A diverse group of emerging scholars and practitioners from Ecuador, Mexico, Europe, Australia and the United States gathered to analyze “Unorthodox Solutions to Climate Change”, the theme of Young Scholars Conference, hosted by the Fox International Fellowship at Yale MacMillan Center on April 5.
In her keynote address, Professor Guntra Aistara, an environmental anthropologist, Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy at the Central European University, explained how climate social movements emerge and how they can become effective and resilient. She pointed to an “interdependence between actors and at different scales,” describing how these relationships redefine and reshape concepts such as sovereignty, autonomy and justice. The combination of elements such as memories of place, networks of diversity, autonomies of practice, transformative values and nested justices encompass the struggle for what she calls organic sovereignties. In other words, organic farmers use their certified status as a space through which to negotiate networked and interstitial sovereignties, despite increasing contradictory pressures that constrain sovereignty across scales
Drawing from field research conducted in Latvia, Costa Rica and other countries, she explains the concept of new sovereignties and “networked places.” According to Aistara, “climate change is the lived experience of people” and the formulation of climate change policies must reflect proper understanding of how people are affected. She cited the example of a community in Costa Rica where climate change degrades homes and livelihoods, yet residents deny its existence out of ignorance about the concept and terminologies. She compared this to another community with substantial NGO activities in the form of aid and development projects. The community members came to equate climate change with these programs and subsidies. She therefore concluded, “it is necessary to understand the embodied experiences of people” and tailor specific policy solutions.
Policies that contradict the people’s lived experiences and practices, or fail to support them, would constitute injustice. Such approaches, inconsistent with local ideas of justice, especially when it flows from top down, are unlikely to be accepted. She therefore introduced the idea of “nested justices” – policies that consider the nuances of the people’s experiences in their formation and application to the people. Aistara concludes: “Unorthodox climate policies must emerge out of existing policies and practices; rather than trying to mandate, policies must emerge from networked diversities.”