Gender and climate change adaptation in South Africa: a case study of vulnerability and adaptation experiences of local black African women to flood impacts within the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality.
Year: 2020
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This dissertation contributes towards the scholarly debate on gender and climate change \nadaptation. This is done by exploring the vulnerability and adaptation experiences of local \nBlack Africans to impacts of floods within eThekwini metropolitan municipality, KwaZulu- \nNatal Province, South Africa. Specifically, the discourse in the dissertation is framed within \nthe context of being a local Black South African woman living in rural/informal flood-prone \narea of Durban and having to negotiate everyday lived experiences while adapting to impacts \nof floods and other climate-related disasters. The dissertation is premised on the assumption \nthat local women’s experiences of vulnerability and adaptation to climate-related impacts is \nsignificantly influenced by socioeconomic, cultural, sociopolitical, gendered, racial and other \nsignificant factors of power relations largely operating within the local context. \nThe dissertation applied a qualitative case study approach to research. Primary data for the study was collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews and focus group discussions \nwith Black women from Inanda, Ntuzuma, KwaMashu (INK) and uMlazi localities of \neThekwini metropolitan municipality. Purposive sampling was used to select local Black \nwomen who have had experiences adapting to flood impacts within the area. Personnel from \nthe Environmental Planning and Climate Protection Department, ECPCD of the eThekwini \nmetropolitan municipality were also interviewed. Data collection processes sought to garner \ndata relating to the women’s experiences of vulnerability and adaptation to flood impacts, as \nwell as how the municipality addresses gendered vulnerability of Black women within the \nmunicipality to floods and other climate change-related disasters. The study adopted a thematic \ncontent analysis and was informed by three theoretical lenses: feminist political ecology, \ncritical realism and the Theory of Change. These theories enabled an understanding of how gender intersects with race and class to shape Black women’s experiences as they adapt to \nclimate impacts, as assessed within the contexts presented in this study. \nThe study found that while Black women negotiate their climate adaptation experiences from \ntheir varied individual standpoints, their overall adaptation experiences are further shaped by \nfactors related to poverty, lack of ‘intentionally gendered’ approach to adaptation governance \nin the municipality, as well as socio-cultural normalisation of patriarchal tendencies by men \nagainst women which heightens the vulnerability Black women experience in adapting to flood \nimpacts. To address the contextual vulnerability experiences of the women in the context of \nthe study, the study recommends a collaborative governance model that intentionally seeks to \naddress gendered vulnerability from the women’s varied contextual standpoints.
Author: Fidelis Udo
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3199105145