Jerneck Anne
Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies, Lund University, Box 170, 221 00 Lund, Sweden.
Sustain Sci. 2018;13(2):403-416. doi: 10.1007/s11625-017-0464-y. Epub 2017 Aug 19.
People, places, and production contributing the least to climate change will suffer the most. This calls for adaptation as a key climate change response. But adaptation is surrounded by problems. Finance is uncertain and fragmented, mainstreaming into development is complicated, and technical solutions often overshadow existing social relations and institutions. From a gender perspective, and as a critical research initiative to support the building of sustainability science as an umbrella field, this article raises three pertinent questions on adaptation in the global South: what is its purpose, how can development inform it, and what institutions in terms of rights and responsibilities are core to it? Focusing on sub-Saharan small-scale agriculture, three main points emerge. Regarding the purpose, adaptation should be a transformative pathway out of poverty, ill-health, and food insecurity. Regarding development, adaptation can learn from how development theory, policy, and practice have addressed women, gender, and environment in varied settings and debates. Regarding core institutions, adaptation must address gender regimes that regulate access to, use of, and control over resources, especially those defining land distribution, labour division, and strategic decision-making power. To conclude, I propose gender-informed research questions for further inquiry.
对气候变化贡献最小的人群、地区和生产活动将遭受最严重的影响。这就要求将适应作为应对气候变化的关键举措。但适应面临诸多问题。资金不稳定且分散，融入发展的主流化过程复杂，技术解决方案往往掩盖了现有的社会关系和制度。从性别视角出发，作为支持构建可持续性科学这一综合领域的一项重要研究倡议，本文就全球南方地区的适应问题提出三个相关问题：其目的是什么，发展如何为其提供信息，以及就权利和责任而言，哪些机构是其核心？聚焦撒哈拉以南非洲的小规模农业，出现了三个要点。关于目的，适应应成为摆脱贫困、健康不佳和粮食不安全状况的变革性途径。关于发展，适应可以借鉴发展理论、政策和实践在不同背景和辩论中处理妇女、性别与环境问题的方式。关于核心机构，适应必须应对那些规范资源获取、使用和控制的性别制度，尤其是那些界定土地分配、劳动分工和战略决策权的制度。最后，我提出了具有性别视角的研究问题以供进一步探究。
