Climate (In)justice
An Intersectional Feminist Analysis of Disaster Management in Antigua and Barbuda in the Aftermath of Hurricane Irma
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22151/politikon.47.1Keywords:
Antigua and Barbuda, Climate Change, Disaster Management, Hurricane Irma, Intersectional Feminism, Resilience, SIDS, VulnerabilityAbstract
This article discusses disaster management in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma in Antigua and Barbuda. Vulnerability and resilience of individuals and groups in relation to disaster management are placed within structures such as gender, sexuality, (dis)ability, age and socio-economic status, etc. How stakeholders within disaster management such as the Directorate of Gender Affairs, the National Office of Disaster Services, and District Coordinators, understand and respond to vulnerability and resilience might reinforce or challenge such structures and power relations. This study draws on insights from intersectional feminism to examine which social categories are made (in)visible, and how power relations are reproduced or challenged. It shows that some social categories (age, family status, class and occupation) in relation to gender gain more attention than others (disability and sexuality). The understandings and responses make some social categories that have previously been invisible visible, and heteronormative and patriarchal processes were both reproduced and challenged.
References
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Collins, Patricia Hill, and Sirma Bilge. 2016. Intersectionality. Cambridge: Polity.
Crenshaw, Kimberle. 1991. “Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color.” Stanford Law Review 4, no. 6 (July): 1241–1299. https://doi.org/10.2307/1229039.
Davies, Charlotte. 2008. Reflexive Ethnography: A Guide to Researching Selves and Others, 2nd Edition. London: Routledge.
De los Reyes, Paulina, and Diana Mulinari. 2005. Intersektionalitet: Kritiska reflektioner över (o)jämlikhetens landskap, 1.uppl. Malmö: Liber.
Djoudi, Houria, Bruno Locatelli, Chloe Vaast, Kiran Asher, Maria Brockhaus, and Bimbika Basnett Sijapati. 2016. “Beyond dichotomies: Gender and intersecting inequalities in climate change studies.” Ambio 45: 248–262. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-016-0825-2.
Enarson, Elaine Pitt, and P. G. Dhar Chakrabarti. 2009. Women, gender and disaster: global issues and initiatives. Los Angeles, California: Sage Publications.
Enarson, Elaine Pitt, and Betty Morrow. 1998. The Gendered Terrain of Disaster. Trough Women’s Eyes. Connecticut: Praeger Publishers.
England, Kim. 1994. “Getting Personal: Reflexivity, Positionality, and Feminist Research.” The Professional Geographer 46, no. 1: 80–89. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0033-0124.1994.00080.x.
Fothergill, Alice. 1998. “The Neglect of Gender in Diaster Work: An Overview of the Literature”. In The Gendered Terrain of Disaster. Trough Women’s Eyes, edited by Elaine Pitt Enrson and Betty Morrow. Connecticut: Praeger Publishers, 11–25.
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Freidenvall, Lenita. 2016. “Intersektionalitet och feminism–en komplicerad kombination?” Tidskrift för politisk filosofi 20, no. 2: 1–16. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn%3Anbn%3Ase%3Asu%3Adiva-177073.
Gaillard, J. C., Kristinne Sanz, Benigno C. Balgos, Soledad Natalia M. Dalisay, Andrew Gorman-Murray, Fagalua Smith, and Vaito’a Toelupe. 2017. “Beyond men and women: a critical perspective on gender and disaster.” Disasters 41, no. 3: 429–447. https://doi.org/10.1111/disa.12209.
Gustafsson, Maria-Therese, and Livia Johannesson. 2016. Introduktion till politisk etnografi: metoder för statsvetare, 1st Edition. Malmö: Gleerup.
Harding, Sandra G. 1987. Feminism and Methodology: Social Science Issues. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Hines, Sally. 2010. “Sexing Gender; Gendering Sex: Towards an Intersectional Analysis of Transgender in Theorizing Intersectionality and Sexuality.” In Theorizing Intersectionality and Sexuality. Genders and Sexualities in the Social Sciences, edited by Yvette Taylor, Sally Hines, and M. Casey. London: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230304093_8.
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Kaijser, Anna. 2014. “Who is Marching for Pachamama? An Intersectional Analysis of Environmental Struggles in Bolivia under the Government of Evo Morales.” PhD diss., Lund University.
Kaijser, Anna, and Annica Kronsell. 2013. “Climate change through the lens of intersectionality.” Environmental Politics 23, no. 3 (October): 417–433. https://doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2013.835203.
