SSN seminar with Aalok Khandekar, 7 August 15:30 AEST via Livestream and at Deakin Downtown
SSN Info
Dear all
Cooling in a Fractal Grid: Towards Community-Based Heat Adaptation in Hyderabad’s Informal Settlements
Aalok will be joined in conversation by Associate Professor of Climate Change Robert Faggian (Deakin) and UNESCO Chair of Science Communication and Professor of Policy and Science and Technology Studies, Sujatha Raman (Australian National University) after his talk.
Please register for either an online or in-person ticket. The seminar will be livestreamed here. Please login with a Google or YouTube account to take part in the chat.
Cooling in a Fractal Grid: Towards Community-Based Heat Adaptation in Hyderabad’s Informal Settlements
India has witnessed increasing severity and frequency of heatwaves as one manifestation of climate change in the region. While these heatwaves effect everybody, certain population groups – street vendors, outdoor workers, children and the elderly, pregnant women, among others – are disproportionately impacted by rising ambient temperatures.
In this talk, I describe our research examining the impacts of and adaptations to extreme heat among residents of an informal urban settlement, Singareni Colony, in Hyderabad, India. I highlight disconnects between existing policies to address extreme heat in India and the everyday lived realities of Singareni residents. I then describe the particular social, material, and infrastructural conditions that render Singareni residents particularly vulnerable to the impacts of rising temperatures that remain largely unseen in formal policy frameworks. On the basis of this work, I highlight the highly gendered nature of heat vulnerabilities and adaptations and discuss the possibilities and challenges for locating heat adaptation in communities like Singareni Colony. I also highlight methodological innovations that have been necessary in order to undertake this research.
Speaker Bio
Aalok Khandekar is Associate Professor of Anthropology/ Sociology at the Department of Liberal Arts and Affiliated Faculty at the Department of Climate Change at the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad. Aalok’s recent work has focused on two major themes: First, climate change and vulnerability in the urban global South, and second, research cultures and infrastructures to support collaborative and transdisciplinary scholarship. Aalok also currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief of Engaging Science, Technology, and Society (ESTS), the diamond open access journal of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S).