The role oF local power relations in household vulnerability to Climate Change in humla, nepal - Climate Change Adaptation and Development: Transforming Paradigms and Practices - page 201

A focus on food security not only provides an opportunity for critically
examining the nexus between adaptation and development policies, it can
also serve as a starting point for empirically observing the local manifestations
of vulnerability. Food insecurity and vulnerability are closely linked (Yaro
2004). Household food insecurity can therefore be used as an indicator of the
outcome of the inherent state of vulnerability, which is often seen as a 'state of
susceptibility to harm from exposure to stresses associated with environmental
and societal change and from absence of capacity to adapt' (Adger 2006, p. 268).
Although food insecurity can only provide an indication of vulnerability at a
given time, it can serve as a useful starting point for gaining insights into which
strategies for managing changes are available to whom, as well as the various
motivations and objectives behind choosing particular strategies when faced
with stress (Yaro 2004; O'Brien 2011).
Entitlements and sustainable livelihood frameworks (Sen 1981; Chambers and
Conway 1991) describe food security in terms of the variation in entitlements
and livelihood resources constituted by various types of assets (social, physical,
economic, human and natural capital), but have limited value for explaining
complex vulnerability dynamics. For example, they do not address the reasons
behind the lack of entitlements or access to assets (Leach et al. 1997; Yaro 2004).
In order to understand how to address vulnerability, it is therefore necessary to
go beyond a focus on assets and access to resources, and to grasp how social and
power relations operate in practice in local-level strategies for managing multiple
stressors, including how this dynamic shapes vulnerability patterns over time.
Social and power relations play an important role in how people manage
multiple changes that face them simultaneously, including weather events
and changing climate conditions (Leichenko and O'Brien 2002; Nyborg et al.
2008; Eriksen and Lind 2009; Eriksen and Selboe 2012). Power is often used
to enhance one's entitlement to resources by legitimizing (or delegitimizing)
access to resources through social advantages (Bourdieu 1985; Watts and Bohle
1993; Ribot 1995; Adger and Kelly 1999; Tarrow 1998; O'Brien et al. 2008;
Manuel-Navarrete 2012), hence influencing the coping and adaptive strategies
of individuals and groups differently (McLaughlin and Dietz 2008) . Similarly,
actor-oriented approaches to rural development posit that the perception and
strategies of different actors are fundamentally shaped by power, agency and
knowledge (see Long 1992).
In this chapter, we examine the dynamics of vulnerability in rural households,
and in particular the influence of local power relations on vulnerability patterns.
We investigate how these relations create differential vulnerability outcomes
as manifested in food insecurity through a case study of Humla, a remote
and chronically food-insecure district in far north-western Nepal. Nepal is
particularly well-suited as a case for examining the adaptation-development
nexus. It is among the world's poorest countries, with an estimated 41 per cent
rate of stunting in children below five years (World Food Programme 2012),
and is also considered highly vulnerable to climate change (Jianchu et al. 2007;