Kleinman, Sherryl. 2007. Feminist Fieldwork Analysis. London: Sage Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412984263
Kriszan, Andrea, Hege Skjeie, and Judith Squires. 2012. Institutionalising Intersectionality. The Changing Nature of European Equality Regimes. Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Kvale, Steinar, and Svend Brinkmann. 2015. Interviews. Learning the Craft of Qualitative Research Interviewing, 3rd Edition. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications.
Le Masson, Virginie, Sheri Lim, Mirianna Budimir, Jasna Podboj Selih. 2016. “Disaster and violence against women and girls.” Working Paper, Overseas Development Institute. Accessed September 2018. https://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/resource-documents/11113.pdf.
Lempert, Lora Bex. 2007. “Cross-Race, Cross-Culture, Cross-National, Cross-Class, but Same-Gender: Musings on Research in South Africa.” Feminist Formations 19, no. 2: 79–103. https://www.researchgate.net/deref/http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1353%2Fnwsa.2007.0031.
Lykke, Nina. 2010. Feminist Studies: A Guide to Intersectional Theory, Methodology and Writing. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203852774
Lykke, Nina. 2009. Genusforskning: en guide till feministisk teori, metodologi och skrift, 1. uppl. Stockholm: Liber.
Lyons, Kate. 2017. “The night Barbuda died: how Hurricane Irma created a Caribbean ghost town.” The Guardian, Novemer 20, 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/nov/20/the-night-barbuda-died-how-hurricane-irma-created-a-caribbean-ghost-town.
Mohanty, Chandra Talpade. 2003. Feminism without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822384649
Moreno, Jenny, and Duncan Shaw. 2018. “Women’s empowerment following disaster: a longitudinal study of social change.” Natural Hazards 92: 205–224. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-018-3204-4.
O’Mardre, Dorbrene. 2017. Country document for disaster risk reduction: Antigua and Barbuda, 2016. United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction – Regional Office for the Americas and the Caribbean: National Office of Disaster Services. Accessed October 31, 2018. https://www.unisdr.org/we/inform/publications/54920.
Ruiz, Katheline. 2017. “Women stand strong after Irma.” United Nations Population Fund News, September 29, 2017. https://www.unfpa.org/news/women-stand-strong-after-irma.
Scheyvens, Regina, and Helen Leslie. 2000. “Gender, ethics and empowerment: dilemmas of development fieldwork.” Women’s Studies International Forum 23, no. 1: 119–130. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0277-5395(99)00091-6.
Steiner, Achim. 2014. “Help small island states win their battle against climate change.” The Guardian, August 29, 2014. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/aug/29/small-island-states-climate-change-sea-level.
Sultana, Farhana. 2010. “Living in hazardous waterscapes: Gendered vulnerabilities and experiences of floods and disasters.” Environmental Hazards 9, no. 1: 43–53. https://doi.org/10.3763/ehaz.2010.SI02.
UNDP. 2015. Integrating Gender in Disaster Management in Small Island Developing States: A Guide. Carribbean: CRMI. Accessed October 31, 2018. https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/librarypage/crisis-prevention-and-recovery/integrating-gender-in-disaster-management-in-small-island-develo.html.
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UN Women Caribbean. n.d. “Antigua and Barbuda.” Overview of Country Gender Equality Status. Accessed September 28, 2018. http://caribbean.unwomen.org/en/caribbean-gender-portal/antigua-and-barbuda.
Vetenskapsrådet. n.d. “Forskningsetiska principer inom humanistisk- samhällsvetenskaplig forskning.” Accessed October 31, 2018. http://www.codex.vr.se/texts/HSFR.pdf.
WHO. 2018. “Climate change and health.” Accessed October 20, 2018. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs266/en/.
Windsong, Elena Ariel. 2018. “Incorporating intersectionality into research design: an example using qualitative interviews.” International Journal of Social Research Methodology 21, no. 2: 135–147. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2016.1268361.
Arora-Jonsson, Seema. 2011. “Virture and vulnerability: Discourses on women, gender and climate change.” Global Environmental Change 21, no. 2: 744–751. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2011.01.005.
AWIS. 2020. “Intersectionality A Critical Framework for STEM Equity.” Accessed September 22, 2020. https://www.awis.org/intersectionality/.
Berger, Michele Tracy, and Kathleen Guidros. 2009. The intersectional approach: transforming the academy through race, class, and gender. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Blaikie, Norman W. H. 2009. Designing Social Research: The Logic of Anticipation, 2nd Edition. Cambridge: Polity.
