Climate change and Vulnerability: A Comparison of Perspectives from Indian Sundarbans Delta

Upasona Ghosh , Espen Sjaastad 

An understanding of how climate events influence potential harm to livelihoods may depend on perspective. When perspectives on climate-change vulnerability diverge, policies aimed at reducing vulnerability may be perceived as unjust or unproductive by intended beneficiaries. Using household-level data from an island in the Indian Sundarbans, vulnerability is assessed from three perspectives, represented by science, the public sector, and local resource users. A comparison of household vulnerability across perspectives reveals a general lack of association. This lack of association reflects ambiguities that may arise through the coexistence of different knowledge regimes. Ambiguity relates to fundamental dichotomies that pose challenges to the application and usefulness of numerical vulnerability indices.