The idea that a “community” is a valid category for beneficial climate adaptation processes (or any other type of development intervention, or for example “community-based disaster risk reduction”) is deeply flawed. It must not be taken for granted (as it often is currently in much CBA discussion) as a positive basis for any type of intervention unless it is also grounded in the conflicts and contradictions that are involved. These include especially gender and class (e.g. land tenure systems, differential access to other assets), ethnicity, age groups. “Community-based” has simply become a badge of honour to assert that we are working with poor and vulnerable people and doing the right thing. Is there any problem that being “community-based” cannot cure? (1)
The literature on the problem of “community” dates back at
least to the 1950s in sociology (Cannon 2008 for an introductory review) and
has been paralleled more recently by debates about the validity of
“participation” (e.g. “the new tyranny” critique), which is linked because
participatory approaches are almost always inherent in the idea of working at
community scale, including CBA (for a basic review of the two main books see
Christens and Speer 2006). The related literature on “elite capture” (e.g.
the capturing of development benefits at the local level by powerful groups or
individuals) is also well-known in development circles but seems to be ignored
in CBA (for a literature review on elite capture, see Dutta 2009). Therefore
much of an enormous literature and practice in development studies (on the
problem of community, on rural class and other power systems, on participatory
work and on elite capture), is largely being ignored in the rush by climate
change practitioners to be involved in CBA. This absence of a huge area of knowledge
from development studies is a serious barrier to success in adaptation, and
also reinforces the uncritical use of the concept of “community”, which is
difficult to sustain when all this knowledge is accepted.
The desire for outside agencies to work at community scale
is driven by an admirable commitment to supporting change for people (i.e.
people-centred) who are usually defined as the most vulnerable/ poorest. This
shift to a bottom-up approach in the past 40 years or so (along with participatory
rapid/ rural appraisal (PRA) methods and participatory assessments etc.) is a
well-meaning effort to deliver real change to the most needy. But it normally
operates on the basis of trying to achieve this change without dealing with the
fundamental root causes (the transformation required) as to why people are poor
or vulnerable in the first place. In other words, a great deal of
“community-based” activity (by NGOs, supported by donors and international
development banks etc.) fails to take into account the power relations that
lead to division and conflict within communities, and are often precisely the
cause of the problems that the outside organisation is trying to address.
The problem of using an undifferentiated notion of community
shows up when NGOs and others want “communities” to engage in CBA, without
taking full account of power relations (including gender), especially those between
economic groups – which we used to call classes.
For instance, in most of rural Asia, parts of Africa and much of Latin America there
are very significant unequal land tenure systems. Usually this involves a tiny
minority owning most of the land, with some farmers in the middle. Then comes
hundreds of millions of rural poor who are (even officially) regarded as
landless (owning no land or only tiny plots). This affects 30-60% of rural
people in India or Bangladesh. This single key fact means these huge numbers of
people have almost no control at all over their prospects to adapt to climate
change, and very little ability to relate to CBDRR.
The ability to cope or adapt is significantly constrained by land tenure, and yet there seems to be almost no research that looks at what adaptation means for landless people – who have little or no control over the primary assets (land and water) that are currently essential for adaptation. I have never heard anyone discuss land tenure issues in all the conferences and meetings I have attended on CBA and CBDRR, and there is hardly any mention of it in the literature. If we are supporters of CBA, we can no longer ignore these key facts of power: these problems are of primary importance in making adaptation in “communities” exceedingly difficult, if not impossible.
The ability to cope or adapt is significantly constrained by land tenure, and yet there seems to be almost no research that looks at what adaptation means for landless people – who have little or no control over the primary assets (land and water) that are currently essential for adaptation. I have never heard anyone discuss land tenure issues in all the conferences and meetings I have attended on CBA and CBDRR, and there is hardly any mention of it in the literature. If we are supporters of CBA, we can no longer ignore these key facts of power: these problems are of primary importance in making adaptation in “communities” exceedingly difficult, if not impossible.
In effect, the definition of community that has now de
facto emerged is that a community is “where we work”. It has become an externally-assigned
location-based (i.e. geographically defined) justification for where the
outside agency has decided that it wants to make its development / climate
adaptation / DRR effort. Unless the inherent and integral power relations
involved in the so-called “community” are actively understood and incorporated
into the required process of transformation then it is highly unlikely there will
be any significant impact. And it is not enough simply to say “we only work
with the poor and vulnerable, we target them so that they benefit”: what
happens when we leave? And in any case, can we be sure that the benefits are
not being captured right under our noses?
If we accept the notion of community uncritically, problems will
be built in to any CBA and CBDRR activity from the start. Is it possible to assume
that there is some active agency possible for the “communities” that means “they”
are unified, and understand and want to be involved in “adaptation”? Can we
assume that there are prospects for “community” leadership and organization, or
are these hoped-for possibilities dependent on a “warm and fluffy” community
that is absent in most cases, being instead bound up in unequal power relations
that pervade the grass roots.
The ability of people to adapt rather than merely cope (and
suffer) is determined largely by access to, control of or ownership of assets
that are almost always affected by power relations. Poor people cope (and
deplete assets, e.g. by selling land / livestock, taking loans at high interest).
Better-off people MAY have resources that enable them to engage in adaptation
to current climate change or prepare to adapt for future climate change. There
is a very significant literature on coping and its different types, and it is
usually situated in the problems of power relations, access to assets, and
notions of asset-depleting coping (that may for example lead to distress
migration). What is crucial is to make clear distinctions between different
economic and social groups and not pretend that they do not exist or are not
significant factors in what we are trying to achieve.
(1) “Saint Community” seems to be able to cure all the following just by putting “community-based” in front of the problem: “community-based development”; Natural Resource Management; Health and Sanitation; Ecosystem management; Forestry… and more.
(1) “Saint Community” seems to be able to cure all the following just by putting “community-based” in front of the problem: “community-based development”; Natural Resource Management; Health and Sanitation; Ecosystem management; Forestry… and more.
About the author
Terry Cannon is Research Fellow for the Vulnerability and Poverty Reduction team at IDS.
References
- Cannon, Terry (2008) Reducing People’s Vulnerability to Natural Hazards: Communitiesand Resilience, WIDER Working Paper 34
- Christens, Brian and Speer, Paul W. (2006) 'Tyranny/Transformation: Power and Paradox in Participatory Development', Forum: Qualitative Social Research 7.2
- Dutta, Diya (2009), Elite Capture and Corruption:Concepts and Definitions: Bibliography With an Overview of the Suggested Literature, National Council of Applied Economic Research