Invisible Labor of Climate Change Adaptation 1
Type: Virtual Paper
Day: 2/27/2022
Start Time: 9:40 AM
End Time: 11:00 AM
Theme: Climate Justice
Sponsor Group(s):
Cultural and Political Ecology Specialty Group
, Economic Geography Specialty Group
, Feminist Geographies Specialty Group
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Organizer(s):
Leigh Johnson
, Michael Mikulewicz
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Chairs(s):
Leigh Johnson, University of Oregon
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Description:
Though the politics and burdens of climate change adaptation feature centrally in debates about climate justice, rarely do climate policies or critical interrogations of them understand adaptation as work. This session seeks to fill this gap, calling critical attention to the embodied acts that constitute climate adaptation labor and the regimes through which it is simultaneously institutionalized and devalued.
This session seeks contributions illuminating invisible adaptation labor: the effort of coping with and repairing landscapes and production systems to bear the brunt of climatic changes in accordance with external directives. Though this work – from building rainwater harvesting systems or clearing brush, to contributing crowd-sourced climate data, to participating in community consultations and trainings – is pivotal to implementing pre-defined imaginaries of what adaptation ought to be (Mikulewicz 2020), it is systematically devalued by state bureaucracies and international climate and development funders. We suggest that this devaluation follows from presumptions that adaptation is a localized good that provides no "global" benefits; that adaptation projects are benevolent gifts to vulnerable "beneficiaries" and communities; and that participants' – especially women's – labor contributions are appropriate means by which to demonstrate community "buy-in" and "ownership". These suppositions reflect moments of concealment (Nightingale et al. 2020) in climate policy, and suggest a number of critical questions for climate justice and labor geographies.
How is adaptation labor organized, governed, valued/devalued, and contested? What constitutes (invisible) adaptation labor, and what does not? What operative exclusions have made this work so invisible and understudied, and who benefits from these exclusions? How might the concept of adaptation labor unsettle established distinctions between donor/beneficiary; development/adaptation; and production/social reproduction? How can this labor be properly recognized and compensated? How might the recognition of adaptation labor forge a basis for new alliances and solidarities?
Presentation(s), if applicable
Leigh Johnson, University of Oregon; From beneficiary to worker: Interrogating the hidden labor on adaptation's front lines |
Nicole Lambrou, California State Polytech University, Pomona; Beyond Environmental Stewardship: Resilience Labor and Just Transitions |
Costanza Rampini, ; Who is the subject in Himalayan Adaptation? Challenging crisis epistemologies and pluralizing the Anthropocene on the roof of the world |
Gregory Simon, University of Colorado - Denver; This little carbon went to the market, this little carbon stayed home: (mis)aligned climate adaptation and mitigation in Andhra Pradesh, India |
Non-Presenting Participants Agenda
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Invisible Labor of Climate Change Adaptation 1
Description
Virtual Paper
Contact the Primary Organizer
Leigh Johnson - leighj@uoregon.edu
Session Sponsored By
