Climate displacement and resettlement: the importance of claims-making ‘from below’

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Taylor & Francis via the DOI in this recordClimate-induced population displacement and resettlement is an ongoing problem around the world, and one that is being exacerbated by climate change. To date, most attempts to address this problem have taken a top-down approach in which international justice, legal and humanitarian frameworks are extended ‘downwards’ by policymakers and governments to local populations. However, there has been limited systematic work that emphasizes the abilities of affected peoples themselves to develop and formulate their own justice-based solutions. This paper presents an analytical framework for thinking about ‘bottom-up’ claims-making that emphasizes naming, blaming, claiming and framing. The framework enables claims-making to be distinguished from other forms of community-based agency, such as adaptation. The paper also suggests a normative framework to support policymakers and practitioners in helping communities facing displacement to make claims. The normative framework focuses on the barriers to, and opportunities for, claims-making ‘from below’

Geospatial and temporal data mining to combine railway low adhesion and rail defect data

Rolling contact fatigue (RCF) damage to rails, and low adhesion at the rail-wheel interface remain significant problems in maintaining railway performance, fully utilising network capacity, and reducing running costs. A novel approach has been developed to understand these problems through analysis of data on RCF and low adhesion incidents from the UK rail network. This augments understanding of specific mechanisms such as the role of rail plasticity in crack initiation and of environmental moisture levels in low adhesion, which to-date have not given sufficient information to prevent the problems. A moving window filtering technique, a temporal and a geospatial approach were used to identify correlations between sites of low rail-wheel adhesion subject to transient sliding contact, crack initiation, and underbridge locations at which vertical and lateral track stiffness typically change rapidly. The analysis shows that (i) a high density of otherwise unexpected RCF defects occurred close to underbridges, and (ii) that there was a strong correlation between momentary slides during braking and RCF sites. From the temporal analysis it was found that although concentrated in the autumn period, 55-60% of transient low adhesion incidents occur outside that period, with highest risk in the very early morning

Síntomas psicopatológicos en pacientes afectos de cefalea crónica con o sin fibromialgia

La presencia de sintomatología psicopatológica, como la ansiedad y la depresión, en las cefaleas crónicas y en la fibromialgia es común. Objetivos. Estudiar si existen diferencias en el perfil psicopatológico entre pacientes con cefalea crónica y fibromialgia (CCFM) y pacientes con cefalea crónica sin fibromialgia (CC), y si existen diferencias en la respuesta al tratamiento entre ambos grupos. Pacientes y métodos. Se administra una batería de test de evaluación de síntomas psicopatológicos a 30 pacientes con CC y a 30 pacientes con CCFM diagnosticados por un reumatólogo. Incluimos en la CC a pacientes con migraña crónica y cefalea tensional crónica. El diseño es con datos apareados de edad y sexo. Se comparan las puntuaciones de depresión, ansiedad, obsesión y perfil de sintomatología psicopatológica -inventario multifásico de personalidad de Minnessota (MMPI-2) y cuestionario de 90 síntomas revisado (SCL-90-R)- (prueba t). Se correlacionan los datos con la respuesta al tratamiento. Resultados. Los pacientes con CCFM muestran puntuaciones significativamente superiores en las escalas de hipocondriasis, depresión, histeria, paranoia, psicastenia y esquizofrenia (MMPI-2), y más somatizaciones, obsesión y ansiedad según el SCL-90-R. La respuesta favorable al tratamiento es inferior en el grupo CCFM (17,85%) que en el CC (42,85%). La hipocondriasis se correlaciona con una peor respuesta (regresión logística). Conclusiones. Los pacientes con CCFM muestran un perfil psicopatológico con mayores puntuaciones y síntomas que los pacientes sin fibromialgia. Esta diferencia se correlaciona con la respuesta terapéutic

Spirometry Reference Values for Navajo Children Ages 6-14 Years

Summary. Spirometry is the most important tool in diagnosing pulmonary disease and is the most frequently performed pulmonary function test. Since respiratory disease is the single greatest cause for morbidity and mortality on the Navajo Nation, the purpose of this study was to create new age and race-specific pulmonary nomograms for Navajo children. Five hundred fifty-eight healthy children, ages 6-14 years, attending Navajo Nation elementary schools in Arizona, were asked to perform spirometry to develop population-specific and tribe-specific nomograms for forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in 1 sec (FEV1), and FEV1 Ratio (FEV1/FVC). Spirometry tests from 284 girls and 274 boys met American Thoracic Society quality control standards. Lung function values, except for FEV1/FVC, all increased with height. The lower limit of the normal range for FEV1/FVC was 80%. The spirometry reference equations from the healthy boys and girls were developed. Height and the natural log of height were significant predictors of FEV1, FVC, and FEF 25-75% in the gender-specific models. The resulting population-specific spirometry reference equations should be used when testing Navajo children ages 6-14 years. However, the use of the NHANES III spirometry reference equations for Caucasian children may not result in significant misclassification in clinical settings providing that a maximal effort is given by the Navajo child being tested

Here and now: perceptions of Indian Ocean islanders on the climate change and migration nexus

