling climate change policy: Materialism,posthumanism, and the policy assemblage

National and international policy-makers have addressed threats to environmental sustainability from climate change and other environmental degradation for over 30 years. However, it is questionable whether current policies are socially, politically, economically, and scientifically capable of adequately resolving these threats to the planet and living organisms. In this paper we theorize and develop the concept of a “policy assemblage” from within a new materialist ontology, to interrogate critically four policy perspectives on climate change: “liberal environmentalism”; the United Nations policy statements on sustainable development; “green capitalism” (also known as “climate capitalism”) and finally “no-growth economics.” A materialist analysis of interactions between climate change and policies enables us to establish what each policy can do, what it ignores or omits, and consequently its adequacy to address environmental sustainability in the face of climate change. None, we conclude, is adequate or appropriate to address climate change successfully. We then use this conceptual tool to establish a “posthuman” policy on climate change. Humans, from this perspective, are part of the environment, not separate from or in opposition to it, but possess unique capacities that we suggest are now necessary to address climate change. This ontology supplies the starting point from which to establish sociologically a scientifically, socially, and politically adequate posthuman climate change policy. We offer suggestions for the constituent elements of such a policy.