Indigenous Knowledge, Climate Adaptation, and Disaster Risk Reduction: Towards a Co-generative Anthropology of Disasters of in a Time of Polycrises.

Abstract (English)

Indigenous and local knowledge systems (ILK) that promote sustainability and responsible stewardship of natural and cultural resources have been recently gaining increasing recognition as a significant input in policy and practice in the fields of climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction (DRR). The 2021 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report’s recognition of the ILK’s role in climate action, the 2023 Global Goal on Adaptation Framework’s adoption of cultural heritage as one of its seven thematic targets, and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015-2030)’s inclusion of culture as an important dimension of DRR are recent high-level examples. Co-generative approaches to climate adaptation and DRR are also being increasingly promoted in both global policy venues and academia. Anthropology has taken the lead in emphasizing the importance of ILK in climate adaptation and DRR scholarship and practice, illustrating the benefits and challenges of co-generative ethnographic research in these interrelated fields. Based on ethnographic engagement with local communities in climate hotspots and disaster-prone communities across the world, this presentation advances the argument that co-generative anthropological research that leverages diverse knowledge systems and perspectives lead to processes and outcomes that are more relevant and reflective of the lived experiences of affected individuals, and more likely to be adopted and implemented. I also examine the tension between academic epistemology and lived experience, power, risk and consent, engaged ethnography, and research bureaucracy in global settings.