How do environmental changes affect those living in rural and urban communities in Brazil? How do people living on the low-income outskirts of cities or in traditional communities experience the impacts of climate change in their everyday lives? How are gentrification and land speculation changing vulnerable communities long-standing access to natural resources? How are large infrastructure projects— hydropower plants, mines, and ports– altering landscapes and compounding environmental change? How do issues of race and gender shape environmental justice? What solutions have local communities found to mitigate and resist environmental changes? 

 

"Emergent Ecologies," an initiative of the Behner Stiefel Center for Brazilian Studies at San Diego State University, adopts ethnography as both a research methodology and a form of engagement that allows us to address issues related to environmental problems in collaboration with communities whose ways of life are undergoing significant transformation. Researchers from various fields of knowledge have shown that climate change has an unequal impact on different social groups. We understand that traditional communities and residents of low-income urban neighborhoods establish particular relationships with the environment, including with animals, water, forest and air. Consequently, these communities have a deep understanding of the patterns, flows, and disruptions that occur in the environments in which they live. On the one hand, these communities are more severely affected by climate change. On the other hand, they are well placed to play a critical and creative role in shaping emerging ecologies. Working equitably with them not only gives us a concrete understanding of the impacts of environmental change, but also elevates awareness of solutions devised by those most directly impacted by environmental change.