Dynamics of socio‐ecosystems, local knowledge and adaptation strategies to climate risk
Invited tutors
- Amer Bazl Khan, archaeologist, MAHI, Karachi
- Dr Michel Boivin, anthropologist and historian, CESAH, CNRS-EHESS, Paris
- Dr Sylvie Fanchette, geographer, CESSMA (IRD), Paris
- Dr. Bishawjit Mallick, geographer, Utrecht University, Utrecht
- Marvi Mazhar, architect and researcher
Abstract
The focus of this workshop here will be on ecosystems in their threefold ecological, economic and social dimensions, and on the production of local knowledge about the environment. We will be looking at rivers, and more specifically at delta regions and deltaic societies, which, in addition to their intrinsic alluvial, economic, agricultural and hydraulic qualities, are vulnerable to the effects of global warming (rising water levels, flooding, relocation, etc.), as well as to the existence of numerous dams and major irrigation projects upstream of the deltas. Representations of the river and water, which can be studied through the ethnography of certain local cults or vernacular literature, will be considered alongside local practices and uses of delta environments. Finally, these representations and practices will be contrasted with the ecological imperative and new forms of coastal governance. Combining anthropological, geographical and sociological approaches to environmental risks in these contexts, this workshop will draw on methodological tools such as remote sensing, participatory management and collaborative mapping.
W2 Schedule
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 12th | |
8:00-11:15 | Fieldwork session in Ibrahim Hyderi, animated by Bishawjit Mallick |
11:15-11:30 | COFFEE/TEA BREAK |
11:30-13:00 | Fieldwork session in Ibrahim Hyderi, animated by Bishawjit Mallick |
13:00-14:00 | LUNCH BREAK |
14:00-15:45 | Fieldwork session in Baba island or Ibrahim Hyderi, animated by Bishawjit Mallick |
15:45-16:00 | COFFEE/TEA BREAK |
16:00-17:30 | Bishawjit Mallick – Understanding (non-)migration behaviour: Risky Business in Everyday Life in the Context of Climate Change |
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 13th | |
9:30-11:00 | Sylvie Fanchette – Critical aspect of “living with floods strategies” in highly populated deltas |
11:00-11:15 | COFFEE/TEA BREAK |
11:15-13:00 | Sylvie Fanchette – How living with floods strategies are challenged by hard engineering hydraulic management in deltas |
13:00-14:00 | LUNCH BREAK |
14:00-15:45 | Screening of the documentary Milaap (2023) and debate with Marvi Mazhar |
15:45-16:00 | COFFEE/TEA BREAK |
16:00-17:30 | Michel Boivin – The integration of Nature and its risks in the material culture of Sindh |
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14th | |
9:30-11:15 | Amer Bazl Khan – Climate change impact on cultural heritage in the Indus Delta region |
11:15-11:30 | COFFEE/TEA BREAK |
11:30-13:00 | Amer Bazl Khan – Climate change impact on cultural heritage in the Indus Delta region (continued) |
13:00-14:00 | LUNCH BREAK |
14:00-15:45 | Group work: preparation of knowledge/project restitution supervised |
15:45-16:00 | COFFEE/TEA BREAK |
16:00-17:30 | Group work continues |
DECEMBER, NOVEMBER 15th | |
9:30-11:15 | Group work continues |
11:15-11:30 | COFFEE/TEA BREAK |
11:30-13:00 | Group work continues |
13:00-14:00 | LUNCH BREAK |
14:00-16:00 | Plenary group presentation by trainees |
16:00-16:30 | COFFEE/TEA BREAK |
16:30-18:00 | Valedictory Address
Feedback from resource persons, students and trainers Delivery of certificates |
READINGS AND ONLINE RESOURCES
Adger, W., Barnett, J., Brown, K. et al. Cultural dimensions of climate change impacts and adaptation. Nature Clim Change 3, 112–117 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1666
Bhattacharyya, Debjani 2017. Soaking ecology, Chennai, India https://www.iias.asia/the-newsletter/article/soaking-ecologies-rethinking-asian-urbanism
Boivin, Michel, “The symbolic power of Sufism: the exemple of the begging bowl (kishti),” unofficial translation from French, “Le pouvoir symbolique du soufisme: l’exemple de la sébile (kishti),” The Journal of the History of Sufism 6 (2015): 77-84.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ZITR7L7GBJ_MyrEy4mGedLuAerN5-NTy
Boivin, Michel, “Khwaja Khizr in Iconographic Translation: The Changing Visual Idiom of a Complex Figure from South Asia,” in Michel Boivin and Manoël Pénicaud (Eds), Inter-religious Practices and Saint Veneration in the Muslim World. Khidr/Khizr from the Middle East to South Asia, London and New York, Routledge, 2023, pp. 84-103.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ZITR7L7GBJ_MyrEy4mGedLuAerN5-NTy
Craterre, 2018 – Local Building Cultures for sustainable and resilient habitats. https://sheltercluster.org/promoting-safer-building-working-group/documents/bangladesh-local-building-cultures-resilience-and
Darian, Steven, “The Other Face of the Makara,” Artibus Asiae ,1976, Vol. 38, No. 1 (1976), pp. 29-36
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ZITR7L7GBJ_MyrEy4mGedLuAerN5-NTy
Dashew Robins, Betty and Robert F. Bussabarger, “The Makara: A Mythical Monster from India”, Archaeology, January 1970, Vol. 23, No. 1, pp. 38-43.
