The lack of indoor thermal comfort brings farmers to use their kitchen for warmth, and the lack of well-designed kitchens in the region creates health complications for many farmers and their families. Distributing blankets and food should not be the sole response to such conditions. Long-term solutions are needed to abolish the never-ending cycle of the harmful effects of cold temperatures in the region. The optimal solution would continue using reactive approaches, such as humanitarian aid when needed, but add to those a focus on creating robust long-term proactive approaches to improving indoor thermal comfort in the region.When talking about impacts related to low temperatures, the primary concerns are due to social vulnerability and a lack of resources. However, impacts related to drought are complex and go beyond social vulnerability. Governance, access to water, good quality of wells, and other methods of collecting water are of great importance. The information provided by different agencies can be contradicting and confusing at times. Access to certain kinds of information alone does not provide everything that leaders need to understand what is happening on the ground and everything farmers need to adequately prepare for drought. Dealing with drought-related impacts would benefit from a stronger network of information and improved methods of transmitting a concise and less confusing message to stakeholders . Both qualitative and quantitative analyses point to concerns about social capital in the region and indicate the need for a stronger understanding of the role of social networks in vulnerability. Social networks are a critical component of the social capital that protects against vulnerability,grow tray stand but vulnerability assessments often reduce social networks to an asset.
These assessments rarely study how social networks can aid members to cope with a crisis, including finding alternative livelihood strategies. Furthermore, a binary approach to social network is problematic, because while membership bolsters trust and access to resources, the distribution of such benefits are uneven across specific networks and specific positions within a network. A network does not benefit all its members equally, nor does each network benefit its members equally. These variations raise questions about how to measure network interactions in vulnerability assessments. Should social networks even be included as part of social capital? Should social networks be treated as a new component of vulnerability that connects entities forming such networks? I included social networks only as an asset in this dissertation, but the qualitative results suggest that more effort should be focused on how best to include social network structures and connectivity in spatial vulnerability assessments. Mapping social vulnerability indices allows areas of extremely high or low vulnerability to emerge. However, vulnerable populations remain unseen at certain levels of aggregation. The level of analysis optimal for decision-making likely varies according to who the information is aiding and the purpose of the analysis. Therefore, a single correct scale of analysis cannot be suggested. This brings interest to the uses of an interactive interface to study vulnerability at multiple scales rather than the typical static map for assessing vulnerability. The results of the present research suggest the value of a more detailed look into the impacts that result from weather-events of less intensity and duration. Social vulnerability might be strongly spatially associated with such impacts. Also, the reason that socioeconomic vulnerability indicators are spatially associated with some aspects of topography is unknown, and this association clearly deserves further study. The geon methodology creates homogenous areas that do not necessarily follow administrative divisions. Region officials can use these maps to address concerns at the level of phenomena and not just according to imposed administrative boundaries.
Many cases showed homogeneity in vulnerability indicators across neighboring municipality boundaries. In such cases, municipalities can work together with neighbors to address similar concerns. However, patterns linked to administrative boundaries are present in some of the geon maps. For example, physical and social capital present two neighboring geons at both extremes of the index values. When municipality boundaries are added to the map, it is revealed that the boundary separating the geons coincides with the municipality boundary. Therefore, while it is quite valuable to map vulnerability according to the boundaries of phenomena instead of administrative boundaries, in some circumstances, the boundary patterns do coincide. In su, this dissertation demonstrates how qualitative and quantitative research methods can build on each other to create a more comprehensive assessment. With the increase in the uncertainty due to weather and climate hazards, using ethnographic approaches to understand the local context is imperative. Such methodologies could act as a bridge that connects local understandings with a multitude of stakeholders and scales. Results from this dissertation have the potential to serve as scaffolding for future adaptation strategies in Puno and, eventually, in other areas less developed parts of the world where agriculture provides the main livelihood. Ethnographic components of these research provide an in-depth understanding of the location; however, they possess transferability. The results from this dissertation could be transferable to the study of social vulnerability in other high mountainous regions or rural environments.While the Japanese islands have been prone to a variety of natural disasters throughout their history, the magnitudes of some of these omnipresent threats are observed to have increased in recent years. My informants, for example, anecdotally spoke of perceived increase in the temperature throughout the years.
