Individual, communal and institutional responses to climate change by low-income households in Khulna, Bangladesh
Abstract
The relationship between 鈥渃oping鈥� and 鈥渞esilience鈥� increasingly features in academic, policy and practical discussions on adaptation to climate change in urban areas. This paper examines this relationship in the context of households in 鈥渆xtreme poverty鈥� in the city of Khulna, Bangladesh. It draws on a quantitative data set based on 550 household interviews in low-income and informal settlements that identified the extent of the underlying drivers of vulnerability in this setting, including very low income, inadequate shelter, poor nutritional status and limited physical assets. A series of focus groups were used to explore the ways in which physical hazards have interacted with this underlying vulnerability, as a means to understand the potential impacts of climate change on this particular group of urban residents. These outcomes include frequent water-logging, the destruction of houses and disruption to the provision of basic services. The main focus of the paper is on describing the practices of low-income urban residents in responding to climate-related shocks and stresses, placing these in a particular political context, and drawing lessons for urban policies in Bangladesh and elsewhere. A wide range of specific adaptation-related activities can be identified, which can be grouped into three main categories 鈥� individual, communal and institutional. The paper examines the extent to which institutional actions are merely 鈥渃oping鈥� 鈥� or whether they create the conditions in which individuals and households can strengthen their own long-term resilience. Similarly, it examines the extent to which individual and communal responses are merely 鈥渃oping鈥� 鈥� or whether they have the potential to generate broader political change that strengthens the position of marginalized groups in the city.
Citation
Haque, A.N.; Dodman, D.; Hossain, M.M. Individual, communal and institutional responses to climate change by low-income households in Khulna, Bangladesh. Environment and Urbanization (2014) 26 (1) 112-129. [DOI: 10.1177/0956247813518681]