GenDecCCR · Gendering and Decolonising Climate Change Research: Exploring the Waterberg, South Africa
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2021-11-01 → 2023-11-14
- EU contribution
- €212,934
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Gendering and Decolonising Climate Change Research: Exploring the Waterberg, South Africa
Fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions remain on an upward trajectory globally despite the existential threat to humanity and the planet. Given its rich coal deposits, the South African economy relies almost entirely on fossil-based energy and is one of the most carbon-intensive economies in the world, while governmental and corporate responses to climate change have been inadequate. A primary example of communities affected by fossil fuel extractivism is the Waterberg region in northern South Africa, which holds 50% of the country’s remaining coal reserves. The project’s overall aim was to contribute to current climate change and climate justice research and activism by adopting a unique gendering and decolonising theoretical framework and methodology. The project explored coal energy extractivism and the climate crisis as experienced by women living adjacent to coal mines and coal power stations as emblematic of the crises of our time and implications for societal transitions away from fossil fuels.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
For decades the living biosphere has been over-exploited and subjected to a corporate-industrial food system and fossil-fuel extractivism, both practices destroying ecosystems and releasing pathogens. Global South populations – most notably women – are particularly impacted by these inter-connected ecological, social, and economic crises of our time. At the same time, however, women are a pivotal force in mobilising struggles for environmental and climate justice. This project specifically offers the first in-depth exploration of climate justice activism led by women living adjacent to coal mines and coal power stations in a ‘new frontier space’ of coal extraction in South Africa, as emblematic of the crises of our time and transformative responses to such. The project’s overall aim is to contribute towards current climate change and climate justice research and activism, through adopting a unique gendering and decolonising theoretical framework and methodology. It aims to not only develop and conduct a unique approach to conducting interdisciplinary social science research but also to have a concrete impact on the capacity of ordinary women to resist the dire effects of mega-coal mining projects on their lands and communities. The (i) methodological, (ii) theoretical and (iii) concrete objectives of the proposed research are: develop innovative feminist, participatory action research methodologies in response to the climate crisis; produce an original and interdisciplinary history and presence of the Waterberg, drawing on political ecological, feminist and decolonial theoretical frameworks in order to contribute towards understanding the historical and colonial causes of climate change in the Waterberg; support the collective self-organisation of women in the Waterberg who are campaigning against extractivism and climate change; and target future North-South research and civil society collaborations by connecting organisations.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- UNIVERSITY OF NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE · Newcastle Upon TyneCoordinatorUnited Kingdom
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union