Metodología para el análisis de vulnerabilidad

What do we know:  What does Sociology bring to the table for studying the human dimensions of global climate change?

Sociological analysis has revealed the complex ways in which social dynamics and structures of inequality are implicated in the production and distribution of, as well as in responses to environmental impacts, including global climate change. We know, for instance, that unequal development is tied to markedly unequal rates of consumption and fossil fuel use across nations and regions of the world, and thus, to substantial differences in greenhouse emissions, with the wealthiest 20% of the world’s population being responsible for over 60% of emissions. As Roberts and Parks (2007) argue, “the issue of global climate change is fundamentally about injustice and inequality,” which causes poor countries to suffer “the effect of a problem to which they contributed virtually nothing.” We also know that the position of a country in the global economy is bound to affect its policy positions on global climate change (Roberts, 2001).

Similarly, research indicates that, while global warming is a threat to all people across the globe, some are bound to suffer its consequences more than others, with the poor, ethnoracial minorities, and women facing the heaviest burden. Unequal development, class, race/ethnicity, and gender inequalities give rise to varying levels and multiple dimensions of vulnerability. Not only do people in various social locations face different “initial conditions” (e.g., livelihoods associated with different levels of stability and resilience, different levels of health and nutrition, different levels of mobility), but they also have unequal abilities to protect themselves, different networks through which they access resources and information, different relationships with social institutions, and different levels of access to social protection (Cannon, 2000; Rashid and Michaud, 2000).

Sociological focus on the institutionalized and structural dimensions of inequality (that is, on how inequality is produced on a day-to-day basis, gets built into “business as usual,” and becomes effectively invisible) has helped reveal the ways in which vulnerabilities to climate change are created. Sociologists have contributed to a body of knowledge on environmental inequality and environmental justice, which documents how race, class, and gender become entwined with the distribution of environmental impacts in various places, and how various vulnerabilities are shaped by social, cultural, and institutional factors. Such knowledge can be readily applied to the context of climate change. What do we need to know:  What are the major sociological research questions?

While we have a fairly good understanding of how power and inequality become linked to both environmental conditions and vulnerability, we have yet to articulate how our attempts to manage climate change should account for and be responsive to the differences in vulnerability that exist within and across countries and regions of the world.

Sociological research needs to explore one central question pertaining to the issue of vulnerability. How can those who are most vulnerable to climate change become less vulnerable? What kinds of structural, institutional, and organizational changes would reduce various kinds and dimensions of vulnerability in different regions and places? What obstacles or impediments exist to realizing such changes? What political mobilization strategies might be effective for creating change? There is also the empirical question of what dimensions of inequality become more salient in different places (we know that inequality structures, and the cultural factors that sustain them differ across geographic and sociopolitical contexts).

Climate change is bound to be a driving factor for what some have called eco-migration (Reuveny, 2007). As droughts, storms and floods intensify as a result of climate change, entire populations will be forced to migrate.

How can countries prepare to address the ecological and social pressures associated with eco-migration? How can the vulnerabilities facing immigrant populations, especially those who are unauthorized and are thus disconnected from formal institutions, be reduced? What informal social networks operate in immigrant communities and how might these help people’s ability to deal with disaster situations.

Sociological research is also needed on the question of what models of environmental governance might be most effective in engaging and including vulnerable populations and their particular conditions and concerns in efforts to address climate change. Another important research question (of practical importance) is how policies for addressing climate change are experienced and received by various populations.

How can inclusion be accomplished at all levels of decision-making (needs assessment, planning,

implementation, enforcement and evaluation)? Sociologists’ experience conducting community-based participatory research and participatory action research can help in identifying effective strategies for inclusion. These methodologies can also be useful in identifying local-level indicators of environmental change and for monitoring the locally-

experienced, socially-mediated outcomes of climate change. References

Cannon, Terry. 2002. “Gender and Climate Hazards in Bangladesh.” Gender and Development 10(2): 45-50. Rashid, Sabina Faiz and Stephanie Michaud. 2000. “Female Adolescents and Their Sexuality: Notions of Honour,

Shame, Purity, and Pollution During the Floods.” Disasters 24(1):54-70.

Reuveny, Rafael. 2008. “Ecomigration and Violent Conflict: Case Studies and Public Policy Implications.” Human Ecology 36(1): 1-13.

Roberts, J. Timmons. 2001. “Global Inequality and Climate Change.” Society and Natural Resources 14: 501-509. Roberts, J. Timmons and Bradley C. Parks. 2007. A Climate of Injustice: Global Inequality, North-South Politics, and

Sabrina McCormick