Project description
Understanding climate change’s social impact on small societies
Social scientists have historically underestimated the role of social factors in determining vulnerability to climate change (CC). Research has shown that the impacts of CC are not evenly distributed, even within small communities such as Indian villages. This has led to the hypothesis that economic and social relationships play a significant role in shaping CC vulnerability and adaptation practices. The EU-funded IMUCCA project aims to test this hypothesis through empirical research in two villages in Maharashtra in India where agriculture is being impacted by biophysical processes related to CC. The goal is to gain a better understanding of the connections between CC and existing social hierarchies and develop a generalisable model for predicting the experiences of agrarian societies in adapting to CC.
Objective
Social scientists have generally treated climate change (CC) vulnerability as homogeneous across social space, underestimating the serious social distortions and conflicts it produces. Previous research conducted by the Fellow suggests that CC impact is unevenly distributed, even within small social units such as Indian villages and Fijian islands. This project is guided by a hypothesis based on the Fellow's earlier work: economic and social relations (class, gender, ethnicity, religion, caste, etc.) have an overwhelming impact on CC vulnerability and adaptation practices. Examining one of the regions in the world where the impact of CC is most advanced rural India the proposed project aims to generate detailed empirical data for tracing the connections between CC and existing social hierarchies. Under the supervision of a leading expert in modelling, the result of empirical project will be turned into a generalisable model that can be used to understand and predict other agrarian societies experiences of CC, and their differential modes of adaptation. Drawing on debates in economic sociology, socioecology and environmental economics, the project's empirical research will take place in two villages in Maharashtra, India, where agriculture is in the midst of an ongoing crisis caused by biophysical processes. The Fellow will employ mixed methods, using structured quantitative household surveys and semi-structured qualitative interviews, which will be collected during two visits to India. The development of an evidence-based framework will be a pioneering contribution to our knowledge about the differing ways in which different members of a society are impacted by, and respond to, CC. As such, it addresses core EU objectives, such as preparedness for the impact of climate change to protect lives and assets, so helping confirm the EU as leading developer of knowledge solutions for the most pressing problems of humanity.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- social sciencessociologyanthropologyethnology
- natural scienceschemical sciencesinorganic chemistrypost-transition metals
- agricultural sciencesagriculture, forestry, and fisheriesagriculture
- humanitiesphilosophy, ethics and religionreligions
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Keywords
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European FellowshipsCoordinator
30123 Venezia
Italy