Engaging with informality and the subaltern in overlooked cities: towards an agenda for climate change research in the Global South

Abstract

ABSTRACT Climate research in the Global South tends to focus on large (>10 million population) cities. However, most of the urban poor in the South live in smaller cities. The knowledge and experience of the urban poor in smaller cities is highly contextualized, therefore, knowledge about these cities and the plight of their subaltern populations and the contours of informality cannot easily be ‘extrapolated’ from megacities. Rather than empirical prescriptions this paper makes a methodological argument for an epistemologically just approach to engaging with those left behind through a shift towards co-producing climate knowledge with marginalized communities and their actual lived contexts in these overlooked cities. In doing so, the paper makes a case for widening the current scope of climate change research in ways that can support climate action to effectively contribute towards achieving the SDGs’ commitment of leaving no one and no place behind.