Theorizing and Researching Intersectionality: A Challenge for Feminist Geography*

This article focuses on the concept of intersectionality, which is being used within the wider social sciences by feminists to theorize the relationship between different social categories: gender, race, sexuality, and so forth. Although research within the field of feminist geography has explored particular interconnections such as those between gender and race, the theoretical concept of intersectionality as debated in the wider social sciences has not been addressed. This article attempts to respond to that omission. It begins by tracing the emergence of debates about the interconnections between gender and other identities. It goes on to reflect on attempts to map geometries of oppressions. The emphasis then moves from theorizing intersectionality to questioning how it can be researched in practice by presenting a case study to illustrate intersectionality as lived experience. The conclusion demonstrates the contribution that feminist geography can make to advance the theorization of intersectionality through its appreciation of the significance of space in processes of subject formation. It calls for feminist geography to pay more attention to questions of power and social inequalities.     

THE ENVIRONMENTAL VULNERABILITY OF CARIBBEAN ISLAND NATIONS*

ABSTRACT. Within the hazards‐ and disaster‐research community consensus exists as to factors that magnify or attenuate the effects of extreme natural events on local places. But less agreement and understanding exist concerning the methods or techniques for comparing hazard vulnerability within or between places, especially small‐island developing states. Using two Caribbean nations, Saint Vincent and Barbados, as study sites, we asked which island has the greater level of hazard vulnerability, and why. Results indicate that, although neither island has a large portion of its population living in extremely hazardous locations, Barbados has many more residents in risk‐prone areas. The methods used in this research provide valuable tools for local emergency managers in assessing vulnerability, especially through the delineation of highly vulnerable hot spots. They can also help donor organizations interested in vulnerability reduction on islands use their resources more efficiently.     

A Geography of Children's Vulnerability: Gender,Household Resources,and Water‐Related Disease Hazard in Northern Pakistan*

Water‐related diseases continue to pose major threats to children's survival and well‐being in many places in the developing world. This article develops a theoretical perspective on the ways in which children's vulnerability to water‐related disease hazard is produced within the everyday circumstances of livelihood and child care. Central to this analysis is the role that household resources play in mediating or shaping particular microenvironments of health risk. Further, the effects of local geographies of gender on how household resources are accessed and on how child care is structured are examined. Children's vulnerability is evaluated in a community in the District of Gilgit in northern Pakistan, a region presently undergoing tremendous social and economic transformation. The case study highlights household‐level response and adaptation to child health risks associated with diarrheal disease transmission and infection in this mountain environment. The case study draws from ethnographic fieldwork involving qualitative household microstudies and interviewing to elicit mothers' resource and risk‐response strategies in the context of changes in livelihood systems and household dynamics.     

“Is It Really Safe? That's What We Want to Know”: Science,Stories, and Dangerous Places*

This article presents a case study of risk perception and decision making regarding the former nuclear test site of Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. This example demonstrates how people use combinations of scientific and anecdotal evidence to consider whether places are “really safe.” Furthermore, the article examines how scientific studies of risk operate as cultural systems and how a lack of dialogue and understanding across cultural systems can confuse discussions about risk and affect the development of places. The study is based on interviews with still‐exiled Bikinians as well as with workers and visitors on Bikini Atoll.     

中国老年群体脆弱性时空格局与性别协调发展特征——基于积极老龄化政策框架

运用地理学方法,分析2005~2015年中国老年群体脆弱性时空特征和性别协调发展趋势。结果表明:① 中国老年群体脆弱性指数显著下降,呈现东→中→西阶梯式递增趋势,全国层面上区域差异不断扩大。东部地区降幅高于中、西部地区,地带内部差距显著;② 空间非均衡性特征显著,以东西差异为主,转变为东西、南北方向上差异并存的空间格局。除新疆外,广大西部地区老年群体脆弱性普遍偏高;③ 中国老年女性受差异性劣势累积而处于社会边缘地位,是更具脆弱性的亚群体,在空间上表现为高脆弱水平均衡态势。就性别差异来看,西北和东南沿海地区相对显著;④ 中国老年群体生存发展条件的性别对比关系发生较大转变,二者趋向于良好协调发展。积极关注老年期妇女群体的脆弱性和不公平待遇,将是实现积极与健康老龄化的重要突破口。     

