Futuremaking in a disaster zone: Everyday climate change adaptation amongst Quechua women in the Peruvian Cordillera Blanca

Abstract

The Peruvian Andes has experienced widely publicized, climate change induced glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), which increasingly threaten the lives of thousands of the region's residents. However, the everyday adaptations of the most historically marginalized populations in the Andes—often Quechua women in highland communities—are frequently obscured by a singular focus on glacier and water management to prevent high-impact but infrequent GLOFs. This focus on glacier hazards downplays and renders invisible the ways that Quechua women actually adapt to climate change by labeling them 'highly vulnerable' despite a limited understanding of their daily lives. Through a case study in the Cordillera Blanca mountain range, this article advances a feminist framework of everyday adaptation called ‘futuremaking’ that challenges the current ice-and-water-focused paradigm of adaptation policy in glaciated regions. We draw on interviews with Quechua women, participant observation on adaptation planning teams, and informal expert interviews to advance the futuremaking framework, which prioritizes the everyday and future desires of women and households over technical adaptations that view people as vulnerable. Futuremaking is a feminist process of everyday adaptation in a disaster zone that relies on A) Prioritizing the everyday over the someday; B) Intergenerational well-being and community networks of care, and; C) Dynamic and embodied adaptations to uncertainty. We argue that futuremaking both challenges the efficacy of adaptation projects currently underway in the Andes and charts a path towards more transformative adaptation interventions by prioritizing capabilities and feminist networks of care over managing damage and disaster.