Meanings of environment for
families in India and the UK
Project team:
Janet Boddy, Ann Phoenix, Helen Austerberry, Hanan Hauari,
Catherine Walker
Young Lives: Uma Vennam, Madhavi Latha, Virginia Morrow,
Gina Crivello and Emma Wilson
Thanks also to Natasha Shukla
Overarching aim
To improve understanding of the negotiated complexity of families’
lives in relationship with their environments, with regard to meanings
of ‘environment’ in narratives of everyday and habitual family lives and
family practices.
‘climate change policy proceeds on the basis of an extraordinarily limited
understanding of the social world and is, for the most part, untouched by
theoretical debate of any kind’.
Shove (2010, p278)
‘unambiguously identifying good and evil among individuals and ways of life’
Guha (2006, p25)
Environmental identity?
‘Every person has an environmental identity (whether it is
concerned, apathetic, or antagonistic) that is a necessary part of
her full identity. A foundational aspect of identity, as we examine
Ricoeur’s ethic, is what one sees as the good life. For a person
with a more engaged environmental identity, the good life involves
interaction with and preservation of the natural world.’
Bell (2014, p142)
Learning from difference
Informing understandings of ‘translatability’ – and potential for
shared learning across contexts – in cross-national research
‘the dominant thrust of the environmental movement in the North […]
is toward the protection of pristine, unspoilt nature – this being a
reservoir of biological diversity and enormous aesthetic appeal
which serves as an ideal (if temporary) haven from the workaday
world. […]
the dominant thrust of the environmental movement in India […]
powerfully foregrounds questions of production and distribution
within human society. The concern here is with “the use of the
environment and who should benefit from it; not with environmental
protection for its own sake”’
(Guha, 2006, p67)
Everyday lives and
family practices
“the sets of relationships (structures, collectivities)
within which [family practices] are carried out and
from which they derive their meaning”
(Morgan 2011, no page numbers)
Narrative addresses the meanings of family practices
• their relationship to individual and collective identities;
• connected not only socially but through time and space;
• their relationship to understandings of socially and
culturally accepted norms.
5
Precarious life
Judith Butler (e.g., 2004, 2012)
• An inevitable interdependency, based in an embedded
sociality
• Encompassing dependence on those we do not know
(distal and ‘other’) as well as those we do (proximate and
familiar)
• Politically and economically constructed, and hence
unequal
‘it is only when we understand that what happens there also
happens here, and that “here” is already an elsewhere, and
necessarily so, that we stand a chance of grasping the
difficult and shifting global connections’.
(Butler, 2012, p150)
Methods
Secondary analysis of Young Lives qualitative data
• Purposive sample of eight cases
• Carer and young person interviews
• Three rounds (YP aged 12, 13, 15 years)
New data collection: UK and Andhra Pradesh
• 12 families per country (YP in school year 7 or 8)
• Multi-method approach
• individual and family group interviews;
photography; mapping; walking/driving interview
• Contrasting contexts
• urban and rural; relative affluence
7
Sample
India (AP)
State capital (Hyderabad)
Rural area
Gov’t school
Mamatha (girl, 11)
Mother, father, two siblings
Anand (boy, 14)
Mother, father, two siblings
Gomathi (girl, 12)
Mother, father, one sibling, cousin.
Rahul (boy, 12)
Mother, father, one sibling
Amrutha (girl, 12)
Mother, father, one sibling
Aamir (12)
Mother, father, two siblings, grandmother
Country capital (London)
Phoebe (girl, 12)
Mother, father, two siblings
Nathan (boy, 12)
Mother, step-father, three siblings
Antonia (girl, 12)
Father, mother, two siblings
Kofi (boy, 11)
Mother, two siblings
Marnie (girl, 12)
Mother, father, two siblings
Humphrey (boy, 12)
Mother, father, one sibling
Dharani (girl, 12)
Mother, father, sibling
Chandhrasekhar (boy, 12)
Mother, father, sibling
Chitra (girl, 12)
Mother, father, sibling
Hemant (boy, 12)
Mother, father, sibling, two grandparents
Reethika (girl, 12)
Mother, father, sibling
Mohanram (boy, 12)
Father, step-mother, sibling, two grandparents
Rural area
Amy (girl, 11)
Mother, one sibling
Callum (boy, 11)
Mother, one sibling
Helena (girl, 12)
Father
Jack (boy, 12)
Mother, father, one sibling
Rosie (girl, 12)
Mother, father, one sibling
Oliver (boy, 11)
Mother, step-father, two siblings
Private school
International
school
UK
State schools
Independent
school
Diverse meanings of
environment
The immediacy of environmental
considerations in everyday life
(after Guha 2006)
Perceptions of precarity in relation to the
environment
(after Butler 2004, 2012)
Structural production of
precarious environments
Mamatha’s family (urban Indian girl, government school)
Syamala:
…What’s now, getting drenched outside and inside,
that’s the scene […]
Syamala:
During heavy rains, will send the three children to my
mother’s place, we both get drenched and stay, cover
ourselves with blankets and sleep […]
Madhavi:
Then how are you managing?
Syamala:
What is there to manage? It’s all tension, they will
evacuate this, when will they do, and [we are] afraid of
when it happens! […]
Syamala:
We have kept the material at my dad’s place. Some of it
[has been] kept at father’s place; the utensils, boxes at
my mother’s place; and few for cooking and eating
purpose utensils are kept with me, madam.
Structural production of
precarious environments
Rosie’s family (rural UK girl, independent school)
Sally:
He's just going to make money from it. […] And at the meetings (...)
