Cultural knowledge and local vulnerability in African American communities

Abstract

Policymakers need to know what factors are most important in determining local vulnerability to facilitate e ective adaptation to climate change. Quantitative vulnerability indices are helpful in this endeavour but are limited in their ability to capture subtle yet important aspects of vulnerability such as social networks, knowledge and access to resources. Working with three African American communities on Maryland's Eastern Shore, we systematically elicit local cultural knowledge on climate change and connect it with a scientific vulnerability framework. The results of this study show that: a given social-ecological factor can substantially di er in the way in which it a ects local vulnerability, even among communities with similar demographics and climate-related risks; and social and political isolation inhibits access to sources of adaptive capacity, thereby exacerbating local vulnerability. These results show that employing methods for analysing cultural knowledge can yield new insights to complement those generated by quantitative vulnerability indices.

Fighting the inevitable: infrastructure investment and coastal community adaptation to sea level rise

“…Since 1986, there has been a steady decline in manufacturing and warehouse jobs. Dorchester's limited economic, social, and political resources constrain options for adapting to SLR (Miller Hesed and Paolisso, ).…”

“…With Boesch et al . () projecting a 110 cm increase in mean sea level by the end of the century, the bay shores may retreat up to 10 km inland (Miller Hesed and Paolisso, ). In some low‐lying areas, roads and homes are already at risk of flooding during high tides.…”

Rain Rituals as a Barometer of Vulnerability in an Uncertain Climate

“…However, there is also value in analyzing participation in ritual performance more broadly to assess vulnerability related to social relationships and status. Schipper's (2010) (Hesed and Paolisso 2015). Congregations with declining membership over the past 50 years showed greater losses of adaptive capacity due to lost access to information and other resources once shared across wider social networks.…”

“…Byg and Salick 2009;Gómez-Baggethun et al 2012;Hesed and Paolisso 2015;Hiwasaki et al 2015;Huffman 2009;Kusters and Wangdi 2013;Murphy et al 2016;Ronkoana 2016;Schipper 2010). Rappaport's (1968Rappaport's ( , 1999 assertion that rituals serve as a self-regulatory, community adaptive response to persist in the face of social-environmental change is supported by these observations.…”

Social Science Perspectives on Drivers of and Responses to Global Climate Change

“…In addition, mitigation and adaptation decisions are subject to path-dependency, meaning current options are often constrained by the outcomes of past decisions . While the drivers of increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases are largely international and global, the effects of contemporary climate change are experienced locally (Miller et al 2015). This section discusses how approaches to mitigating and adapting to climate change are influenced by both longterm and near-term social processes as well as relationships between various actors.…”