Localization and characterization of populations vulnerable to climate change: Two case studies in Sub-Saharan Africa

Future climate change potentially can have a strong impact on the African continent. Of special concern are the effects on food security and the restricted adaptive capacity of Africa's poverty stricken population. Targeted policy interventions are, therefore, of vital importance. While there is a broad consensus on selection of climate and agricultural indicators, a coherent spatial representation of the populations' vulnerability is still subject to debate, basically because important drivers at household and institutional level are captured at the coarser (sub)-national level only. This paper aims to address this shortcoming by capitalizing on available spatially explicit information on households, food security institutions and natural resources to identify and characterize vulnerable groups in climate change prone areas of East and West Africa. First, we identify and localize groups with varying degrees of vulnerability, using food security and health indicators from georeferenced household surveys. Second, we characterize these vulnerable groups using statistical techniques that report on the frequency of occurrence of household characteristics, social bonding, remittances and agro-ecological endowments. Third we localize areas where climate change conditions affect production of major staple crops even after a maximum adaptation of crop rotations. Fourth, we characterize the vulnerable groups in the climate change affected areas and compare their profiles with the overall assessment to elucidate whether generic or climate change targeted policies are required. Since climate change will impact predominantly on agricultural production, our analysis focuses on the rural areas. For West Africa, we find that vulnerable groups in areas likely to be affected by climate change do not fundamentally differ from vulnerable groups in the study area in general. However, in East Africa there are remarkable differences between these groups which leads to the conclusion that in this part of Africa, poverty reducing strategies for climate change affected areas should differ from generic ones.     

基于栅格的鄱阳湖生态经济区洪灾脆弱性评价

目前洪灾脆弱性研究主要是基于行政区划上的社会脆弱性评价,无法揭示评价单元内部脆弱性的空间分布。选取鄱阳湖生态经济区作为研究对象,根据人与环境系统的特点,选择影响洪灾脆弱性的15个变量,建立了基于栅格的洪灾脆弱性综合指数模型。结果表明,研究区域的洪灾脆弱性以中度脆弱为主,极度与高度脆弱区主要分布在人口密集的鄱阳湖东南与西南部的湖滨地区、主要河流的缓冲区以及土地利用类型为水田的区域。从脆弱性的3个要素(暴露度、敏感性和适应能力)的空间分布揭示了洪灾脆弱性空间分布形成的原因。基于栅格的评价结果,能够充分反映县市内部和行政边界处洪灾脆弱性的空间分布与变化情况。     

Transnationalism,emotion and second‐generation social mobility in the Filipino‐Canadian diaspora

Through the case of Filipino‐Canadian youth experiences, this paper examines socio‐economic mobility among the children of immigrants in the context of transnational social fields and emotional engagements with the diasporic homeland. The Filipino‐Canadian experience is distinctive in terms of immigration patterns, settlement trajectories, policy frameworks and the historical and contemporary construction of ethno‐racial identities. Using educational attainment as a proxy for a wider process of social mobility, the paper shows that outcomes among Filipino youth have been anomalously poor. The explanations for this situation are multiple, but this paper draws particular attention to the ways in which negative emotional engagements with the Philippines as a diasporic homeland may shape self‐esteem and aspirations among Filipino youth in Canada and thereby play a role in social mobility.     

