Papers by Jamie Haverkamp
Gateways: International Journal of Community Research and Engagement
Across a range of environmental change and crisis-driven research fields, including conservation,... more Across a range of environmental change and crisis-driven research fields, including conservation, climate change and sustainability studies, the rhetoric of participatory and engaged research has become somewhat of a normative and mainstream mantra. Aligning with cautionary tales of participatory approaches, this article suggests that, all too often, ‘engaged’ research is taken up uncritically and without care, often by pragmatist, post-positivist and neoliberal action-oriented researchers, for whom the radical and relational practice of PAR is paradigmatically (ontologically, epistemologically and/or axiologically) incommensurable. Resisting depoliticised and rationalist interpretations of participatory methodologies, I strive in this article to hold space for the political, relational and ethical dimensions of collaboration and engagement. Drawing on four years of collaborative ethnographic climate research in the Peruvian Andes with campesinos of Quilcayhuanca, I argue that resit...
Collaborative survival and the politics of livability: Towards adaptation otherwise
World Development, 2021
Abstract Climate change promises to bring forth a future of uncertain and challenging events in w... more Abstract Climate change promises to bring forth a future of uncertain and challenging events in which divergent worlds collide, conflict, and collaborate for survival in transitionary times. Yet, collaborative adaptation responses remain not well understood, particularly in terms of the relational and political dimensions of this practice. This paper seeks to push beyond collaboration as an assumed good and contributes to deeper theorization and conceptualization of the arts of collaborating within the context of climate adaptation and sustainable development. The paper draws upon participatory and ethnographic engagements in the struggle for collaborative adaptation to rapid glacier melt in the Peruvian highlands between 2015 and 2018. Insights are derived from various qualitative methods that allowed for following through a network of local to global adaptation actors (State institutions, development NGOs, and campesinos) as they worked towards a common goal of becoming resilient to ensuing radical landscape changes. By paying attention to divergent adaptation imaginaries, as well as historically produced uneven geographies of power upon which current adaptation strategies are materializing, this study illuminates “frictions” that emerge from collaborative engagements and the systemic oppression of local ways of knowing and being. This study finds that, through a privileged adaptation discourse, State and transnational actors enact a techno-scientific and developmentalist-adaptation reality that is indifferent to the needs and preferences of highland inhabitants. I argue that, adaptation in this way performs a “coloniality of power” that perpetuates the erasure of social alterity from world-making projects. As a counter-proposal, I call for doing adaptation otherwise, that is, decolonially. This practice is informed by the relational ontology of highland campesinos, and strives to create an alternative approach to formal adaptation that allows for rights of self-determination and the empowerment of designs from “below”.
The Journal of Defense Modeling and Simulation: Applications, Methodology, Technology, 2016
Climate change has the potential to displace large populations in many parts of the developed and... more Climate change has the potential to displace large populations in many parts of the developed and developing world. Understanding why, how, and when environmental migrants decide to move is critical to successful strategic planning within organizations tasked with helping the affected groups, and mitigating their systemic impacts. One way to support planning is through the employment of computational modeling techniques. Models can provide a window into possible futures, allowing planners and decision makers to test different scenarios in order to understand what might happen. While modeling is a powerful tool, it presents both opportunities and challenges. This paper builds a foundation for the broader community of model consumers and developers by: providing an overview of pertinent climate-induced migration research, describing some different types of models and how to select the most relevant one(s), highlighting three perspectives on obtaining data to use in said model(s), and ...
This dissertation strives to rethink apolitical and ahistorical efforts for adapting to climate c... more This dissertation strives to rethink apolitical and ahistorical efforts for adapting to climate change in terms of a political struggle for survival in times of radical global environmental change. Drawing on ethnographic and participatory fieldwork with agro-pastoralists of the Peruvian Andes, government officials and international NGO actors, this dissertation follows emergent climate-resilient discourse of rapid glacier retreat as it travels from global origins and articulates with local culture and indigenous ecologies in the Cordillera Blanca. Through this research, I offer a critical interpretive analysis of modern, capitalist and rationalist ways of knowing and planning for climate change, finding that such adaptation efforts in the Andes constitutes hegemonic, discursive practices that reproduce uneven geographies of power and subalternize “other” ways of knowing about, and responding to, climate change. This research probes questions of power and equity in multi-scalar adap...