Empirical studies exploring the links between climate change and migration are increasing. Often, perceptions are not fully explored from the people most affected by the climate change and migration nexus. This article contributes to filling this gap by eliciting and analyzing perceptions regarding climate change and migration from an understudied population labelled as being amongst those most immediately and directly affected by climate change: Indian Ocean islanders. Open-ended, semi-structured interviews were conducted in two case study communities in Maldives (Kaafu Guraidhoo with 17 interviews and Raa Dhuvafaaru with 18 interviews) and two case study communities in Lakshadweep, India (Kavaratti with 35 interviews and Minicoy with 26 interviews). The results present the interviewees’ perceptions of climatic variability and change that they experience; how they perceive the causes of these changes; and links to migration decisions. The interviews demonstrate that perceptions of climate change, of migration, and of the links or lack thereof between the two are centred on the interviewees’ own experiences, their own locations, and the immediate timeframe. External information and direction has limited influence. Their perceptions are framed as being the ‘here and now’ through topophilia (here) and tempophilia (now). The islanders’ views do not avoid, but rather encompass, long-term livelihoods and the future. Such a future might be in another location, but the anchor is expressing future hopes and aspirations through the here and now. It is not linked to the wide-scale, long-term issue of climate change

Developing a Functional Food Systems Literacy for Interdisciplinary Dynamic Learning Networks

The impact of human activity on the planet cannot be understated. Food systems are at the centre of a tangled web of interactions affecting all life. They are a complex nexus that directly and indirectly affects, and is affected by, a diverse set of social, environmental and technological phenomena. The complexity and often intractability of these interactions have created a variety of food-related problems that people seek to address in a collaborative and interdisciplinary manner through the adoption of a holistic food systems perspective. However, operationalising a systemic approach to address food system challenges is not a guarantee of success or positive outcomes. This is largely due to the partiality inherent in taking a systems perspective, and the difficulty in communicating these different perspectives among stakeholders. A functional food systems literacy is therefore required to aid people in communicating and collaborating on food system problems within dynamic learning networks. The Interdisciplinary Food Systems Teaching and Learning (IFSTAL) programme has been operating since 2015 as a social learning system to develop a food systems pedagogy with a range of multi-sectoral partners. The findings in this paper arise out of iterative reflexive practice into our teaching approach and delivery methods by former and current staff. In order to foster integrative engagement on food system challenges, we propose and define a functional food systems literacy—a theoretical minimum that can aid diverse stakeholders to explore and intervene in food systems through more effective communication and collaboration. Derived from a reflective analysis of instruments and methods in delivering the IFSTAL programme, we provide a framework that disaggregates functional food systems literacy according to four knowledge types, and includes examples of skills and activities utilised in the IFSTAL programme to support learning in these different domains. We argue that claims to comprehensive food systems knowledge are unrealistic and therefore propose that a functional food systems literacy should focus on providing a means of navigating partial claims to knowledge and uncertainty as well as fostering effective collaboration. We believe that this will enhance the capabilities of stakeholders to work effectively within dynamic learning networks

Training Future Actors in the Food System: A new collaborative cross-institutional, interdisciplinary training programme for students

There is an urgent need to train a cohort of professionals who can address and resolve the increasing number of fundamental failings in the global food system. The solutions to these systemic failings go far beyond the production of food, and are embedded within broad political, economic, business, social, cultural and environmental contexts. The challenge of developing efficient, socially acceptable and sustainable food systems that meet the demands of a growing global population can only be tackled through an interdisciplinary systems approach that integrates social, economic and environmental dimensions. The new cross-institutional training programme, IFSTAL (Innovative Food Systems Teaching and Learning), is designed to improve post-graduate level knowledge and understanding of food systems from a much broader interdisciplinary perspective, which can be applied to students’ own studies. Ultimately, these graduates should be equipped to apply critical interdisciplinary systems thinking in the workplace to understand how problems are connected, their root causes and where critical leverage points might be. This article outlines the programme and presents a review of its first year (2015-2016 academic year)

Transformation, adaptation and development: relating concepts to practice

In recent years there has been a growing number of academic reviews discussing the theme of transformation and its association with adaptation to climate change. On the one hand this has stimulated exchange of ideas and perspectives on the parameters of transformation, but it has also given rise to confusion in terms of identifying what constitutes a non-incremental form of adaptation on the ground. What this article aims to do instead is help researchers and practitioners relate different interpretations of transformation to practice by proposing a typological framework for categorising forms of change that focuses on mechanisms and objectives. It then discusses how these categorisations link to the broader conceptions and critiques noted above, with the idea that this will enable those who seek to analyse or plan adaptation to better analyse what types of action are potentially constitutive of transformation. In doing so, it should equally assist in the identification and specification of critical questions that need to be asked of such activity in relation to issues of sustainability and equity. As the term transformation gains ground in discussions of climate change adaptation, it is necessary to take a step back, review quite what commentators mean when they use the word, and consider the implications on people, especially the most vulnerable and marginalised, of “doing” or promoting transformation in its different forms