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- Convenors:
-
Subhadra Channa
(Delhi University)
Heather OLeary (Washington University in St Louis)
- Stream:
- Living landscapes: Anthropocene/Paysages vivants: Anthropocène
- Location:
- VNR 2027
- Start time:
- 4 May, 2017 at
Time zone: America/New_York
- Session slots:
- 2
Short Abstract:
This panel invites papers on the forced movements of the poor and marginalized people from environments threatened by climate change and anthropogenic causes.
Long Abstract:
In recent times millions of people are living in environments that are continuously threatened by climate change and other anthropogenic activities that cause floods, submergence of land, deforestation, volcanic eruptions and storms; leading to movements of populations. These are most often the people who are also on the margins of society because of their poverty, social and political marginalization, who do not get any support when their livelihoods disappear or their lands are submerged or rendered uneconomic. The people living in closest association with the environment, namely the indigenous and tribes, are the most vulnerable as they feel even the slightest variations in their habitat as a direct loss. In the name of modernity and development these habitat and the people native to them, like small island dwellers, forest and mountain dwellers often suffer devastation, when dams are built, mining takes place or massive urbanization dries up ground water or causes loss of vegetation.
Pushed out of their original habitats these people are forced to migrate to cities or other locales where the indigenous knowledge and skills acquired by them are deemed useless and they find themselves at the bottom of the economic hierarchy, struggling for survival in hostile environments. This panel invites papers that illuminate cases of such displacements and migrations as well as probes the power hierarchies and inequalities that are causative of both environmental degradation and the exploitation of resources of marginal people.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Iswar Chandra Naik (KIIT University )
Paper short abstract:
The failure of the developmental model, many people’s movements have emerged for evolving strategies. However, the development, marginalization and people’s movements in Odisha has been the subject of debates and discussions, both at national and international level.
Paper long abstract:
The present developmental process has failed to end the deprivation faced by marginalized communities in Odisha. In fact it has contributed to the social reproduction of marginalization. This has far reaching consequences for the people who are still dependent on nature for their survival. In India, due to its peculiar socio-historical conditions, the over-utilization of natural resources proves beneficial only to a small group of people. The developmental goals are fulfilled by diverting the resources away from the survival needs of the majority. In every society there are some sections of people who are deprived of socio-economic opportunities for their sustenance and are victims of social, cultural and political exclusion. In Odisha the marginalized communities are rural poor, scheduled tribes and scheduled castes, manual workers in unorganized sector, women, physically challenge, etc. The marginalized communities have been excluded from the development process of Odisha.
This study argue that the present model of development paradigm in Odisha is practically marginalized the tribal and dalit people in the name of economic growth and depriving their traditional means of livelihood by establishing mineral-based industries and construction of big dams in the tribal areas of Odisha. In the name of industrialization and the country's economic development, the Bhadralok capitalists in Odisha are taking over the life and livelihood of the tribal people and pushing them into a further impoverished which displacing them from their land and homes, losing their culture and identities.
Goro Yamazaki (Osaka University)
Paper short abstract:
This paper explore the progress of population decreases from the perspective of the transformation of the local community and discuss how human and non-human actors alike articulate a society that is totally different from that of modern society.
Paper long abstract:
The population of Japan started to decrease in 2015 and it is estimated that around 900 rural communities will disappear in the next 30 years because of the population decrease. In this paper I will explore the progress of such population decreases from the perspective of the transformation of the local community and discuss how human and non-human actors alike -- i.e. animals, river currents, mountain forests, empty houses --articulate a society that is totally different from that of modern society.
I have been doing my research in the Keihoku area, a northern part of Kyoto city, where the population has decreased at a rapid rate since the 1960s. Only 5371 people are currently living in this area, while over 10,000 people were living there in the 1960s. It is said that the population will halve in the next 10 years if nothing is done to address depopulation.
Under such conditions, one irony is that the number of Japanese deer in the area is already larger than that of human inhabitants. Indeed, residents comment that it is not strange, for example, to see families of wild boars living in empty houses. Because of the high rate of population decline, many aspects of social life and environmental dynamics have started to evolve beyond the range of human attention and intervention. I will try to capture and describe this newly emerging society that is being co-created by humans and non-humans in the age of population decrease.
Suheel Mir (University of Kashmir)
Paper short abstract:
Globalization has two sides. people , goods and capital now circle far and wide with more noteworthy effectiveness than at any other time. Then again, for the more vulnerable strata of society, including refugees,the outcomes of globalization are frequently less promising
Paper long abstract:
Globalization has 'invaded' all arenas of the world known to man. It comes as no revelation that the contemporary wars are more global in nature than the preceding world wars, even though they are situated in a limited geography. A proliferation of wars has resulted in a global market for weapons, arms, ammunitions and also an alternate oil market. Globally, women make up just under half of international migrants. It has given rise to migration on an unprecedented scale, unparallel and unwitnessed in the history of migration, prompting the United Nations to host the Summit for Refugees and Migrants. This is important evidence in the direction of 'Refugeeization' of migration. The current explosion in migration towards Europe, North America and Australia is premised on all the factors of push-and-pull governing migration, yet they are also additionally fuelled by escaping repressive gender regimes. women and girl refugees and migrants face serious protection risks, including violence and exploitation such as rape, transactional sex, human and organ trafficking and experience to gender-based violence (GBV), which is, in turn, exacerbated by the recurrent disparate gender relations within the commune of origin. Gender is indispensable in opening and implementing method and policies intended at protective and empowering women refugees and asylum seekers in order to permit them to become vivacious contributors to the host society. As refugees and migrants adapt to new environs, they experience racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia.
Keywords: Globalization, Gender, Refugeeization, Migration, gender based violence (GBV).
Sweta Banerjee
Paper short abstract:
The Himalayan provinces of northeast India with rich biodiversity & ethnic tribes are facing displacements due to aggressive dam building denying their rights. Submerged forest land, flood, & dried river beds are leading to end of traditional livelihood. .
Paper long abstract:
The Developers of India are now targeting North east Himalayan states of tribal lands. The area is mostly hilly with fragile ecosystem and very less flat land. Ethnic tribes are integral part of the nature and ecosystem. Till date they preserve this biodiversity which is the very basis of their survival as they depend on river, forest & wildlife. About 135 tribes live here with unique culture, tradition and identity of its own. The Brahmaputra river with major and minor river basins are the basis of hydro projects which may have very little or no benefit for the native tribes but will surely benefit the rest of India through huge power generations. The submergence of flat land, grazing land, community land and compensatory regeneration of forest by developers will also costs flat land of the tribes.
The Environmental Impact Assessment is done without considering downstream impact. The clearance is completed on papers; no prior mandatory public hearing takes place. One province already took huge advance from private developers and partial release of information shows 116 dams are coming in five river basins.
An interdisciplinary dedicated research team is needed to impartially survey the situation. A group of Anthropologists are also necessary to communicate with diverse ethnic tribes. Already they are facing challenges of illegal immigrants in their land - How ethical is it to take their livelihood and outnumber them with influx of skilled and unskilled workforce from outside and finally displaced?