ENGAGING WITH RESILIENCE IN NON-SOVEREIGN CONTEXTS: INSIGHTS FROM PUERTO RICO

Keywords: Vulnerability, Resilience, Sovereignty
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Tuesday
Session Start / End Time: 3/1/2022 08:00 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 3/1/2022 09:20 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 61

Abstract

International mitigation and adaptation discourses promote development pathways in which
significant policy and infrastructure changes are suggested to reduce vulnerabilities and build
resilience. Nonetheless, those discourses are framed in ways that overlook the root causes of
vulnerability and variations in place-specific meanings of resilience. Critical geographers and
others have critiqued the discourse of resilience, which can ignore the causes of risks while
downloading responsibility for ‘being resilient’ onto marginalized individuals. At the same time, it
is important to acknowledge the capacity and desires of individuals to create pathways forward
in an era of climate change. Drawing on academic literature, this paper reflects on the
relationship between vulnerability, resilience, and sovereignty by examining these concepts in
the case of Puerto Rico. This non-sovereign territory has recently experienced a series of socio-natural disasters, including category five hurricanes Irma and Maria and 5.8 and 6.4 magnitude
earthquakes. In the aftermath of these disasters, community-led initiatives related to food and
energy have emerged as ‘sovereign acts’ to promote social and political transformations,
manage exposure, and increase resilience. These practices present an alternative to
governmental ideas of development and island resiliency. This paper argues that understanding
local perspectives and community-led practices can contribute to challenging dominant
discourses while promoting fair and efficient support to those in need. The purpose of this work
is to look beyond global definitions and consider the place-based experiences of those at risk,
whose voices are missing from global climate debates.