Moving the Conversation on Climate Change and Inequality to the Local: Socio-ecological Vulnerability in Agricultural Tanzania.
Moving the Conversation on Climate Change and Inequality to the Local: Socio-ecological Vulnerability in Agricultural Tanzania.
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DOI：
10.1525/sod.2016.2.1.25
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发表时间：
2016
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Teller AS
中科院分区：
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作者：
Teller AS
气候变化预计将改变坦桑尼亚的季节性，而小农的生计和经济依赖于雨养农业的成功。然而，我们不应该先验地假设世界末日的气候脆弱性情景，即全球南方农村的干旱和破坏，另一方面，农民也不应该最佳地利用当地知识来有效地适应。从两个坦桑尼亚社区的定性田野调查中，我质疑这些关于破坏和当地适应能力的宏大叙述，并介绍了一种将不平等置于中心的方法。较贫穷的国家最容易受到气候变化的影响，但它们并不是同质的，生活在其中的小农也不是。我为这些小农的社会生态脆弱性提供了关键的具体背景方面的证据：1)水资源及其获取；2)农业知识，包括农民自身的知识以及他们与政府农业推广和非政府组织等来源的互动；3)现有的干旱应对策略——以及农民在这些维度上的异质性。最后，本案例以农民目前如何应对干旱为例，说明了气候变化如何在国家内部再现现有的不平等。我展示了农民应对的困难和有些黯淡的环境，但也说明了农民在应对这些条件和他们所拥有的适应能力时所表现出的能动性。最后，我呼吁社会学家对气候和不平等进行更多的次国家研究，并在国内不平等、气候变化和农业发展倡议之间建立联系。
Climate change is expected to shift seasonality in Tanzania, while smallholder farmers’ livelihoods and the economy rely upon the success of rainfed agriculture. However, we should not a priori assume doomsday climate vulnerability scenarios of drought and devastation in the rural global South nor, on the other hand, that farmers will optimally employ local knowledge for effective adaptation. Drawing from qualitative fieldwork in two Tanzanian communities, I question these grand narratives of devastation and local adaptive capacity and introduce an approach that brings inequality to the center. Poorer nations are most vulnerable to climate change, but they are not homogenous and neither are the smallholder farmers living within them. I present evidence on the crucial context-specific dimensions of socio-ecological vulnerability for these smallholder farmers—1) water resources and access to them; 2) agricultural knowledge, including farmers’ own knowledge and their interactions with sources like government-run agricultural extension and NGOs; and 3) existing drought-coping strategies—and the heterogeneity among farmers across these dimensions. Ultimately, this case demonstrates how climate change can reproduce existing inequalities within nations by drawing upon how farmers currently respond to drought as evidence. I present the difficult and somewhat bleak contexts within which the farmers are coping, but also illustrate the agency that farmers exhibit in response to these conditions and the adaptive capacity they possess. Finally, I call for more sub-national research on climate and inequality by sociologists and draw connections among within-nation inequality, climate change, and agricultural development initiatives.