Vulnerability of families and households to natural hazards: A case study of storm surge flooding in Sarasota County,Florida

The role that family and household structure, size, and ethnic/racial composition play in increasing or decreasing vulnerability to natural hazards, which has been missing from the literature, is investigated. The study first reviews the conceptual foundations of the relationships between families/households and natural hazards vulnerability and then employs a principal components analysis to uncover spatial variations in the vulnerability of families and households to hurricane storm surge hazards in Sarasota County, Florida. The analysis identifies and maps five principal components that explain approximately 83% of the variance in family/household population: nuclear families/households; Black families/households; nonfamily, young adult group households; Hispanic families/households; and Asian families/households. Comparison of storm surge risk maps with the locations of these families/households shows the relative vulnerability of each of these family/household categories, with elderly householders living alone on exposed barrier islands being the most vulnerable. The research suggests that family and household structures integrate several socio-demographic vulnerability indicators central to most social vulnerability assessments. Results indicate that future research and hazard mitigation policies should focus on families and households as core analytical units. Findings also suggest that recognizing the diversity of families and households is important to reducing vulnerability to natural hazards.     

典型鼠疫疫源地环境-健康脆弱性评价

鼠疫是对人类危害最重的自然疫源性传染病,它的发生、传播与地理环境密切相关。由于目前还未完全弄清它的病因形成机理,因此研究鼠疫疫源地环境-健康脆弱性,对预防鼠疫流行很有必要。选择黄鼠鼠疫疫源地典型地区内蒙古自治区赤峰市,应用13个自然与人文指标,研究鼠疫疫源地环境-健康脆弱性,分析该地区环境变化的趋势和对鼠疫流行的影响。经聚类分析和矩阵运算,得出该地区环境-健康脆弱性指标阈值。在此基础上对不同环境-健康类型区的脆弱性进行综合评价。结果表明,森林覆盖增大或城市化的地区,原来黄鼠生存的环境改变为不适宜生存的环境,发生鼠疫流行的风险性小,环境-健康脆弱度低;自然环境条件恶劣、草场退化的地区,环境-健康脆弱度高,再次流行鼠疫的可能性大。从而揭示,改善生态环境,是改变鼠疫疫源地环境-健康脆弱性、预防鼠疫流行的根本途径     

From impacts to embodied experiences: tracing political ecology in climate change research

Political ecology has long moved on from its initial skepticism of big science engagements and cursory critiques of simplistic vulnerability approaches. Its core strengths lie in understanding the contestation of inequalities, marginalization, and injustices in access to and control over resources, neoliberal politics of environmental change, and dominant environmental narratives, while incorporating new insights from development ethics, feminist social theory, and resilience thinking. Today’s theoretical lenses allow for an understanding of causal relations in climate debates that exceed narrowly defined impact studies. I focus on four areas that exemplify shifts in engagement with adaptation, stretch themes of inquiry, and delineate zones for analysis and action: (1) reconnecting scale: multiscalar interactions, scalar dimensions of practice, and traversing scales from embodied experiences to the global intimate; (2) destabilizing gender: from gendered vulnerability and adaptive capacity to fragmented identities and intersectionality; (3) repositioning persistent inequalities: from rights to responsibilities, mutual fragility, and human security; and (4) reframing certainty: from climate proofing to limits, traps, and transformative change. Methodologically, I advocate for opening space for collective and anticipatory learning, creative envisioning, rehearsing for reality, and dynamic planning in the context of multiple and synergistic stressors, all powerful countervoices to hegemonic integrated modeling and numeric vulnerability indices.     

