Trapped in the prison of the mind: Notions of climate-induced (im)mobility decision-making and wellbeing from an urban informal settlement in Bangladesh

Sonja Ayeb-Karlsson,Terry Cannon,Dominic Kniveton

doi:10.1057/s41599-020-0443-2

Abstract

The concept of Trapped Populations has until date mainly referred to people ‘trapped’ in environmentally high-risk rural areas due to economic constraints. This article attempts to widen our understanding of the concept by investigating climate-induced socio-psychological immobility and its link to Internally Displaced People’s (IDPs) wellbeing in a slum of Dhaka. People migrated here due to environmental changes back on Bhola Island and named the settlement Bhola Slum after their home. In this way, many found themselves ‘immobile’ after having been mobile—unable to move back home, and unable to move to other parts of Dhaka, Bangladesh, or beyond. The analysis incorporates the emotional and psychosocial aspects of the diverse immobility states. Mind and emotion are vital to better understand people’s (im)mobility decision-making and wellbeing status. The study applies an innovative and interdisciplinary methodological approach combining Q-methodology and discourse analysis (DA). This mixed-method illustrates a replicable approach to capture the complex state of climate-induced (im)mobility and its interlinkages to people’s wellbeing. People reported facing non-economic losses due to the move, such as identity, honour, sense of belonging and mental health. These psychosocial processes helped explain why some people ended up ‘trapped’ or immobile. The psychosocial constraints paralysed them mentally, as well as geographically. More empirical evidence on how climate change influences people’s wellbeing and mental health will be important to provide us with insights in how to best support vulnerable people having faced climatic impacts, and build more sustainable climate policy frameworks.

Highlights

The concept of Trapped Populations has until date mainly referred to people ‘trapped’ in environmentally high-risk rural areas due to economic constraints
The importance of non-financial immobilising elements was raised within a UNFCCC climate policy context through the conceptual creation of ‘Non-Economic Losses and Damages’ (UNFCCC, 2013, 2015; Barnett et al, 2016; Boyd et al, 2017; Tschakert et al, 2019)
It is important to acknowledge that people faced these losses many of them ‘decided’ to migrate (Barnett et al, 2016; Tschakert et al, 2019). These are crucial findings for the upcoming UNFCCC climate policy discussions that are to shape the conceptual development of Loss and Damage, and advise on how to best support vulnerable people facing such losses

Summary

Introduction

The concept of Trapped Populations has until date mainly referred to people ‘trapped’ in environmentally high-risk rural areas due to economic constraints. If we are to better understand the apparent inability of people to move away from places that involve risky situations, we need to analyse the deeply contextual psychosocial aspects that affect a person’s state of mind, wellbeing, and thereby their (im)mobility decision-making (see Fig. 1). These include feelings of belonging, identity-constructions, attitudes to risk, and emotional or mental wellbeing. Similar to the climate immobility scope, there are more empirical research investigating mental wellbeing in rural than urban areas, and slum settings are in particular neglected. People living here are more vulnerable to climatic changes, such as heat strikes and flooding than people living in housing providing shade and protection from direct sunlight, high temperatures and standing water (De Sherbinin et al, 2007; Woodward et al, 2014; Khan et al, 2014)

Methods

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion