CCSL_project_SocialDifferentiation

= CCSL project: Social differentiation in climate change = FlipSide Sustainability - Alison Shaw

Description
Effective decision support tools assume an understanding of socio-ecological systems, political economy at different scales, and the influences on the needs and risk perceptions of different stakeholder audiences. Social differentiation plays a role in determining what types of information are considered relevant and applicable. Yet very little research has focused on the ability of tailored information to help diverse groups acquire information, identify socially appropriate decision support and make adaptive changes. Better understanding of the critical role that social characteristics such as gender, age, economic status, ethnicity, profession, and cultural background play in determining what is and is not relevant in regard to new technologies and appropriate adaptation is important for guiding results-oriented research.

Vulnerability to climate change differs substantially across regions, communities and even households, and the communities that are most vulnerable to climate change generally face double exposure through poverty, gender disparities, and other social inequities. Vulnerability is defined as “the degree to which a system is susceptible to, or unable to cope with, adverse effects of climate change... vulnerability is a function of the character, magnitude and rate of climate change and variation to which the system is exposed, its sensitivity, and its adaptive capacity” (IPCC 4AR WGII, 2007). The social vulnerability scholarship outlines ways to understand the types of populations, communities and households that suffer increased climate impacts due to sensitivity and to reduced adaptive capacity based on demographic and/or socially differentiated markers. Specifically, individuals, households and communities are likely to face greater susceptibility based on socioeconomic status, gender, age, geography, ethnic and cultural background and lack of access to services.

Attention to socially differentiated stakeholder groups has become a critical focus for understanding adaptive capacity to climate change. It has been identified as a need for ensuring relevant and appropriate information is produced for specific audiences with specific end-user needs. Working among vulnerable populations however is not a matter of conventional knowledge transfer. These communities tend to be marginalized from conventional avenues of knowledge creation, interpretation and the tools and approaches that transfer relevant scientific information. Therefore thoughtful and targeted approaches and planning are required to understand the risks posed to particular populations. This is important in order to proactively reduce exposure and sensitivity to climate change and improve capacity to predict, prepare for, and avoid adverse impacts.

This project aims to contribute to this thoughtful and targeted planning by performing an overall scan of activities in the 15 CGIAR centers of projects emphasizing socially differentiated end users, such as women, and their differentiated information requirements. Tailoring information to particular stakeholder groups is not only thought to frame the most appropriate information and knowledge for increasing adaptive capacity, but is also viewed as necessary for framing what relevant and legitimate interventions and changes in practice look like. Inclusion of socially differentiated audiences and integration of their feedback leads to learning cycles, over time, between users and researchers whereby knowledge is co-created and appropriately adapted.

This work was originally introduced at the ** CGIAR Social learning stocktaking workshop  ** in November 2012.

Outputs:
> > CCAFS Working paper 43 >
 * Shaw, A and Kristjanson, P (2014) [|A Catalyst toward Sustainability? Exploring Social Learning and Social Differentiation Approaches with the Agricultural Poor]
 * Shaw, A., Kristjanson, P. (2013) Catalysing learning for development and climate change: an exploration of social learning and social differentiation