No power without knowledge: a discursive subjectivities approach to investigate climate-induced (im)mobility and wellbeing

During the last few decades we have seen a rapid growth in the body of literature on climate-induced human mobility or environmental migration. Meanwhile, in-depth people-centred studies investigating people’s (im)mobility decision-making as a highly complex and sociopsychological process are scarce. This is problematic as human decision-making behaviour and responses—including their success or failure—closely align with people’s wellbeing status. In this article, elaborations around why these under-representations of research narratives and existing methods will guide us towards a solution. The article proposes a conceptual model to help fill this gap that is inspired by Michel Foucault’s power and knowledge relationship and discursive subjectivities. The conceptual idea introduced by the article offers as a replicable approach and potential way forward that can support widening empirical research in the area of climate-induced (im)mobility decision-making and wellbeing

Island Stories: Mapping the (im)mobility trends of slow onset environmental processes in three island groups of the Philippines

There is an immediate lack of people-centred empirical evidence investigating how slow onset events influence human (im)mobility across the globe. This represents an important knowledge gap that makes it difficult for climate policy to safeguard vulnerable populations (whether on the move or left behind). In this study, 48 qualitative focus group discussions in the Philippines elaborated around people’s (im)mobility pathways in the context of slow onset events. The selected collective storytelling approach effectively mapped out the (im)mobility trends of 12 different origin- and destination locations involving the perceptions of 414 women and men across six provinces on Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao islands. The research findings delicately outlined people’s translocality and its interlinkage with their personal (im)mobility experiences. People described how slow onset events such as longer-term soil and water degradation often contributed to reduced livelihood sustainability that influenced their decisions to move or stay. At the very core of people’s narratives were the ways that the environmental changes and (im)mobility experiences influenced people’s wellbeing. Some people described how temporary migration could increase their social status and boost wellbeing after returning home. Others described adverse impacts on their mental health during their migration experiences due to loss of place, identity, food, and social networks. The research findings show how policy can better support those moving, hosting, or identifying as immobile, as well as where (geographically and socially) more assistance is needed

When the disaster strikes: (im)mobility decision-making in the context of environmental shocks and climate change impacts

This study responds to the need for more research around (im)mobility decision-making to better support people facing environmental shocks and climatic changes. The concept of Trapped Populations, first appeared with the release of the 2011 Foresight report yielding repeated use in environmental migration studies and to a more limited extent policy. Although a seemingly straightforward concept, referring to people’s inability to move away from environmental high-risk areas despite a desire to do so, the underlying reasons for someone’s immobility can be profoundly complex. The empirical literature body referring to ‘trapped’ populations has similarly taken a fairly simple and narrow economic explanatory approach. A more comprehensive understanding around how immobility is narrated in academia, and how people’s cultural, social and psychological background in Bangladesh influences their (im)mobility, can provide crucial research insights. To better protect and support people living with environmental shocks and changes worldwide we need to build robust and well-informed policy frameworks To achieve this, a set of discourse analyses were carried out. Firstly, a textual Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) reviewed how ‘trapped’ has been framed within academia. Secondly, a Foucauldian inspired discourse analysis was performed on field data to explore how power, knowledge and and binary opposites shape and determine people’s social norms in terms of their (im)mobility decision-making. These key concepts critically showcased how meaning, values and power can constrain the mobility of a social group. The analysis was carried out on a large set of field data gathered between 2014 and 2016 in Bangladesh. The data on urban immobility and rural non-evacuation behaviour was gathered through a mixed-method quant-qualitative approach that included Q-methodology, storytelling group sessions, in-depth interviews and a survey questionnaire. Other key concepts used to frame the analysis included those of subjectivity, gender, place and space. The textual discourse analysis highlighted the dangers of framing mobility or resettlement as a potential climate adaptation. Assisted migration, could for example end up disguising other hidden political and economic agendas. The research identified how the empirical notions of ‘trapped’ move beyond economic immobility. People in Bangladesh described being socially, psychologically and emotionally ‘trapped’. These empirical notions are useful within the area of climate policy, as they raise questions around whether mobility in fact is the solution

Who is the climate-induced trapped figure?

