The influence of climate resilience governmentality on vulnerability in regional Australia
Jackson, Guy LU
(2024)
In Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space
- Abstract
- Australia is already experiencing climate change losses and damages. Australian governments and other institutional actors acknowledge vulnerability, yet they centre building resilience to climate change. Resilience is frequently used as a synonym for vulnerability reduction, but important ideological differences exist. Indeed, scholars have suggested that resilience, as a politico-ideological tool of subject formation, can be considered a type of governmentality. While there is much research on the political and ideological dimensions of resilience, there is less focus on illuminating how resilience, as a form of climate governmentality, interacts with vulnerability to climate change. Drawing on a climate ethnography in regional... (More)
- Australia is already experiencing climate change losses and damages. Australian governments and other institutional actors acknowledge vulnerability, yet they centre building resilience to climate change. Resilience is frequently used as a synonym for vulnerability reduction, but important ideological differences exist. Indeed, scholars have suggested that resilience, as a politico-ideological tool of subject formation, can be considered a type of governmentality. While there is much research on the political and ideological dimensions of resilience, there is less focus on illuminating how resilience, as a form of climate governmentality, interacts with vulnerability to climate change. Drawing on a climate ethnography in regional Australia, I ask how do resilience discourses and interventions influence vulnerability to climate change in regional Australia? To answer this question, I explore examples of the historical–structural, intersectional and psychosocial determinants of vulnerability, identify key resilience discourses and interventions and examine how, what I term, climate resilience governmentality is influencing vulnerability to climate change. Unable to identify clear causality, I instead show how resilience governmentality is working to reinforce rather than redress the root causes of vulnerability in regional Australia. I observe that resilience discourses emphasise shared responsibility, but in practice, this translates into a focus on individual capacities. Subjects’ psychological dispositions are targeted and neoliberal rationalities are desired outcomes. Climate resilience governmentality is not linked to a withdrawal of the state. Instead, it is a top-down process based on government prioritisation, subject formation strategies and the building of non-governmental institutional landscapes to provide services. I argue that climate resilience governmentality is a form of governmental gaslighting because it denies the lived experiences of precarity, insecurity and structural violence throughout regional Australia. I suggest that significant government investment in regional communities, critical societal reflection and truth-telling are urgently needed to reduce vulnerability in regional Australia. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/24bccc53-132f-44cf-9009-e710399cd35f
- author
- Jackson, Guy
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2024
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- epub
- keywords
- Australia, Climate change, governmentality, resilience, subjectivities
- in
- Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space
- publisher
- SAGE Publications
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85182997116
- ISSN
- 2514-8494
- DOI
- 10.1177/25148486241226919
- project
- Recasting the disproportionate impacts of climate change extremes
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 24bccc53-132f-44cf-9009-e710399cd35f
- date added to LUP
- 2024-02-02 13:29:19
- date last changed
- 2024-02-03 04:04:14
@article{24bccc53-132f-44cf-9009-e710399cd35f,
abstract = {{Australia is already experiencing climate change losses and damages. Australian governments and other institutional actors acknowledge vulnerability, yet they centre building resilience to climate change. Resilience is frequently used as a synonym for vulnerability reduction, but important ideological differences exist. Indeed, scholars have suggested that resilience, as a politico-ideological tool of subject formation, can be considered a type of governmentality. While there is much research on the political and ideological dimensions of resilience, there is less focus on illuminating how resilience, as a form of climate governmentality, interacts with vulnerability to climate change. Drawing on a climate ethnography in regional Australia, I ask how do resilience discourses and interventions influence vulnerability to climate change in regional Australia? To answer this question, I explore examples of the historical–structural, intersectional and psychosocial determinants of vulnerability, identify key resilience discourses and interventions and examine how, what I term, climate resilience governmentality is influencing vulnerability to climate change. Unable to identify clear causality, I instead show how resilience governmentality is working to reinforce rather than redress the root causes of vulnerability in regional Australia. I observe that resilience discourses emphasise shared responsibility, but in practice, this translates into a focus on individual capacities. Subjects’ psychological dispositions are targeted and neoliberal rationalities are desired outcomes. Climate resilience governmentality is not linked to a withdrawal of the state. Instead, it is a top-down process based on government prioritisation, subject formation strategies and the building of non-governmental institutional landscapes to provide services. I argue that climate resilience governmentality is a form of governmental gaslighting because it denies the lived experiences of precarity, insecurity and structural violence throughout regional Australia. I suggest that significant government investment in regional communities, critical societal reflection and truth-telling are urgently needed to reduce vulnerability in regional Australia.}},
author = {{Jackson, Guy}},
issn = {{2514-8494}},
keywords = {{Australia; Climate change; governmentality; resilience; subjectivities}},
language = {{eng}},
publisher = {{SAGE Publications}},
series = {{Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space}},
title = {{The influence of climate resilience governmentality on vulnerability in regional Australia}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/25148486241226919}},
doi = {{10.1177/25148486241226919}},
year = {{2024}},
}