Paper short abstract:

This paper considers the impact of relationships based on exchange and kinship social obligations and on the social capital and adaptive capacity of an iTaukei (indigenous Fijian) community to respond to environmental and social change.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores social capacities within an iTaukei (indigenous Fijian) village that enable self protection and collective action to avert and/or cope with environmental stressors and hazards. As any response to climate change takes place in a social context, understanding the social capital of the context is important for a fuller understanding of how people may and do respond. In this context, kinship and the relationship with the Vanua are the basis for social capital transactions. Vanua refers not only to a specific area of land and its flora and fauna, but also the people residing there and their ancestors, the social rules governing human interactions, and the relationships between people and the natural environment. These relationships are based on social norms and shared understandings of respect and reciprocity, including the relationship with the Vanua. This respect for people and land, based on communal understandings of possessions is often perceived as indicating high social capital and assumed to be positive in many modern development and climate change adaptation projects. However, these often assume a human/nature dichotomy as well as an understanding of social capital still somewhat rooted in its rational actor origins. Using data collected from an iTaukei community in Fiji's Rewa River delta this paper demonstrates that these assumptions are not appropriate for this context, where social obligations required to maintain healthy relationships with and within the Vanua can negatively impact people's ability to respond to environmental change.