Agency & Adaptive Responses: The role of individual and collective agency in shaping responses to climate change impacts among Dalit communities in Satkhira, Bangladesh

This thesis explores the role of agency in shaping responses to climate change impacts of four Dalit communities in Satkhira, the south-western region of Bangladesh. The thesis took on a mixed-method approach and conducted 22 in-depth interviews with men and women across the Rishi, Jele, Behara and Kaora communities in Satkhira, along with a survey of perceived levels of personal and collective agency with 135 participants.

Findings highlight the importance of recognizing how personal and collective agency shape the avenues of coping, resisting, adapting or enacting transformative changes to grapple with climate change impacts for Dalit communities in this region. Narratives across the four communities highlight the unique challenges which emerge at the intersection of climate change impacts and vulnerabilities stemming from caste-based inequities. Findings show that despite high levels of personal agency, collective agency remains low across the four communities, as adaptation processes have rarely focused on developing their ability to envision and influence change or target systemic inequities which produce vulnerabilities in the first place. Despite this, narratives show how communities take up a range of institutional and non-institutional tactics to overcome or mitigate current and future impacts. Dalit communities also tackle caste-based discriminations by driving collective action and taking on leadership roles in adapting to climate change impacts or taking up pathways to resist maladaptive development processes beyond their community. The thesis adds further evidence to how disrupting systemic inequities is crucially important for ensuring environmental justice.

The thesis presents a case for focusing on the need for enhancing collective agency in line with fostering leadership and narrative change work among marginalized communities, especially those whose lives and livelihoods are intricately tied with sustaining environmental and ecological integrity in climate vulnerable contexts.