IMUCCA · Interdisciplinary Model for Understanding Climate Change Adaptation

Social scientists have generally treated climate change (CC) vulnerability as homogeneous across social space, underestimating the serious social distortions and conflicts it produces. Previous research conducted by the Fellow suggests that CC impact is unevenly distributed, even within small social units such as Indian villages, West African towns, or Fijian islands. This project is guided by a hypothesis derived from Fellow's earlier work: economic and social relations (class, gender, ethnicity, religion, caste) have an overwhelming impact on CC vulnerability and adaptation practices. Examining one of the regions where the impact of CC is most advanced – rural India – the project aims to generate detailed empirical data for tracing the connections between CC and existing forms of social stratification. Under the supervision of leading experts in agrarian studies, environment, and modelling, the project result will be turned into a generalisable model that can be used to understand and predict other agrarian societies’ experiences of CC, and their differential modes of adaptation. Drawing on economic sociology, socioecology and environmental economics, the project's empirical research will take place in two villages in Maharashtra, India, where agriculture is in the midst of an ongoing crisis caused by biophysical processes. The Fellow will employ mixed methods, using quantitative household surveys and semi-structured qualitative interviews, which will be collected during two research visits to India. The development of an evidence-based framework will make a pioneering contribution to our ability to address the differing ways in which different members of a society are impacted by, and respond to, CC. The project addresses core EU objectives, such as “preparedness for the impact of climate change to protect lives and assets,” so helping confirm the EU as leading developer of knowledge solutions for the most pressing problems of humanity.