The relatively cool rainy season which lasted from the middle of June into July, which used to require heating equipment, turned into “wet summers.” They also talked about orange trees they planted that used to produce sour Hlavors now yielded sweeter Hlavors presumably due to the warmer climate. Relatedly, storms of many kinds are reported to have intensiHied in recent years. In the past, the term tornados were unheard of, but today they are new and frequent occurrences. Other severe storms are accompanied by larger hails than in the past. In fact, in the winter of 2014, the year this Hield work took place, the eastern Japan, including Tokyo, experienced record-breaking snowfalls. As a result, many of the informants’ green houses were destroyed. Yet the informants appeared composed and nonchalant about the effects of these changing climates on their food production. Most of them did not bring up the topic during the interviews until they were asked specifically about it. What could be some of the reasons for this? For one,garden racks wholesale the general increase in temperature and the intensity of the rain and snowfall has not significantly affected the informants’ “outdoor crops,” which are predominantly rice and wheat. The majority of other products, mainly vegetables, are produced indoor. The destruction of the green houses due to the record amount of snow was a major loss. Nonetheless, the informants seemed to have accepted the incidence as a by-gone, and showed a sense of gratitude toward the Japanese government, which helped cover about ninety percent of the loss. Such is a reminiscent of the way the people of northern Japan reacted calmly to the calamity of the tsumani in 2011 . What implications do these preliminary observations offer in terms of “cultural models” of nature that are purported to have influenced the informants’ narratives about food production? I hypothesize that the informants relied on an overarching cultural model that nature can be “humanized” to enhance human endeavors particularly in the areas of self-cultivation and associated interpersonal relationships. Using this cultural model works as a buffer against and around which to circumvent the perceived and real harms of raw, untamed nature. According to this cultural model, raw nature is un-natural. Nature is “natural” only when it is humanized to enhance human existence and activities . Since Japan is a highly industrialized society with complex economic systems, none of the informants engaged in subsistence farming. As such, their farming did not rely directly or solely on naturally given soil conditions or weather patterns. Instead, they utilized advanced in-door food productions facilities and technologies. They also took advantage of the wealth of current, and research-based farming knowledge provided by the municipal and national farmers organizations such as JA, Japan Agricultural Cooperatives. They also exchanged ideas and tips with other farmers, which they acquired through experience or the sources mentioned above. As to what makes plants and animals grow, informants shared basic knowledge which they saw as fundamental to successful farming: i.e., knowledge about optimal soil conditions , lights, winds, temperatures, timing of planning and harvesting and other maintenance activities , and ways to prevent diseases. They said that such knowledge comes from experiences, from other farmers including their parents and family members, and from the government-based, local and national farming bureaus such as JA. No one mentioned supernatural factors such as “gods” or “spirits” as factors contributing to the growth. In terms of their commercial success, informants revealed two distinctive yet complementary models. The first model may be called ‘rational and profit-oriented.’ Here the food producers worked in concert with the information provided by JA about the crops and seeds types, kinds of diseases that are prevalent and how to prevent them to maximize their productivity.
The JA’s also organized chains of marketing outlets into which the farmers could distribute their product at a timely fashion. Most of the large-scale rice, wheat, tomatoes, plums and pears farmers relied on such support system. The second model may be termed ‘non-rational and relational,’ and even ‘moral’ and ‘spiritual,’ in a sense that it seeks higher level of meaning and satisfactions from farming than merely profiting from it. Informants often used the terms kodawari and tsunagari to express this view. To kodawaru means to produce foods that bear one’s ‘signature’ heart/effort. Many of the consumers who tasted such foods become ‘repeaters,’ loyal customers who develop a special and lasting tie to the food producers. Many famers noted that they gain most satisfactions out of their job from such special relationships. In short, the first model is essential because without it, farmers cannot sustain their livelihood. The second model complements the first as it helps them to create deeper and more personalized meaning out of their work. Below are some examples of the second perspective from the semi-structured interviews and the nature walks. Michiko Sekiguchi, a sixty-four year old woman, married into a multi-generational farming family. While her husband takes charge of the rice and wheat, which supports family’s main income, she grows greenhouse tomatoes, along with a variety of other green vegetables. She says her operation is “small and not profitable,” but had continued it for the last eighteen years. Asked why, she responded, “It’s [my] kodawari.” Asked to explain what kodawari means to non-Japanese, she said, “it means to be particular [about your mission] and not to compromise .” In a practical term, “it means to…wake up at three or four in the morning every day” to take her vegetables to the local stores. “That way, people say when they eat my vegetales, oishii! . I pick them first thing in the morning and have people eat that way. I especially want young children to know how great they taste.” Another expression of Michiko’s kodawari, in addition to always hand delivering her vegetables fresh, is the farm stand she created for herself, which she named, Daichi No Megumi , which happens to be the brand name given to the rice they produce. The space is filled with wall hangings and gifts she received from her friends. Many of them contain words of appreciation for the relationships they cultivated over the years. Secondarily, she sells the vegetables she produced at low prices. She said that the room symbolizes her connection with other female farmers. It is also worth noting that this farm stand is located next to the family grave. Michiko is grateful that she and her husband inherited the land from their ancestor. She says, “I know how our ancestors were attached to this land, so I would never let it go. When I think of their feelings, I, too, cannot let go of this land.” During our ‘nature walk’ around the family grave, she said, “this [having the grave next to their farm] is a reminder that our ancestors are always watching over for us.” Shinji Amada is a thirty-two year old pig farmer who also took over the business from his father, who inherited it from his father forty years ago.