Environmental policy and climate change vulnerability in the Maldives: from the ‘lexicon of risk’ to social response to change
The climate change vulnerability discourse in the Maldives coexists with a pervasive set of critical environmental factors of significance to the socio-environmental systems of small peripheral islands. This implies the need to strike a balance between global challenges associated with environmental...
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University of Prince Edward Island
2017-05-01
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Online Access: | http://www.islandstudies.ca/sites/default/files/ISJMalatestaSchmidtdiFriedbergMaldivesRisk.pdf |
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doaj-4f6f044b06da48639ee5af5d4b880abb2020-11-25T03:49:51ZengUniversity of Prince Edward IslandIsland Studies Journal1715-25932017-05-01121537010.24043/isj.5Environmental policy and climate change vulnerability in the Maldives: from the ‘lexicon of risk’ to social response to changeStefano MalatestaMarcella Schmidt di FriedbergThe climate change vulnerability discourse in the Maldives coexists with a pervasive set of critical environmental factors of significance to the socio-environmental systems of small peripheral islands. This implies the need to strike a balance between global challenges associated with environmental processes at the supra-national scale and the adjustments and strategies implemented at the local scale in response to change. The current paper offers a discussion of this dialectic, in reference to both the broader contemporary debate in island studies, and the political and environmental context of the Maldives. We first outline the international scenario, and then go on, in the second part of the paper, to provide a reading of environmental policy on these islands. We argue that emphasizing the country’s environmental vulnerability has reinforced a ‘lexicon of risk’ within the environmental discourse and that, in recent years, this narrative has been one of the main forces driving the construction of contemporary Maldivian ‘nation-ness’.http://www.islandstudies.ca/sites/default/files/ISJMalatestaSchmidtdiFriedbergMaldivesRisk.pdfclimate change vulnerabilityenvironmental policyislandslexicon of riskMaldives |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Stefano Malatesta Marcella Schmidt di Friedberg |
spellingShingle |
Stefano Malatesta Marcella Schmidt di Friedberg Environmental policy and climate change vulnerability in the Maldives: from the ‘lexicon of risk’ to social response to change Island Studies Journal climate change vulnerability environmental policy islands lexicon of risk Maldives |
author_facet |
Stefano Malatesta Marcella Schmidt di Friedberg |
author_sort |
Stefano Malatesta |
title |
Environmental policy and climate change vulnerability in the Maldives: from the ‘lexicon of risk’ to social response to change |
title_short |
Environmental policy and climate change vulnerability in the Maldives: from the ‘lexicon of risk’ to social response to change |
title_full |
Environmental policy and climate change vulnerability in the Maldives: from the ‘lexicon of risk’ to social response to change |
title_fullStr |
Environmental policy and climate change vulnerability in the Maldives: from the ‘lexicon of risk’ to social response to change |
title_full_unstemmed |
Environmental policy and climate change vulnerability in the Maldives: from the ‘lexicon of risk’ to social response to change |
title_sort |
environmental policy and climate change vulnerability in the maldives: from the ‘lexicon of risk’ to social response to change |
publisher |
University of Prince Edward Island |
series |
Island Studies Journal |
issn |
1715-2593 |
publishDate |
2017-05-01 |
description |
The climate change vulnerability discourse in the Maldives coexists with a pervasive set of critical environmental factors of significance to the socio-environmental systems of small peripheral islands. This implies the need to strike a balance between global challenges associated with environmental processes at the supra-national scale and the adjustments and strategies implemented at the local scale in response to change. The current paper offers a discussion of this dialectic, in reference to both the broader contemporary debate in island studies, and the political and environmental context of the Maldives. We first outline the international scenario, and then go on, in the second part of the paper, to provide a reading of environmental policy on these islands. We argue that emphasizing the country’s environmental vulnerability has reinforced a ‘lexicon of risk’ within the environmental discourse and that, in recent years, this narrative has been one of the main forces driving the construction of contemporary Maldivian ‘nation-ness’. |
topic |
climate change vulnerability environmental policy islands lexicon of risk Maldives |
url |
http://www.islandstudies.ca/sites/default/files/ISJMalatestaSchmidtdiFriedbergMaldivesRisk.pdf |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT stefanomalatesta environmentalpolicyandclimatechangevulnerabilityinthemaldivesfromthelexiconofrisktosocialresponsetochange AT marcellaschmidtdifriedberg environmentalpolicyandclimatechangevulnerabilityinthemaldivesfromthelexiconofrisktosocialresponsetochange |
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