Genealogy, Mar 28, 2022
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
Throughout the process in which this study was created I received generous support from numerous ... more Throughout the process in which this study was created I received generous support from numerous individuals. I would like to thank my committee chair, Carol Harden, for her devotion and generous amounts of time allocated to helping the development of this project. I would also like to acknowledge my committee members, Dr. Gregory Button and Dr. Micheline van Riemsdijk, who have given significant time and energy to this project. All three of the committee members have gone above and beyond their academic duty and have graciously extended moral support. A special thanks to Dr. Benjamin Preston and Dr. Tom Wilbanks, two very special and well-respected researchers in the field of adaptation studies, who have so humbly donated their efforts to helping me better understand adaptation studies, and therefore this research project. I would also like to acknowledge all the informants of this study who generously responded to my emails and took hours out of their days for research interviews. Lastly, I am hugely thankful to my three children who have been patient and understanding with the demands of this project. Their innocence, love, and joy drives my passion and desire to help make positive social change and mindfully address global future challenges. Lastly, my deepest gratitude is due to my husband who worked harder and sacrificed more than I to help me achieve the goal of this thesis-track M.S. Geography degree. His support was endless and the project would not have been feasible without him. Holland, thank you; words fail to express the gratitude that I have in my heart for all you have done. Thank you to all who so graciously helped me along this journey that is this research project.
Gateways: International Journal of Community Research and Engagement, 2021
Across a range of environmental change and crisis-driven research fields, including conservation,... more Across a range of environmental change and crisis-driven research fields, including conservation, climate change and sustainability studies, the rhetoric of participatory and engaged research has become somewhat of a normative and mainstream mantra. Aligning with cautionary tales of participatory approaches, this article suggests that, all too often, ‘engaged’ research is taken up uncritically and without care, often by pragmatist, post-positivist and neoliberal action-oriented researchers, for whom the radical and relational practice of PAR is paradigmatically (ontologically, epistemologically and/or axiologically) incommensurable. Resisting depoliticised and rationalist interpretations of participatory methodologies, I strive in this article to hold space for the political, relational and ethical dimensions of collaboration and engagement. Drawing on four years of collaborative ethnographic climate research in the Peruvian Andes with campesinos of Quilcayhuanca, I argue that resit...
Where does computational modeling of climate-induced migration stand and what challenges still need to be overcome
2015 Winter Simulation Conference (WSC), 2015
Politics, values, and reflexivity: The case of adaptation to climate change in Hampton Roads, Virginia
Environment and Planning A
Climate adaptation planning is said to be a necessary and inevitable facet of future societies, a... more Climate adaptation planning is said to be a necessary and inevitable facet of future societies, and is rapidly occurring across a range of geopolitical scales. Previous scholarship suggests that a democratic decentralized approach, one that fosters inclusive participation and representation, is central to achieving equitable and sustainable outcomes of adaptation. However, recent studies frequently characterize the adaptation process as dominated by a techoscientific approach, among expert and elite actors, that tends to obscure or neglect the perceptions and desires of more marginalized members of society. This paper employs a values-based approach to better understand motivational factors for a closed and non-inclusive adaptation process. Through a case study of early, yet formidable stages of adaptation planning in the urban, coastal region of Hampton Roads, Virginia, empirical data among the epistemic community were gathered by interviews and participant observation at de facto adaptation planning forums. Research results document an exclusionary process favoring the participation and representation of technocratic elites and the exclusion of elected officials and local citizens. When linking these case study findings to value theory, inferences are made that adaptation planning in Hampton Roads is motivated by dominant institutional actor values of power and security, those that are theorized to be in opposition to values fostering social and environmental justice. In light of these research results, this paper calls for a critically reflexive adaptation practice, thereby challenging values, assumptions, and beliefs of the self, as well as social structures and power relations that shape adaptation planning.
Climate change promises to bring forth a future of uncertain and challenging events in which dive... more Climate change promises to bring forth a future of uncertain and challenging events in which divergent worlds collide, conflict, and collaborate for survival in transitionary times. Yet, collaborative adaptation responses remain not well understood, particularly in terms of the relational and political dimensions of this practice. This paper seeks to push beyond collaboration as an assumed good and contributes to deeper theorization and conceptualization of the arts of collaborating within the context of climate adaptation and sustainable development. The paper draws upon participatory and ethnographic engagements in the struggle for collaborative adaptation to rapid glacier melt in the Peruvian highlands between 2015 and 2018. Insights are derived from various qualitative methods that allowed for following through a network of local to global adaptation actors (State institutions, development NGOs, and campesinos) as they worked towards a common goal of becoming resilient to ensuing radical landscape changes. By paying attention to divergent adaptation imaginaries, as well as historically produced uneven geographies of power upon which current adaptation strategies are materializing, this study illuminates ''frictions" that emerge from collaborative engagements and the systemic oppression of local ways of knowing and being. This study finds that, through a privileged adaptation discourse, State and transnational actors enact a techno-scientific and developmentalist-adaptation reality that is indifferent to the needs and preferences of highland inhabitants. I argue that, adaptation in this way performs a ''coloniality of power" that perpetuates the erasure of social alterity from world-making projects. As a counter-proposal, I call for doing adaptation otherwise, that is, decolonially. This practice is informed by the relational ontology of highland campesinos, and strives to create an alternative approach to formal adaptation that allows for rights of self-determination and the empowerment of designs from ''below".
