STRENGTHENING PARTICIPATORY GOVERNANCE TO ADAPT AND OTHER SOCIOCULTURAL RESPONSES TO CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS AMONG FARMING COMMUNITIES IN KERMAN, IRAN

Abstract

Climate change impacts and responses are specific to the needs and challenges of people in a particular place, in which ‘place’ has many dimensions. The form those impacts take depend on social and cultural relations that however particularly local they are have an international dimension. Through a mixture of qualitative, quantitative, and participatory video data sources, this work analyzes how social and cultural elements of place-making inform adaptive measures to climatic changes in a remote district in Kerman, Iran. Many responses have been catalyzed by women’s organized interventions that build on local knowledge systems to address shared environmental and economic concerns. A higher emphasis on place-based dynamics can reveal the global dimensions of local struggles and the ways climate change threatens shared legacies and livelihoods that include material and intangible aspects of identity, community, and sustainability.