Imaginaries of flood, attachment and testimony: The futures of Majuli

洪水的想象、依恋和见证：马朱利的未来

• 批准号: 2745299
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Leeds
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2745299
• 关键词: Imaginaries; flood; attachment; testimony; futures

This project explores the demographics and physical futures of high-risk flood areas with a focus on lived imaginaries of inhabitants of Majuli in Assam, India. Disaster policies and plans draw heavily on quantitative data to map and mitigate against future flooding in Majuli; however, there remains a gap in understanding residents' experiential accounts of future risks in this region. This gap is problematic given that imagined futures heavily shape a community's relationship to place and decision-making processes such as the decision to migrate and when. This project will comprise a rich in-depth study focusing on individual and collective testimonies that address imaginaries of flood and place-based attachments in Majuli (and similar islands). Deeper insights into these imaginaries of possible futures based on the affective relation to place are vital to help communities understand and better respond to the inevitable challenges that lie ahead in terms of living in high flood-risk regions and adapting to wider climate change.Based on innovative futuristic methodologies, this project promises to yield not only important planning information to help understand the impacts of climate change in Majuli, but also provide a framework for better insights into, and understanding of, community-based responses in other flood-prone regions. Background of the study: The residents of Brahmaputra valley are facing severe consequences in the wake of climate change; ranging from temperature rises, annual peak flows and unpredictable seasonal precipitation fluctuations. Such events compel us to think through climate futures amid dystopian environmental contexts. Climate change narratives charged by a pro-environmental attitude demonstrate the affective power of places. This approach would challenge the radical scientific approach and open up new forms of community adaptation strategies and planning responses. Climate change-induced mobilities are always projected as issues of the future, however climate crisis is not a futuristic threat anymore. Based on future imaginaries of environmental destruction in disaster-prone areas (floods, in the given context), people knowingly or unknowingly push themselves towards safer areas which in turn help in shaping those spaces. Along with it, political economy studies of climate change focus on the construction of narratives around climate change and consequently how they are applied. Scholarship based on feminist political ecology argues that perceptions of environmental risks vary depending on the social positioning of the people based on power structures. The intersectional lens of this approach hence necessitates the inclusion of social differences based on gender, ethnicity, etc. in accommodating individual experiences in the future visionaries of place-making. However, missing from the literature are the imaginaries and robust visual representations that shape individual choices regarding resettlement. This research aims to fill this gap and study the socio-economic and temporal experiences within which new models of developments can be contextualized in the future. Further, this would help advance understanding of how overarching generalized constructions, like economy or society, among policymakers and governments, often contradict the individual and subjective imaginary landscapes. Objectives: The prime objective of the proposed research is to construct and study individual narratives based on imaginaries and how do they shape settlement patterns in return. Additionally, if the local communities envision resettlement, the project also aims to identify the potential pockets where they imagine doing it. The objectives will be investigated in the wake of rapidly changing climate and its associated disasters, specifically floods.

该项目探索高风险洪灾地区的人口统计和物质未来，重点关注印度阿萨姆邦Majuli居民的生活想象。灾害政策和计划在很大程度上依赖于定量数据来绘制和减轻马库里未来洪水的影响；然而，在理解居民对该地区未来风险的经验描述方面仍然存在差距。这一差距是有问题的，因为想象中的未来在很大程度上塑造了社区与地点的关系，以及决策过程，如迁移的决定和时间。该项目将包括一项内容丰富的深入研究，重点是个人和集体证词，以解决马库里(和类似岛屿)洪水和基于地点的附着物的想象。更深入地洞察这些基于与地点的情感关系的可能未来的想象，对于帮助社区理解和更好地应对在洪水高风险地区生活和适应更广泛的气候变化方面面临的不可避免的挑战至关重要。基于创新的未来主义方法，该项目承诺不仅产生重要的规划信息，以帮助理解马库里气候变化的影响，而且还提供了一个框架，更好地洞察和理解其他洪水易发地区的社区应对措施。研究背景：雅鲁藏布江河谷的居民正面临气候变化后的严重后果，包括气温上升、年度高峰流量和不可预测的季节性降水波动。这类事件迫使我们在反乌托邦的环境背景下思考气候未来。由支持环境的态度引发的气候变化叙事展示了地方的情感力量。这种方法将挑战激进的科学方法，并开辟社区适应战略和规划对策的新形式。气候变化引发的流动性总是被认为是未来的问题，然而气候危机不再是未来的威胁。基于未来对灾害多发地区(在特定情况下是洪水)环境破坏的想象，人们有意无意地将自己推向更安全的地区，这反过来又有助于塑造这些空间。与它一起，气候变化的政治经济学研究的重点是围绕气候变化的叙事的构建，以及它们是如何应用的。基于女权主义政治生态的学术认为，对环境风险的认知取决于基于权力结构的人们的社会地位。因此，这种方法的交叉视角需要包括基于性别、种族等的社会差异，以适应未来场所规划中的个人经验。然而，文献中缺少塑造关于重新安置的个人选择的想象力和强有力的视觉表现。这项研究的目的是填补这一空白，并研究社会经济和时间经验，在这些经验中，新的发展模式可以在未来形成背景。此外，这将有助于促进政策制定者和政府之间对总体广义结构，如经济或社会，往往与个人和主观想象的景观相矛盾的理解。目标：拟议研究的主要目标是构建和研究基于想象的个体叙事，以及它们如何塑造聚落模式作为回报。此外，如果当地社区设想重新安置，该项目还旨在确定他们设想重新安置的潜在地区。这些目标将在气候迅速变化及其相关灾害，特别是洪水之后进行调查。