The limits to measures of vulnerability to climate change [Conference Paper]
Geographers have long analysed livelihoods as a means to
understand vulnerability to environmental change (Bohle et al., 1994; Dow,
1992; Downing, 1991; Cutter, 1996; Liverman, 1990 and Wisner et.al., 2004). A
livelihoods approach, based on assessing five kinds of capitals, helps to
explain social vulnerability – that is, why people living exposed to similar
types of environmental changes have different levels of vulnerability. Nevertheless,
while assessing vulnerability through indicators of capital helps to identify
the relative vulnerability of households or groups, it often fails to capture
the social drivers of this vulnerability. Knowing that people are vulnerable is
not the same as knowing why they
are vulnerable. Social context matters, and needs to be understood if
livelihoods analysis is to be used as a basis for policies and programmes that
aim to help to build sustainable livelihoods and reduce vulnerability to
environmental change.
This paper reports on a research project that measures
vulnerability through a livelihoods approach and seeks to explain some of the
major processes that cause vulnerability. The project focuses on vulnerability
to climate change in four villages in a disaster-prone coastal area in
south-western Bangladesh. Preliminary findings suggest that an index-based
vulnerability assessment in and of itself does not help identify which factors
matter most to which households under different conditions. In other words, it
cannot be said, based only on an index-based analysis, that some indicators are
always more important than others. An indicator-based assessment of
vulnerability therefore needs to be complemented with detailed qualitative
examinations of the root causes of vulnerability.
Paper presented in the Institute of Australian Geographers Conference 2013 held at the University of
Western Australia from July 1 to 4, 2013 in Perth, Australia.
It can be accessed by clicking the following link.
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