The Local Epistemology of Climate Change
How the Scientific Discourse on Global Climate Change is Received on the Island of Palawan, the Philippines
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3665987 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Thomas Friedrich (0000-0002-5907-4245, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 68 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 63-84 |
| Publication date | 2018-06-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Sociologus (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0038-0377 • E-ISSN: 1865-5106 |
| Publisher | Duncker & Humblot GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.3790/soc.68.1.63 |
| OpenAlex | W2888602639 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 9 |
| References cited | 8 |
The Philippines is a country that is very prone to tropical cyclones that cause much economic damage and numerous causalities each year. However, not all parts of the archipelago are equally affected. The main part of the island of Palawan in the country’s south west is rather unlikely to be hit by a strong storm, which is why its inhabitants don’t fear very harmful typhoons. At the same time, however, they consider climate change and its adverse effects as a serious threat, and very destructive cyclones like super typhoon Yolanda in 2013 are well understood as intensified by climate change. In this article I will resolve this apparent contradiction. By means of cognitive anthropological methods, I will demonstrate how the scientific discourse on global climate change and thus scientific climate knowledge is incorporated in, and intertwined with pre-existing local ecological knowledge and ubiquitous national and local discourses about the environment. As the presented empirical data indicates, there exists a widespread conviction within the island’s capital that environment-friendly behaviour mitigates extreme weather events as much as morally bad environmental behaviour induces all kinds of natural hazards, including climate change. Therefore, Palawan serves as a good example to show how the located (re)production of scientific climate change knowledge, its local communication, and its entanglements with other forms of cultural knowledge eventually shape the way people perceive and make sense of climate change. Keywords: climate change, knowledge and discourse, epistemology, cognitive anthropology
Archipelago · Climate change · Contradiction · Conviction · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Geography · Global warming · Meteorology · Political science · Social science · Sociology · Sociology of scientific knowledge · Typhoon · Climate Change Communication and Perception · Climate Change, Adaptation, Migration · Ecology · History · Indigenous Studies and Ecology · Law
Competing climate imaginaries
Living on the Frontier
Sense-Making of COP 21 among Rural and City Residents
It’s Our Fault
Climate change reception studies in anthropology
Klaemet jenj worlds. Approaching climate change and knowledge creation in Vanuatu
Global Warming in Local Discourses
Crafting Fieldwork and Insider/Outsider Collaborations
Ontologies of climate change
| Citations per year | 1.29 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2019 - 2026 (8) |
| Highly cited | No |