Many will remember the 1990s alarmist narratives of how a human tide of up to a billion climate refugees would flood “our” borders by 2050. By 2011, a new character joined the discourse: the trapped figure. No longer would climatically vulnerable people be forced to move, they could also end up immobile. This review examines the narratives that surround the trapped figure. The article highlights the trapped figure's (i) characterisation, (ii) geography, and (iii) storytellers. The material includes the 2011 Foresight Report, 64 English peer-reviewed journal articles, and seven UNFCCC policy reports. The textual analysis furthers our understanding of the values that shape the meaning of the trapped figure within the wider discursive economy. Out of the 64 articles, 48 located the trapped figure in Asia, while 34 placed the figure in Africa. Meanwhile, the majority of articles—62 in total—were written by scholars based at European research institutes. The study shows that the trapped figure, much as the mythical climate refugee and migrant, is constructed as both a victim in need of rescuing and as an ambiguous security threat. It is ethically problematic that planned relocation was often put forward as an effective tool to “move” the figure out of harm's way. The review also found a range of binary opposites in the discourse on trapped populations, including those of order–disorder, freedom–unfreedom, and victim–savior. This suggests that however well-intentioned the liberal discourse on trapped populations appear, it remains embedded in power relations which demands for critical scrutiny

Embracing uncertainty: a discursive approach to understanding pathways for climate adaptation in Senegal

Climate change threatens to increase the frequency and intensity of droughts and floods. There are large uncertainties related to unknowns around the future and society’s responses to these threats. ‘Uncertainty’ as other words with the prefix ‘un’ (unknown, untold, unrest) often has negative connotations. Yet uncertainty is manifested in virtually everything we do. To many in science, uncertainty is akin to error that should be minimized, a lack of knowledge that needs to be rectified. We argue that uncertainty rather should be embraced as a starting point for discussing pathways to climate adaptation. Here we follow a definition of ‘pathways to adaptation’ as representing a set of proactive changes in the present that move people from a climatically unsafe place, to positions of safety (self defined as representing freedom from harm or adverse effect). This article applies an inter-discursive analytical approach where (un)certainty and (un)safety are used to deepen the understanding around the positions of people in Senegal, and their livelihoods, with respect to climate hazards. We examine the discursive socio-cultural values active in the climate adaptive space. Our findings show, that people’s adaptive decisions often were not based on climate information, but on discursive values and emotions that guided them in the direction of responses that felt right. We conclude that acknowledging different understandings and perceptions of uncertainty, and the goal of achieving safety, allows issues of power to be discussed. We contend that this process helps illuminate how to navigate pathways of adaptation to the impacts of climate variability and change

A global mental health opportunity: How can cultural concepts of distress broaden the construct of immobility?

(Im)mobility studies often focus on people on the move, neglecting those who stay, are immobile, or are trapped. The duality of the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate crisis creates a global mental health challenge, impacting the most structurally oppressed, including immobile populations. The construct of immobility is investigated in the context of socio-political variables but lacks examination of the clinical psychological factors that impact immobility. Research is beginning to identify self-reported emotions that immobile populations experience through describing metaphors like feeling trapped. This article identifies links in the literature between Cultural Concepts of Distress drawn from transcultural psychiatry and immobility studies. Feeling trapped is described in mental health research widely. Among (im)mobile people and non-mobility contexts, populations experience various mental health conditions from depression to the cultural syndrome, nervios. The connection of feeling trapped to CCD research lends itself to potential utility in immobility research. The conceptualisation can support broadening and deepening the comprehension of this global mental health challenge – how immobile populations’ experience feeling trapped. To broaden the analytical framework of immobility and incorporate CCD, evidence is needed to fill the gaps on the psychological aspects of immobility research

Who is the climate‐induced trapped figure?

Many will remember the 1990s alarmist narratives of how a human tide of up to a billion climate refugees would flood “our” borders by 2050. By 2011, a new character joined the discourse: the trapped figure. No longer would climatically vulnerable people be forced to move, they could also end up immobile. This review examines the narratives that surround the trapped figure. The article highlights the trapped figure's (i) characterisation, (ii) geography, and (iii) storytellers. The material includes the 2011 Foresight Report, 64 English peer-reviewed journal articles, and seven UNFCCC policy reports. The textual analysis furthers our understanding of the values that shape the meaning of the trapped figure within the wider discursive economy. Out of the 64 articles, 48 located the trapped figure in Asia, while 34 placed the figure in Africa. Meanwhile, the majority of articles—62 in total—were written by scholars based at European research institutes. The study shows that the trapped figure, much as the mythical climate refugee and migrant, is constructed as both a victim in need of rescuing and as an ambiguous security threat. It is ethically problematic that planned relocation was often put forward as an effective tool to “move” the figure out of harm's way. The review also found a range of binary opposites in the discourse on trapped populations, including those of order–disorder, freedom–unfreedom, and victim–savior. This suggests that however well-intentioned the liberal discourse on trapped populations appear, it remains embedded in power relations which demands for critical scrutiny. This article is categorized under: Social Status of Climate Change Knowledge > Sociology/Anthropology of Climate Knowledge Climate and Development > Sustainability and Human Well-Being Perceptions, Behavior, and Communication of Climate Change > Perceptions of Climate Change Climate, Nature, and Ethics > Ethics and Climate Chang