Environment and Planning A, 2017
Climate adaptation planning is said to be a necessary and inevitable facet of future societies, a... more Climate adaptation planning is said to be a necessary and inevitable facet of future societies, and is rapidly occurring across a range of geopolitical scales. Previous scholarship suggests that a democratic decentralized approach, one that fosters inclusive participation and representation, is central to achieving equitable and sustainable outcomes of adaptation. However, recent studies frequently characterize the adaptation process as dominated by a techoscientific approach, among expert and elite actors, that tends to obscure or neglect the perceptions and desires of more marginalized members of society. This paper employs a values-based approach to better understand motivational factors for a closed and non-inclusive adaptation process. Through a case study of early, yet formidable stages of adaptation planning in the urban, coastal region of Hampton Roads, Virginia, empirical data among the epistemic community were gathered by interviews and participant observation at de facto adaptation planning forums. Research results document an exclusionary process favoring the participation and representation of technocratic elites and the exclusion of elected officials and local citizens. When linking these case study findings to value theory, inferences are made that adaptation planning in Hampton Roads is motivated by dominant institutional actor values of power and security, those that are theorized to be in opposition to values fostering social and environmental justice. In light of these research results, this paper calls for a critically reflexive adaptation practice, thereby challenging values, assumptions, and beliefs of the self, as well as social structures and power relations that shape adaptation planning.
The Journal of Defense Modeling and Simulation: Applications, Methodology, Technology, 2018
Climate change has the potential to displace large populations in many parts of the developed and... more Climate change has the potential to displace large populations in many parts of the developed and developing world.
Understanding why, how, and when environmental migrants decide to move is critical to successful strategic planning
within organizations tasked with helping the affected groups, and mitigating their systemic impacts. One way to support
planning is through the employment of computational modeling techniques. Models can provide a window into possible
futures, allowing planners and decision makers to test different scenarios in order to understand what might happen.
While modeling is a powerful tool, it presents both opportunities and challenges. This paper builds a foundation for the
broader community of model consumers and developers by: providing an overview of pertinent climate-induced migration research, describing some different types of models and how to select the most relevant one(s), highlighting three
perspectives on obtaining data to use in said model(s), and the consequences associated with each. It concludes with
two case studies based on recent research that illustrate what can happen when ambitious modeling efforts are undertaken without sufficient planning, oversight, and interdisciplinary collaboration. We hope that the broader community can
learn from our experiences and apply this knowledge to their own modeling research efforts.
Uploads
Papers by Jamie Haverkamp
Understanding why, how, and when environmental migrants decide to move is critical to successful strategic planning
within organizations tasked with helping the affected groups, and mitigating their systemic impacts. One way to support
planning is through the employment of computational modeling techniques. Models can provide a window into possible
futures, allowing planners and decision makers to test different scenarios in order to understand what might happen.
While modeling is a powerful tool, it presents both opportunities and challenges. This paper builds a foundation for the
broader community of model consumers and developers by: providing an overview of pertinent climate-induced migration research, describing some different types of models and how to select the most relevant one(s), highlighting three
perspectives on obtaining data to use in said model(s), and the consequences associated with each. It concludes with
two case studies based on recent research that illustrate what can happen when ambitious modeling efforts are undertaken without sufficient planning, oversight, and interdisciplinary collaboration. We hope that the broader community can
learn from our experiences and apply this knowledge to their own modeling research efforts.
Understanding why, how, and when environmental migrants decide to move is critical to successful strategic planning
within organizations tasked with helping the affected groups, and mitigating their systemic impacts. One way to support
planning is through the employment of computational modeling techniques. Models can provide a window into possible
futures, allowing planners and decision makers to test different scenarios in order to understand what might happen.
While modeling is a powerful tool, it presents both opportunities and challenges. This paper builds a foundation for the
broader community of model consumers and developers by: providing an overview of pertinent climate-induced migration research, describing some different types of models and how to select the most relevant one(s), highlighting three
perspectives on obtaining data to use in said model(s), and the consequences associated with each. It concludes with
two case studies based on recent research that illustrate what can happen when ambitious modeling efforts are undertaken without sufficient planning, oversight, and interdisciplinary collaboration. We hope that the broader community can
learn from our experiences and apply this knowledge to their own modeling research efforts.