Ehlert Judith, 2012. Beautiful Floods, environmental knowledge and agrarian changes in the Mekong Delta (Vietnam), ZEF development studies, Vol 19. Book review https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00472336.2013.869001
Fanchette S, 2012- “Craft villages in the Red River Delta (Vietnam): Periodization, Spatialization, Specialization”. In : Local agri-food systems in a global world. Market, social and environmental challenges. éd. par Filippo Arfini, Maria Cecilia Mancini, et Michele Donati, Newcastle upon Tyne : Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 259-278. http://horizon.documentation.ird.fr/exl-doc/pleins_textes/divers12-06/010055064.pdf
Fanchette S., 2022 – Delta Vulnerability Linked to Climate and Environmental Changes: Metropolization Challenges in Asian and Nile Deltas, in : Deboulet A. & Mansour W., Middle Earstern Cities in Time of Climate Crisis, https://books.openedition.org/cedej/8574?nomobile=1
Grant, K., Rohling, E., Ramsey, C. et al. Sea-level variability over five glacial cycles. Nat Commun 5, 5076 (2014).https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms6076
Gregory, D., Dawson, T., Elkin, D., Tilburg, H., Underwood, C., Richards, V., . . . Hollesen, J. (2022). Of time and tide: The complex impacts of climate change on coastal and underwater cultural heritage. Antiquity, 96(390).
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/of-time-and-tide-the-complex-impacts-of-climate-change-on-coastal-and-underwater-cultural-heritage/246F7D385DB46F8AD13BADFCBDF22618
Holmes, D. A., “The Recent History of the Indus”, The Geographical Journal, Vol. 134, No. 3, (Sep., 1968), pp. 367-382.
Hunter, L.M., Nawrotzki, R. (2016). Migration and the Environment. In: White, M. (eds) International Handbook of Migration and Population Distribution. International Handbooks of Population, vol 6. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7282-2_21
Khan, Naveeda, “Living Paradox in Riverine Bangladesh: Whiteheadian Perspectives on Ganga Devi and Khwaja Khijir”, Anthropologica, Volume 58, Number 2, 2016, pp. 179-192.
Khubchandani, Lachman K.(1995): “The Supernatural in Nature: the Sindhi Tradition”, in Prakriti, the Integral Vision, Vol.1: Primal Elements: The Oral Traditions (editore Baidyanath Saraswati), Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, D.K. Printworlds, New Delhi, pp. 24-28.
Kumbher, Kamran, “Khwajah Khizr in Sindhi devotional literature: A Preliminary Survey”, In Michel Boivin and Manoël Pénicaud (Eds), Inter-religious Practices and Saint Veneration in the Muslim World. Khidr/Khizr from the Middle East to South Asia, London and New York, Routledge, 2023, pp. 104-119.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ZITR7L7GBJ_MyrEy4mGedLuAerN5-NTy
Loveson, Victor & Nigam, R. (2019). Reconstruction of Late Pleistocene and Holocene Sea Level Curve for the East Coast of India. Geological Society Of India, 93(5), 507-514. Journal of the Geological Society of India. 93. 503-524. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332876634_Reconstruction_of_Late_Pleistocene_and_Holocene_Sea_Level_Curve_for_the_East_Coast_of_India_Geological_Society_Of_India_935_507-514
Mallick, B., Priovashini, C. & Schanze, J. “I can migrate, but why should I?”—voluntary non-migration despite creeping environmental risks. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 10, 34 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01516-1
Mallick, B.; Rogers, K.G.; & Sultana, Z. (2021) In Harm’s Way: Non-Migration Decisions of People at Risk of Slow-onset Coastal Hazards in Bangladesh, in Ambio. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-021-01552-8
Melikian-Chirvani, Asadullah-Souren, 1993, ‘From the Royal Boat to the Beggar’s bowl’, Islamic Art, IV, pp. 3–111.
Parvin, Afroza, PhD, A.F.M. Ashraful Alam, Rumana Asad, Climate Change Impact and Adaptation in Urban Informal Settlements in Khulna: A Built Environmental Perspective.
Shakir, Masooma, Suneela Ahmed, Michel Boivin and Fahmida Shaikh, “Indus River and Cultural Heritage. Commemoration of Three Sites in Sindh” Handbook of Waterfront Cities and Urbanism, Edited By Mohammed Rahman, New York, Routledge, pp. 58-74.
Sindhri, Saba, “In Search of the Mohanas”, MIFS Newsletter, n°7-8, July 2020, pp. 14-15.
https://sindh.hypotheses.org/files/2020/09/8-July-2020.pdf
Sindhri, Saba, “Muhanas of the Manchhar Lake: A Preliminary Survey of their reverence to Water”, MIFS Newsletter, n°11, February 2022, pp. 10-21. https://sindh.hypotheses.org/files/2022/02/MIFSEN11-1-1.pdf
Taylor, Philip 2013. Loosing The Waterways: The Displacement of Khmer Communities from the Freshwater Rivers of the Mekong Delta, 1945-2010, Modern Asian Studies 47, 2, pp. 500-541 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0026749X12000406
Zickgraf, C. (2018) Immobility, in R. McLeman & F. Gemenne (eds.) Routledge Handbook of Environmental Displacement and Migration, Chapter 5 Immobility | 5 | Routledge Handbook of Environmental Displacement and (taylorfrancis.com)