Boger, Rebecca, and Sophia Perdikaris. 2019. “After Irma, Disaster Capitalism Threatens Cultural Heritage in Barbuda.” NACLA, February 11, 2019. https://nacla.org/news/2019/02/12/after-irma-disaster-capitalism-threatens-cultural-heritage-barbuda.
Bryman, Alan. 2012. Social research methods, 4th edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Chaplin, Daniel, John Twigg, and Emma Lovell. 2019. “Intersectional approaches to vulnerability reduction and resilience-building.” Resilience Intel 12. https://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/resource-documents/12651.pdf.
Climate Centre. 2018. “Natural Disasters in 2017: Lower mortality, higher cost. Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters.” The Climate Centre. Accessed October 31, 2018. https://www.climatecentre.org/news/983/cred-data-almost-90-of-2017-deaths-due-to-climatological-hydrological-or-meteorological-disasters.
Collins, Patricia Hill, and Sirma Bilge. 2016. Intersectionality. Cambridge: Polity.
Crenshaw, Kimberle. 1991. “Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color.” Stanford Law Review 4, no. 6 (July): 1241–1299. https://doi.org/10.2307/1229039.
Davies, Charlotte. 2008. Reflexive Ethnography: A Guide to Researching Selves and Others, 2nd Edition. London: Routledge.
De los Reyes, Paulina, and Diana Mulinari. 2005. Intersektionalitet: Kritiska reflektioner över (o)jämlikhetens landskap, 1.uppl. Malmö: Liber.
Djoudi, Houria, Bruno Locatelli, Chloe Vaast, Kiran Asher, Maria Brockhaus, and Bimbika Basnett Sijapati. 2016. “Beyond dichotomies: Gender and intersecting inequalities in climate change studies.” Ambio 45: 248–262. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-016-0825-2.
Enarson, Elaine Pitt, and P. G. Dhar Chakrabarti. 2009. Women, gender and disaster: global issues and initiatives. Los Angeles, California: Sage Publications.
Enarson, Elaine Pitt, and Betty Morrow. 1998. The Gendered Terrain of Disaster. Trough Women’s Eyes. Connecticut: Praeger Publishers.
England, Kim. 1994. “Getting Personal: Reflexivity, Positionality, and Feminist Research.” The Professional Geographer 46, no. 1: 80–89. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0033-0124.1994.00080.x.
Fothergill, Alice. 1998. “The Neglect of Gender in Diaster Work: An Overview of the Literature”. In The Gendered Terrain of Disaster. Trough Women’s Eyes, edited by Elaine Pitt Enrson and Betty Morrow. Connecticut: Praeger Publishers, 11–25.
Jacobs, Farmala. 2017. “From where I stand: Leaving no one behind in Barbuda.” UN Women Caribbean, December 7, 2017. http://caribbean.unwomen.org/en/news-and-events/stories/2017/12/from-where-i-stand-farmala-jacobs.
Freidenvall, Lenita. 2016. “Intersektionalitet och feminism–en komplicerad kombination?” Tidskrift för politisk filosofi 20, no. 2: 1–16. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn%3Anbn%3Ase%3Asu%3Adiva-177073.
Gaillard, J. C., Kristinne Sanz, Benigno C. Balgos, Soledad Natalia M. Dalisay, Andrew Gorman-Murray, Fagalua Smith, and Vaito’a Toelupe. 2017. “Beyond men and women: a critical perspective on gender and disaster.” Disasters 41, no. 3: 429–447. https://doi.org/10.1111/disa.12209.
Gustafsson, Maria-Therese, and Livia Johannesson. 2016. Introduktion till politisk etnografi: metoder för statsvetare, 1st Edition. Malmö: Gleerup.
Harding, Sandra G. 1987. Feminism and Methodology: Social Science Issues. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Hines, Sally. 2010. “Sexing Gender; Gendering Sex: Towards an Intersectional Analysis of Transgender in Theorizing Intersectionality and Sexuality.” In Theorizing Intersectionality and Sexuality. Genders and Sexualities in the Social Sciences, edited by Yvette Taylor, Sally Hines, and M. Casey. London: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230304093_8.
IIED. 2019. “Make Change Happen.” IIED strategy 2019-2024. Accessed September 21, 2020. https://pubs.iied.org/pdfs/17703IIED.pdf.
Kaijser, Anna. 2014. “Who is Marching for Pachamama? An Intersectional Analysis of Environmental Struggles in Bolivia under the Government of Evo Morales.” PhD diss., Lund University.
Kaijser, Anna, and Annica Kronsell. 2013. “Climate change through the lens of intersectionality.” Environmental Politics 23, no. 3 (October): 417–433. https://doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2013.835203.