1980年以来黄土高原半干旱区乡村人居环境系统脆弱性时序演变——以陕西省佳县为例

从人地系统脆弱性视角切入,遵循"演变轨迹刻画-阶段情景描绘-演化路径与机理剖析"的逻辑轴线,结合"ground-truthing"质性研究方法,探索了1980年以来以陕西省佳县为代表的黄土高原半干旱区乡村人居环境系统演变历程与路径。主要结论如下:①定量测度了1980-2016年佳县乡村人居环境综合系统及子系统脆弱度值。其中,自然系统脆弱性由干旱主导转向雨涝灾害主导;21世纪以来,居住系统脆弱性全面减轻,支撑系统脆弱性反弹加剧;近10 a,社会系统脆弱性逐渐减轻,人类系统已走向重度脆弱等级,综合脆弱性停滞于中度脆弱等级。②提出了乡村人居环境系统脆弱性情景转化阈值规则,界定了顽固脆弱、不受控制的脆弱、可控的脆弱、稳定健康、易变的系统等5类脆弱性情景。案例区脆弱性演变经历4个阶段,但徘徊于顽固脆弱的系统与不受控制的脆弱性系统情景之间。③建构了乡村人居环境系统脆弱性阶段性演化动力机制,梳理了5大子系统脆弱性阶段性演化路径,提炼了涉及气候变化、城市化扰动、市场变化、政策干预及农户行为适应等5大驱动因素的20件关键影响事件。     

基于农户视角的洪灾社会脆弱度及影响因素——以安康市4个滨河村庄为例

降低洪灾社会脆弱度是缓解洪灾社会影响,建立洪水韧性的重要途径。本文从敏感性、适应性和暴露度3个方面构建微观尺度下的洪灾社会脆弱度评价指标体系,以安康市4个滨河村庄为例,运用基于熵权的综合指数法评价农户的洪灾社会脆弱度,并通过BP神经网络分析厘清评价指标与社会脆弱度之间的重要性关系,识别出洪灾社会脆弱度的主要影响因素。据此提出相应的对策建议作为降低农户洪灾社会脆弱度的实践依据。研究表明：①案例村调研样本中近一半的农户处于高社会脆弱度等级,由此推算,研究区有715个农户具有较高的洪灾社会脆弱度;②受访者健康状况、防汛信息渠道、避灾疏散方式、建筑质量、是否有病残人口、家庭收入多样性、5岁以下幼儿比重和60岁以上老年人比重是农户社会脆弱度的主要影响因素;③基于农户视角的洪灾社会脆弱度评价能准确地识别出脆弱度较高的农户,其结果在降低洪灾社会脆弱度方面更具有现实意义。     

Research Framework for Ecosystem Vulnerability: Measurement,Prediction, and Risk Assessment

The fragility of ecosystem health has become a key factor hindering the sustainable development of the ecological environment. Through a review of published research from domestic and foreign scholars, starting from the endogenous logic of studies in the field of ecosystem vulnerability (EV), this paper sorts out the literature on the aspects of measurement models, prediction methods and risk assessment, comprehensively defines the research category and scientific framework of EV, and analyzes the research ideas and development trends. We arrived at the following conclusions: 1) The connotation of ecosystem vulnerability not only embodies the change in the vulnerability of the natural environment, but it also reflects the irreversible damage to the ecosystem caused by excessive development and industrial production activities. 2) The setting of ecosystem vulnerability indices should aim to fully reflect the essential features of that vulnerability, which should include the index systems of natural, social, economic and other related factors. 3) There are many types of ecosystem vulnerability measurement methods, prediction models and risk evaluation models, which have different focuses and advantages. The most appropriate method should be adopted for conducting comprehensive and systematic evaluation, prediction and estimation according to the different representation and evolution mechanisms of the chosen research object and regional ecosystem vulnerability. 4) Based on the regional system characteristics, corresponding risk management measures should be proposed, and pertinent policy suggestions should be put forward to improve the ecological safety and sustainable development of an ecologically vulnerable area.     

