A Conversation with Thomas Hylland Eriksen: On the Anthropology of Climate Change (original) (raw)

Anthropology’s Contribution to the Study of Climate Change

Nature Climate Change, 2013

Understanding the challenge that climate change poses and crafting appropriate adaptation and mitigation mechanisms requires input from the breadth of the natural and social sciences. Anthropology's in-depth fieldwork methodology, long engagement in questions of society–environment interactions and broad, holistic view of society yields valuable insights into the science, impacts and policy of climate change. Yet the discipline's voice in climate change debates has remained a relatively marginal one until now. Here, we identify three key ways that anthropological research can enrich and deepen contemporary understandings of climate change.

Contribution of anthropology to the study of climate change.

Barnes, Jessica, Michael Dove, Myanna Lahsen, Andrew Mathews, Pamela McElwee, Roderick McIntosh, Frances Moore, Jessica O’Reilly, Ben Orlove, Rajindra Puri, Harvey Weiss and Karina Yager, in Nature Climate Change 3: 541-544. , 2013

"Understanding the challenge that climate change poses and crafting appropriate adaptation and mitigation mechanisms requires input from the breadth of the natural and social sciences. Anthropology’s in-depth fieldwork methodology, long engagement in questions of society–environment interactions and broad, holistic view of society yields valuable insights into the science, impacts and policy of climate change. Yet the discipline’s voice in climate change debates has remained a relatively marginal one until now. Here, we identify three key ways that anthropological research can enrich and deepen contemporary understandings of climate change."

Climate Change: Expanding Anthropological Possibilities

Annual Review of Anthropology, 2020

Climate anthropology has broadened over the past decade from predominately locally focused studies on climate impacts to encompass new approaches to climate science, mitigation, sustainability transformations, risks, and resilience. We examine how theoretical positionings, including from actor-network theory, new materialisms, ontologies, and cosmopolitics, have helped expand anthropological climate research, particularly in three key interrelated areas. First, we investigate ethnographic approaches to climate science knowledge production, particularly around epistemic authority, visioning of futures, and engagements with the material world. Second, we consider climate adaptation studies that critically examine discourses and activities surrounding concepts of vulnerability, subjectivities, and resilience. Third, we analyze climate mitigation, including energy transitions, technological optimism, market-based solutions, and other ways of living in a carbon-constrained world. We conclude that anthropological approaches provide novel perspectives, made possible through engagements with our uniquely situated research partners, as well as opportunities for opening up diverse solutions and possible transformative futures. 13 ,. • • �-Review in Advance first posted on April 14, 2020. (Changes may still occur before final publication.

The Role of Anthropology in Anthropogenic Climate Change

This paper will discuss in detail the specific roles that anthropology is playing in unique case studies from around the world. It will highlight the need for awareness while also advocating a greater role for anthropology; in the battle against climate change. Various case studies from three different regions: the Arctic, high altitude mountains and tropical sea-level islands will be showcased. This will show not only the diverse applications for anthropology, but the variety of effects on those facing the brunt of climate change. Anthropology has the ability to successfully apply local strategies in a working partnership with indigenous groups. It is unique in the fact that an anthropologist is the pivot point between the local and global, and can draw upon a wealth of knowledge from both sides to find unique solutions. This paper will also discuss the holistic and methodological roles that anthropology has and needs to play, while debating the terminology applied to indigenous groups. Human agency, advocacy, resilience, vulnerability and adaptation are all strong themes that will be discussed within various formats. Climate change is one of the greatest threats facing humanity in current times, and anthropology has a duty to be at the forefront in order to find effective solutions.

Climate and Culture: Anthropology in the Era of Contemporary Climate Change

Annual Review of Anthropology

This review provides an overview of foundational climate and culture studies in anthropology; it then tracks developments in this area to date to include anthropological engagements with contemporary global climate change. Although early climate and culture studies were mainly founded in archaeology and environmental anthropology, with the advent of climate change, anthropology's roles have expanded to engage local to global contexts. Considering both the unprecedented urgency and the new level of reflexivity that climate change ushers in, anthropologists need to adopt cross-scale, multistakeholder, and interdisciplinary approaches in research and practice. I argue for one mode that anthropologists should pursue—the development of critical collaborative, multisited ethnography, which I term “climate ethnography.”

Locating the Anthropology of Climate Change: An Interview with Ben Orlove by Virginia R. Dominguez

American Anthropologist, 2020

His recent work homes in on climate change, with emphases on glacier retreat, water, natural hazards, and the loss of iconic landscapes. Orlove has published numerous academic articles and books, as well as a family memoir. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a recipient of a Presidential Award from the American Anthropological Association. Virginia R. Dominguez (VRD): What led you to consider climate in your work? I know you started with fieldwork in Peru but that you have also done a few other things, including a book about your father. Ben Orlove (BO): As a novice anthropologist in graduate school, I stumbled into what was then cultural ecology, just