‘Seeing with empty eyes’: a systems approach to understand climate change and mental health in Bangladesh

Bangladesh’s unique climate vulnerability is well-investigated but the mental health impacts of climate change remain relatively unexplored. Three databases were searched for English primary qualitative studies published between 2000 and 2020. Out of 1202 publications, 40 met the inclusion criteria. This systematic review applies a systems approach to further understand Bangladesh’s ‘climate-wellbeing’ network. The literature indicates diverse factors linking environmental stress and mental ill-health including four key themes: (1) post-hazard mental health risks, (2) human (im)mobility, (3) social tension and conflict, and (4) livelihood loss and economic hardship. This systems analysis also revealed that people’s mental wellbeing is strongly mediated by socio-economic status and gender. The article illustrates how multiple pathways may amplify stress, anxiety, violence, and psychological damage. Greater recognition of the ‘climate-wellbeing’ connections, and incorporation of mental health in current climate action and policy frameworks, will be an effective way to achieve a more sustainable future

Dimensions of wellbeing and recognitional justice of migrant workers during the COVID-19 lockdown in Kerala, India

The lockdown of March 2020 in India witnessed one of the largest movements of migrants in the country. The state of Kerala was quick and efficient in responding to the challenges posed by the lockdown on its migrant population and in supporting its ‘guest workers’. While many studies have researched the material resources of migrants during the pandemic, such as income and food, few have investigated the subjective measures and emphasised the lived experiences of migrant workers. Drawing on the Wellbeing in Developing Countries (WeD) approach which examines three dimensions of wellbeing, namely, (a) material, (b) relational and (c) subjective wellbeing, this article focuses on the mental health and wellbeing experiences of migrant workers during the first lockdown in Kerala. By deploying these wellbeing dimensions, the study looks at how migrant workers perceived and experienced the various interventions put in place by state and local governments, as well as voluntary initiatives aimed at supporting them. The study elaborates around migrants’ relations of love, care, and trust, and their reasons to remain in Kerala or return home during the lockdown. The study found that a paradigm shift, where ‘migrant workers’ are becoming ‘guest workers’, was at the forefront of the captured narratives. The key findings in this way contribute to the understanding of migrants’ lived experiences, wellbeing, and perceptions of the different lockdown interventions. We argue that an increased attention to subjective factors helps us understand migrant needs at times of crisis through their lived experiences and thereby enhances policy planning for disaster preparedness

The making of India's COVID-19 disaster: A Disaster Risk Management (DRM) Assemblage analysis

This article analyses the suite of policies and measures enacted by the Indian Union Government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic through apparatuses of disaster management. We focus on the period from the onset of the pandemic in early 2020, until mid-2021. This holistic review adopts a Disaster Risk Management (DRM) Assemblage conceptual approach to make sense of how the COVID-19 disaster was made possible and importantly how it was responded to, managed, exacerbated, and experienced as it continued to emerge. This approach is grounded in literature from critical disaster studies and geography. The analysis also draws on a wide range of other disciplines, ranging from epidemiology to anthropology and political science, as well as grey literature, newspaper reports, and official policy documents. The article is structured into three sections that investigate in turn and at different junctures the role of governmentality and disaster politics; scientific knowledge and expert advice, and socially and spatially differentiated disaster vulnerabilities in shaping the COVID-19 disaster in India. We put forward two main arguments on the basis of the literature reviewed. One is that both the impacts of the virus spread and the lockdown-responses to it affected already marginalised groups disproportionately. The other is that managing the COVID-19 pandemic through disaster management assemblage/apparatuses served to extend centralised executive authority in India. These two processes are demonstrated to be continuations of pre-pandemic trends. We conclude that evidence of a paradigm shift in India's approach to disaster management remains thin on the ground