Local concerns with the global climate: An exploration of community-led ecological management in response to flooding in Southwest England
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Manchester
Department Name: Social Sciences
Abstract
This project examines ways that members of rural communities on the Somerset Levels negotiate the risks of annual flooding through community-led environmental management, and how local ecological knowledge might improve resilience to environmental hazards. The study will look at the activities of local people and the work of the Flooding on the Levels Action Group (FLAG). FLAG now campaigns for the dredging and maintenance of the rivers Parrett and Tone.
Output will be a short documentary film which will open up the research to a non-academic audience and portray the material qualities of knowledge production.
Literature review
Participatory action research approaches to ecological adaptation (Warren et al 1995; Hinchcliffe et al 1999; Pound et al 2003; Widlok 2008; Leal Filho 2011) have considered the role of local knowledge systems in climate change adaptation and how these systems work in conjunction with external authorities. This project explores whether the Somerset floods brought out a similar emergence of knowledge and whether sharing local knowledge can improve flood resilience and adaptation to climate change in post-industrial rural communities.
Studies of social capital in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (Mathbor 2007; Hawkins and Maurer 2010) examine cohesion within and between communities, and between communities and state-level authorities. Scheper-Hughes (2005) and Adams (2013) blame lack of social capital for the mismanagement of relief efforts after Katrina causing a 'second order disaster'. By looking at social capital as the resources available through community networks (Bourdieu
1992:119), this project will explore ways that flood management strategies draw on a working knowledge of the local landscape practiced by residents, farmers and drainage engineers and how this might conflict with state pressures for housing and infrastructure development and the impacts of the global climate change.
Methodology
The researcher will attend consultations between flood-risk communities in Somerset and authorities responsible for flood defense to see whether the consultations accommodate local concerns. Volunteering with FLAG will enable understanding of the strategies local communities support in reducing further flooding. Oral histories will document local accounts of the floods to contrast with scientific and political discourses.
This study will take an ontologically flattened standpoint inspired by assemblage theory (Braun 2006; Ong and Collier 2005; Walker et al 2011) and networks of extended cognition (Strathern 1992; Gell 1998; Candea 2010, Ingold 2004). The project aims to expand the anthropological literature on the practice of local ecological knowledge in a post-industrial rural context. It will explore the role of local knowledge in adapting to the local impacts of wider environmental changes such as urban development and climate change. I hope to offer a way of understanding hazards through local knowledge that would help community-led organizations such as FLAG to help reduce vulnerability.
Research Questions
How do people in rural Somerset assess their vulnerability to flooding in terms of local understandings of the landscape? How is vulnerability assessed in terms of political pressures such as urban development or global concerns such as climate change?
Does the degradation of local knowledge in a post-industrial context make communities more vulnerable to ecological hazards?
What does the practice of local ecological knowledge and the work of community-led organizations like FLAG add to hazard-management strategies and can this improve disaster resilience and adaptation to climate change?
Can an ethnographic approach assist the work of community-led organizations in reducing disaster vulnerability?
How do people demonstrate local concerns and practical forms of knowledge in ecological management strategies? How can ethnography and film assist this?
Output will be a short documentary film which will open up the research to a non-academic audience and portray the material qualities of knowledge production.
Literature review
Participatory action research approaches to ecological adaptation (Warren et al 1995; Hinchcliffe et al 1999; Pound et al 2003; Widlok 2008; Leal Filho 2011) have considered the role of local knowledge systems in climate change adaptation and how these systems work in conjunction with external authorities. This project explores whether the Somerset floods brought out a similar emergence of knowledge and whether sharing local knowledge can improve flood resilience and adaptation to climate change in post-industrial rural communities.
Studies of social capital in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (Mathbor 2007; Hawkins and Maurer 2010) examine cohesion within and between communities, and between communities and state-level authorities. Scheper-Hughes (2005) and Adams (2013) blame lack of social capital for the mismanagement of relief efforts after Katrina causing a 'second order disaster'. By looking at social capital as the resources available through community networks (Bourdieu
1992:119), this project will explore ways that flood management strategies draw on a working knowledge of the local landscape practiced by residents, farmers and drainage engineers and how this might conflict with state pressures for housing and infrastructure development and the impacts of the global climate change.
Methodology
The researcher will attend consultations between flood-risk communities in Somerset and authorities responsible for flood defense to see whether the consultations accommodate local concerns. Volunteering with FLAG will enable understanding of the strategies local communities support in reducing further flooding. Oral histories will document local accounts of the floods to contrast with scientific and political discourses.
This study will take an ontologically flattened standpoint inspired by assemblage theory (Braun 2006; Ong and Collier 2005; Walker et al 2011) and networks of extended cognition (Strathern 1992; Gell 1998; Candea 2010, Ingold 2004). The project aims to expand the anthropological literature on the practice of local ecological knowledge in a post-industrial rural context. It will explore the role of local knowledge in adapting to the local impacts of wider environmental changes such as urban development and climate change. I hope to offer a way of understanding hazards through local knowledge that would help community-led organizations such as FLAG to help reduce vulnerability.
Research Questions
How do people in rural Somerset assess their vulnerability to flooding in terms of local understandings of the landscape? How is vulnerability assessed in terms of political pressures such as urban development or global concerns such as climate change?
Does the degradation of local knowledge in a post-industrial context make communities more vulnerable to ecological hazards?
What does the practice of local ecological knowledge and the work of community-led organizations like FLAG add to hazard-management strategies and can this improve disaster resilience and adaptation to climate change?
Can an ethnographic approach assist the work of community-led organizations in reducing disaster vulnerability?
How do people demonstrate local concerns and practical forms of knowledge in ecological management strategies? How can ethnography and film assist this?
Organisations
Studentship Projects
| Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ES/P000665/1 | 01/10/2017 | 30/09/2027 | |||
| 2071506 | Studentship | ES/P000665/1 | 01/10/2018 | 31/05/2023 | Alexander Pegge |