I'm sorry; at the meetings everyone here’s quite af-afraid of him
because he's a wealthy man and we all know him.
Janet:
Does he own a lot of the – is there a lot of tied property to the estate?
Sally:
A lot of property. The [farmland in this area] all belongs to him. It's all
tenanted by farmers. But obviously they […] but they um (...) but they,
they're in a position where they can't really be the ones to object.
Even though they're farmers and farmers generally would say
absolutely not, this is terrible and could poison the soil. But they can't
say a word because he's the landowner. It's a terrible position. And
had we known about this, under no circumstances would we have
bought our house.
Environmental and economic
production of precarious life
Chandhrasekhar’s family (rural Indian boy, government school)
Sumathi:
Everything had drowned and was damaged, not a single [tool] was
in a workable condition. We just had to leave everything including the
eatables as it occurred at night. As it had gotten spoilt we had to buy
everything from the beginning. We borrowed money from the money lender
with an interest of Rs. 10. Thus we bought the tools and started working
and repaying the debt. Whenever we needed we borrowed money and thus
the interest kept on accumulating. You can calculate how much it would
come up to for an interest of Rs. 10. It feels like we are half dead because
of the accumulated interest. The main reason for our deplorable situation is
paying the large amounts as interest. Because of the interest to be paid we
have reached this situation, our lives are ruined. […]
Madhavi:
Sumathi:
Did you sell your old house because of that or was there any other
reason?
Yes. Because of these difficulties and loans and as we were
unable to pay the interest, we had to sell the house.
Distal environmental precarity,
made proximate
Humphrey’s family (urban UK boy, independent school)
Roger: ... We have changed the way in which we live over the last (...) ten years, and
certainly over the last few years to... […]
Julia:
I, I think it's been longer than that.
Roger: ...minimise (...) our (...) carbon footprint... (Helen: Yeah) ...to use a, a better,
another term. (Helen: Yeah) And I think it's considerably less than it used to be. [gives
example of using car club]
Roger: So yes. But I mean you could (...) we're not (...) hair shirt type things... (Helen:
Yes) …you know, fanatics or something. …(Helen: Yeah) … We, we think that if (...) if
everybody did (...) I suppose took the same responsible position that we were taking,
then (.) the whole country's carbon footprint would be you know, we'd meet our targets
that we're supposed to be reducing by 2020 fairly easily I would have thought.
Julia:
I think it's partly because we read the newspaper. (Roger: Mmm) … I've (.)
been quite (...) startled at (...) intelligent, I thought well informed people (...) who just
last year were not aware that fish stocks were running out. Now, if you read the paper...
Humphrey: Even I knew that.
Julia:
Well that’s partly because we keep telling you.
Distal environmental precarity,
made proximate
Amrutha’s family (urban Indian girl, independent school)
Natasha:
Mmm, and have you heard about climate change or global warming?
Aruna:
Yes! One quick you can call it as a joke, if I switch on the AC in my car, my
kids will shout, Amma you are increasing the global warming, switch it off, polar bears
will die (laughs). Every time this is the fight in the car. […]
Natasha:
And what do you say when the kids say that?
Aruna:
We just laugh (laughing). We keep telling them it is not just because we
switch on the AC, it is one of the factors though.
Natasha:
So then what happens, who wins?
Aruna:
Definitely them, you cannot argue with them, then after a couple of minutes
they will forget and then I will switch it on. I am not supposed to lie though (laughing).
Especially this girl is very particular, ‘let’s open the windows and we drive, because we
will be killing the polar bears’, I say where do you see polar bears here (laughs). She
heard this one from her sister, and just that point went into her brains maybe and since
then this is what, and whenever she turns on the AC when she wants to sleep, I tell her
‘polar bears are crying, why are you switching on the AC’ (laughs). Sooo.
The responsibility of privilege?
Amrutha’s family (urban Indian girl, independent school)
Vijay:
So we kind of, uh, live in this dilemma of whether are really doing the
right thing by providing all the comforts to them and shielding them from
reality.
Well I’m kind of thinking that maybe once they grow a bit older
then we’re
gonna show them what life is so that [they really =
Amrutha: = I’m okay! =
Vijay:
= Appreciate this] life and also [understand the realities =
Amrutha: = Dad I’m okay =
Vijay:
= you know?]
An environmental identity?
Nathan’s family (urban UK, state school)
Jordan: What goes on in our lives every day (.) matters to me more than (...)
what goes on in the environment. It's more important.
Helen:
Pollution?
Jordan: Well for me it's more important. (Helen: Yeah) …I'm not saying that it's,
it's (.) the environment’s not important. But for me (...) doesn’t (...) that (...) what
goes on in our everyday lives over (...) powers anything else.
Nathan:
Did you know, pollution can kill you?
Jordan:
Because that’s what affects us the most.
Helen:
Are there any particular things in your immediate environment affect
you, like your day-to-day, that affect you more than other things?
Jordan: Well just every general daily life. Like making sure the kids get to
school, the sh-the shopping’s done. (Helen: Yeah) … You know, it's just (...)
washing. Everything (...) general living… (Helen: Yeah) …that’s what we have
to deal with.
Shades of
environmentalism
 Meanings of environment in both countries do not necessarily fit
global north paradigms of environmental concern
• Understandings are temporally and spatially located, framed
by economic and political factors
• The centrality of the everyday, encompassing past, present
and imagined futures
• Moralising categorisations neglect structural inequality and
important concerns in family lives
 A narrative multi-method approach enables understanding
of social ecology, encompassing diversity, equity and
sustainability (from Guha 2006)