Men and women in Boston learn about terrorism differently: gendering the urban values–vulnerability nexus

This paper expands the values-vulnerability nexus for studying urban vulnerability to terrorism. Gender is among the most salient social structures affecting a person’s interpretation of risk, and urban geographers have demonstrated that gender also deeply affects the experience of urban life. However, the values that shape urban vulnerability to terrorism have been conceptualized more broadly, usually focusing on the underpinning economic organization of cities that terrorists exploit rather than on concepts such as gender. As a result, the role of gender in understanding societal responses to terrorism—specifically risk perception and preparedness—is underdeveloped, including in the 2008 US National Survey of Disaster and Preparedness, which sought to understand Americans’ responses to terrorism. This paper outlines a gender values–vulnerability nexus for studying terrorism. Using interview data from Boston, Massachusetts conducted before and after the 15 April 2013 Boston Marathon attacks, I demonstrate that gender deeply affected how Bostonians learned about and responded to terrorism. The gender values–vulnerability nexus explores the role of gendered political, social, economic, and geographical dimensions in urban vulnerability to terrorism. The role of gender has the potential to substantially increase vulnerability for urban populations, particularly given gender-similar social networks and urban contexts that continue to yield different experiences for men and women. The implications of these findings may signal challenges for urban emergency managers, public safety officials, and ordinary people in American cities.     

Assessing physical vulnerability for multi-hazards using an indicator-based methodology

Globally, many built-up areas are threatened by multiple hazards which pose significant threat to humans, buildings and infrastructure. However, the analysis of the physical vulnerability towards multiple hazards is a field that still receives little attention although vulnerability analysis and assessment can contribute significantly to risk reduction efforts. Indicator-based vulnerability approaches are flexible and can be adjusted to the different hazards as well as to specific user needs. In this paper, an indicator-based vulnerability approach, the PTVA (Papathoma Tsunami Vulnerability Assessment), was further developed to be applicable in a multi-hazard context. The resulting multi-hazard version of the PTVA consists of four steps: the identification of the study area and relevant hazards as well as the acquisition of hazard information, the determination of vulnerability indicators and collection of data, the weighting of factors and vulnerability assessment and finally, the consideration of hazard interactions. After the introduction of the newly developed methodology a pilot application is carried out in the Faucon municipality located in the Barcelonnette basin, Southern French Alps. In this case study the vulnerability of buildings to debris flows, shallow landslides and river flooding for emergency planning and for general risk reduction purposes is assessed. The implementation of the methodology leads to reasonable results indicating the vulnerable buildings and supporting the priority setting of different end-users according to their objectives. The constraints of the presented methodology are: a) the fact that the method is not hazard-intensity specific, thus, vulnerability is measured in a rather qualitative and relative way and b) the high amount of data required for its performance. However, the advantage is that it is a flexible method which can be applied for the vulnerability analysis in a multi-hazard context but also it can be adjusted to the user-specific needs to support decision-making.     

Assessing the abilities of intrinsic and specific vulnerability models to indicate groundwater vulnerability to groups of similar pesticides: a comparative study

With continued population growth and increasing use of fresh groundwater resources, protection of this valuable resource is critical. A cost effective means to assess risk of groundwater contamination potential will provide a useful tool to protect these resources. Integrating geospatial methods offers a means to quantify the risk of contaminant potential in cost effective and spatially explicit ways. This research was designed to compare the ability of intrinsic (DRASTIC) and specific (Attenuation Factor; AF) vulnerability models to indicate groundwater vulnerability areas by comparing model results to the presence of pesticides from groundwater sample datasets. A logistic regression was used to assess the relationship between the environmental variables and the presence or absence of pesticides within regions of varying vulnerability. According to the DRASTIC model, more than 20% of the study area is very highly vulnerable. Approximately 30% is very highly vulnerable according to the AF model. When groundwater concentrations of individual pesticides were compared to model predictions, the results were mixed. Model predictability improved when concentrations of the group of similar pesticides were compared to model results. Compared to the DRASTIC model, the AF model more accurately predicts the distribution of the number of contaminated wells within each vulnerability class.     