Kleinman, Sherryl. 2007. Feminist Fieldwork Analysis. London: Sage Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412984263
Kriszan, Andrea, Hege Skjeie, and Judith Squires. 2012. Institutionalising Intersectionality. The Changing Nature of European Equality Regimes. Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Kvale, Steinar, and Svend Brinkmann. 2015. Interviews. Learning the Craft of Qualitative Research Interviewing, 3rd Edition. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications.
Le Masson, Virginie, Sheri Lim, Mirianna Budimir, Jasna Podboj Selih. 2016. “Disaster and violence against women and girls.” Working Paper, Overseas Development Institute. Accessed September 2018. https://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/resource-documents/11113.pdf.
Lempert, Lora Bex. 2007. “Cross-Race, Cross-Culture, Cross-National, Cross-Class, but Same-Gender: Musings on Research in South Africa.” Feminist Formations 19, no. 2: 79–103. https://www.researchgate.net/deref/http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1353%2Fnwsa.2007.0031.
Lykke, Nina. 2010. Feminist Studies: A Guide to Intersectional Theory, Methodology and Writing. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203852774
Lykke, Nina. 2009. Genusforskning: en guide till feministisk teori, metodologi och skrift, 1. uppl. Stockholm: Liber.
Lyons, Kate. 2017. “The night Barbuda died: how Hurricane Irma created a Caribbean ghost town.” The Guardian, Novemer 20, 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/nov/20/the-night-barbuda-died-how-hurricane-irma-created-a-caribbean-ghost-town.
Mohanty, Chandra Talpade. 2003. Feminism without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822384649
Moreno, Jenny, and Duncan Shaw. 2018. “Women’s empowerment following disaster: a longitudinal study of social change.” Natural Hazards 92: 205–224. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-018-3204-4.
O’Mardre, Dorbrene. 2017. Country document for disaster risk reduction: Antigua and Barbuda, 2016. United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction – Regional Office for the Americas and the Caribbean: National Office of Disaster Services. Accessed October 31, 2018. https://www.unisdr.org/we/inform/publications/54920.
Ruiz, Katheline. 2017. “Women stand strong after Irma.” United Nations Population Fund News, September 29, 2017. https://www.unfpa.org/news/women-stand-strong-after-irma.
Scheyvens, Regina, and Helen Leslie. 2000. “Gender, ethics and empowerment: dilemmas of development fieldwork.” Women’s Studies International Forum 23, no. 1: 119–130. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0277-5395(99)00091-6.
Steiner, Achim. 2014. “Help small island states win their battle against climate change.” The Guardian, August 29, 2014. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/aug/29/small-island-states-climate-change-sea-level.
Sultana, Farhana. 2010. “Living in hazardous waterscapes: Gendered vulnerabilities and experiences of floods and disasters.” Environmental Hazards 9, no. 1: 43–53. https://doi.org/10.3763/ehaz.2010.SI02.
UNDP. 2015. Integrating Gender in Disaster Management in Small Island Developing States: A Guide. Carribbean: CRMI. Accessed October 31, 2018. https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/librarypage/crisis-prevention-and-recovery/integrating-gender-in-disaster-management-in-small-island-develo.html.
UNDP. 2010. “Responding to climate change in Small Island Developing States.” Flyer. Accessed November 25, 2018. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/960SIDS_Flyer_SEPT_27_09[1].pdf.
UN Women Caribbean. n.d. “Antigua and Barbuda.” Overview of Country Gender Equality Status. Accessed September 28, 2018. http://caribbean.unwomen.org/en/caribbean-gender-portal/antigua-and-barbuda.
Vetenskapsrådet. n.d. “Forskningsetiska principer inom humanistisk- samhällsvetenskaplig forskning.” Accessed October 31, 2018. http://www.codex.vr.se/texts/HSFR.pdf.
WHO. 2018. “Climate change and health.” Accessed October 20, 2018. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs266/en/.
Windsong, Elena Ariel. 2018. “Incorporating intersectionality into research design: an example using qualitative interviews.” International Journal of Social Research Methodology 21, no. 2: 135–147. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2016.1268361.
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Published
2020-12-31
How to Cite
Kotsinas, M. (2020). Climate (In)justice: An Intersectional Feminist Analysis of Disaster Management in Antigua and Barbuda in the Aftermath of Hurricane Irma. Politikon: The IAPSS Journal of Political Science, 47, 7–35. https://doi.org/10.22151/politikon.47.1
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