Doctoral Dissertation Research: Scientific Knowledge, Market Development and Adaptation to Ecological Change

该项目将研究在易受海平面变化影响的低洼地区将虾养殖作为一种适应策略的使用情况。该项目将调查引进对虾养殖作为一种适应海平面变化影响的策略如何改变沿海三角洲地区的土地、景观和生计。需要考虑的一个关键问题是，虾类养殖作为一种经济机会的引进在多大程度上造成了其他形式的生态退化和经济脆弱性。该项目将重点研究孟加拉国库尔纳地区的一个案例，分析社区如何理解和应对重大的经济和环境变革。在此过程中，它将探讨对脆弱性和生态变化的不同理解如何影响发展战略、景观和生计决策。这项研究的目的是通过加深对市场发展战略如何影响农村贫困人口的理解，为适应海平面变化的政策和实践提供信息。为了实现这一目标，该项目将研究孟加拉国沿海社区发生的社会和生态变化，这些社区将这些变化归因于这些变化的驱动因素，以及这些社区自己采取的各种策略来应对这些变化。该研究将解决三个相互关联的问题：1)不同的发展从业者（如捐助者、发展机构和政府官员）如何理解孟加拉国的生态变化，以及这些知识如何塑造一种新的发展范式；2)从州和首府城市到农村社区，对虾养殖是如何明确、设计和实施的；3)农村社区如何在实地了解、体验和谈判生态变化和对虾养殖？研究将通过访谈和民族志研究在孟加拉国首都达卡以及孟加拉国南部的三个社区进行，这些社区正在以不同的方式讨论这些社会和生态动态。政策制定者、政府和发展机构正在迫切寻求解决生态变化和危机的办法和战略。许多紧急战略为深刻的社会和历史进程提供了技术解决方案。这项研究将争论转移到将社会动态和结果置于此类对话的中心。

This project will examine the use of shrimp farming as an adaptation strategy in low-lying regions vulnerable to sea level change. The project will investigate how the introduction of shrimp farming as a strategy to adapt to the impacts of sea level change has transformed land, landscape, and livelihoods in coastal delta regions. A key issue to consider is the extent to which the introduction of shrimp farming as an economic opportunity generates other forms of ecological degradation and economic vulnerability. The project will focus on a case study of the Khulna district of Bangladesh to analyze how communities understand and respond to major economic and environmental transformations. In so doing, it will address how different understandings of vulnerability and ecological change shape development strategies, landscapes, and livelihood decisions. The objective of the research is to inform policy and practice around sea level change adaptation by advancing understanding of how market development strategies impact the rural poor.To accomplish this goal, the project will examine the social and ecological changes taking place in coastal Bangladeshi communities, the drivers to which these communities attribute these changes, and the variety of strategies employed by these communities themselves to address them. The study will address three linked questions: 1) How do different development practitioners (e.g. donors, development agencies and government officials) understand ecological change in Bangladesh and how is this knowledge shaping a new development paradigm; 2) How has shrimp aquaculture been articulated, designed and implemented from the state and capital city to rural communities; and 3) How are both ecological change and shrimp aquaculture understood, experienced and negotiated on the ground by rural communities? The research will be conducted through interviews and ethnographic research in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, as well as in three communities in southern Bangladesh where these social and ecological dynamics are being negotiated in different ways. Policy makers, government, and development agencies are urgently seeking solutions and strategies for addressing ecological change and crisis. Many emergent strategies offer technical solutions to profoundly social and historical processes. This research shifts debate to place social dynamics and outcomes at the center of such conversations.