西北地区县域脆弱性时空格局演变

人地耦合系统的脆弱性研究作为未来地理科学的十大科学研究命题之一,已成为人地关系和区域可持续发展研究的重要领域。本文以西北地区316个县(市)为研究单元,以2003、2008和2013年社会经济统计数据、气象数据、遥感影像数据和空间矢量数据为基础,综合运用模糊层次分析和变异系数分析等方法,构建西北地区人地系统脆弱性评价模型并说明其时空演化过程。研究表明：①西北地区县域脆弱性指数整体呈现北低南高、东低西高的格局。大中型城市对周边区域产生显著的影响并已形成以自身为核心的低脆弱圈层,各低脆弱圈层逐渐关联形成大范围的低脆弱片区;②4个子系统的脆弱性水平分别表现出一定的地域分异格局,社会子系统和经济子系统脆弱性的空间集聚特征明显且变化显著,资源环境子系统和政策子系统脆弱性则趋于碎片化且相对稳定;③西北地区人地系统脆弱性的空间差异度呈缓慢增大趋势,社会脆弱性差异度的变化趋势为先增加后下降,经济脆弱性与资源环境脆弱性差异度均表现出持续下降的态势,政策扶持性在地区间的差异较大且整体格局稳定;④在政策的引导和扶持下,资源开发促使经济发展、环境质量和人类福祉发生转变,最终影响社会发展水平和社会的稳定程度,而社会的发展和稳定又反作用于经济发展、环境质量、资源开发和政策制定。本文以“脆弱性”的视角解构西北地区人地系统时空动态变化过程,为西北地区社会经济发展提供理论方法参考和实践应用借鉴。     

张家界农户乡村旅游脆弱性评价与影响因素

以张家界7个村庄334户农户为研究对象,运用参与式农村评估法(PRA)、主成分分析法、聚类分析法和多元线性回归等方法,分析不同类型农户脆弱性指数以及脆弱性影响因素。研究结果表明:①农户乡村旅游脆弱性类型可分为意识脆弱型、社交脆弱型、人力脆弱型、发展均衡型和全面脆弱型5种类型;②总体脆弱性方面,不同类型农户的总体脆弱程度均为脆弱,各自脆弱性指数不一,且非旅游农户高于旅游农户;③因子脆弱性中除社交脆弱型农户的民俗文化因子脆弱性指数高于农户认知因子脆弱性外,其他类型农户的人力素质、社会网络、生计资本和农户认知等4个因子脆弱性指数均高于政策制度、生态环境和民俗文化等3个因子脆弱性指数;④人力、文化和生态等方面的因子是影响农户乡村旅游脆弱性的主要因素。最后,从提升生计资本、传承民俗文化和保护生态环境等方面提出降低农户乡村旅游脆弱性的几点建议。     

Relative vulnerability of the forests along southeastern African coasts to cyclones

The forests of southeastern Africa are vulnerable to damage imposed by tropical cyclones operating in the South Indian Ocean. We undertook a geographical analysis to determine the relative vulnerability of forests given tropical cyclones recorded during the 1959–2008 storm seasons. From this analysis, eastern coastal forests of Madagascar seem to be the most vulnerable, although return intervals for severe storms vary along the eastern coast, and are shorter (about 10 years) through the central portion of the country. Therefore, the central lowland to upper montane rainforests on the eastern coast seem to be more vulnerable to damage from tropical cyclones than others in the area. While not as extensive, western coastal forests of Madagascar are also as vulnerable in part due to the recurvature of storms in the Mozambique Channel. Though the coastal forests of Mozambique are all nearly equal in terms of vulnerability, the return interval for severe storms to this area is highly variable. The inland Miombo forests of southeast Africa are less vulnerable to damage from tropical cyclones; however, portions of western Mozambique and Zimbabwe have experienced strong tropical storms in the last 50 years. A number of caveats and limitations associated with the data and analyses are noted. Given the broad scale of the study, the relative vulnerability and the return intervals for severe storms should be considered general representations of these phenomena for the southeastern African coast and the island of Madagascar.