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Successful climate adaptation strategies and cultural engagement in Mumbai, India

Max Boykoff

This proposed project endeavors to improve our textured understanding of multi-level climate governance in the new millennium. The research approaches this massive challenge by focusing on four critical, dynamic and intersecting features as they manifest in Mumbai, India:

  1. The continually fraught nature of global North-South relations on climate change
  2. The rise in attention paid to climate adaptation
  3. The increased presence and importance of city-level actors in climate governance
  4. The intersections between formal climate science-policy negotiations and everyday culture, political economy, and society.

The proposed project hypothesizes that city-level groups, organizations and actors are emerging as key figures shaping formal post-Kyoto climate treaty negotiations as well as informal cultural and societal engagements among urban populations. Moreover, the proposed project hypothesizes that these city-level influences will help gain a more textured understanding of the pressures facing decision-making and the management of climate risk. This proposed project employs a mixed-method approach:

  1. Semi-structured interviews of city and regional leaders and stakeholders
  2. Discourse analysis – critical discourse analysis and content analysis – of policy documents and reports as well as newspaper coverage relating to climate science and governance