The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of Earth and Mineral Sciences WOMEN WEATHERING THE CLIMATE: GENDERED KNOWLEDGE AND ADAPTIVE CAPACITIES IN CENTRAL MEXICO A Dissertation in Geography & Women’s Studies by Beth A. Bee © 2011 Beth A. Bee Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy December, 2011 The dissertation of Beth A. Bee was reviewed and approved* by the following: Melissa W. Wright Professor of Geography and Women’s Studies Dissertation Adviser Chair of Committee Lorraine Dowler Associate professor of Geography and Women’s Studies Petra Tschakert Associate Professor of Geography Carolyn Sachs Professor of Women’s Studies and Rural Sociology Head of the Department of Women’s Studies Esther Prins Assistant Professor of Education Karl Zimmerer Professor of Geography Head of the Department of Geography *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School. ii ABSTRACT This dissertation explores how women’s everyday material practices contribute to the production and exchange of knowledge, resources, and responses to adverse economic and ecological changes, such as El Niño induced droughts and neoliberal agricultural policies. Towards this end, the dissertation is organized into three distinct, publishable articles, which address the following three objectives: 1) To illustrate how knowledge is produced, reproduced and embedded in social and spatial relations of power; 2) To demonstrate how decision-making as well as resource production and distribution within and outside households revolves around gender; and 3) To draw attention to the ways in which gendered responsibilities, labor and control of resources contribute to women’s knowledge and perceptions of social and climate-related risks. In order to accomplish these objectives, I utilized a variety of qualitative, visual and participatory methods that elucidate the socio- spatial relations of power and knowledge production through a focus on women’s everyday material practices. I employed these methodological techniques over a period of nine months with women in two agrarian communities in northern Guanajuato, Mexico. The conceptual framework that guides this study involves an integration of adaptive capacity scholarship with feminist standpoint theory, social reproduction, and feminist political ecology. I will show how such integration provides useful tools to reframe and enrich our understanding of the processes that shape adaptive capacities. Consequently, this study illustrates that while women possess a variety of knowledge and skills that are useful for adapting to uncertainty, the gendered dynamics of their socio-spatial relationships variably affect their ability to translate this knowledge into effective action. In studying these iii dynamics, this project contributes to the literature on household vulnerability, risk and adaptive capacity in Mexico by illustrating how decision making, resource access and livelihood strategies are gendered processes. By examining women’s knowledge and experience with environmental and economic uncertainty, this dissertation deepens our knowledge of the limits and opportunities for adaptation. I believe that this analysis can inform efforts to strengthen the ability of rural communities in northern Guanajuato and other arid land users around the globe to adapt to environmental and economic change. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures...............................................................................................................vii List of Tables...............................................................................................................viii Acknowledgements........................................................................................................ix Chapter 1. GENERAL INTRODUCTION.......................................................................1 Introduction..............................................................................................................1 Socio-ecological change in Mexico ..........................................................................5 Climate variability.............................................................................................5 Agrarian change ................................................................................................8 Land reform and the rise of the PRI ..............................................................8 Green Revolution and ISI economy ............................................................ 10 NAFTA ...................................................................................................... 16 Migration and change in rural Mexico ........................................................ 17 Theoretical and conceptual framework................................................................... 20 Vulnerability, adaptive capacity, resilience...................................................... 21 Feminist perspectives on vulnerability and adaptation ..................................... 27 Feminist theories of knowledge, power, agency, and the environment............. 30 Feminist environmentalism and political ecology........................................ 30 Feminist standpoint theory.......................................................................... 33 Social reproduction..................................................................................... 38 Research design ..................................................................................................... 40 Study area ....................................................................................................... 41 Study participants............................................................................................ 45 Methodology................................................................................................... 47 Participant recruitment .................................................................................... 52 Data collection & fieldnotes ............................................................................ 55 Data analysis................................................................................................... 65 Data quality measures ..................................................................................... 67 Organization of the thesis....................................................................................... 68 Figures................................................................................................................... 71 References ............................................................................................................. 75 Chapter 2. “SI NO COMEMOS TORTILLA, NO VIVIMOS”: CLIMATE CHANGE, FOOD SECURITY AND GENDER IN CENTRAL MEXICO............................................... 100 Introduction.......................................................................................................... 101 Perspectives on food security and gender ............................................................. 106 The political economy of food security in Mexico................................................ 112 The case study...................................................................................................... 118 Study area ..................................................................................................... 118 Methods and data .......................................................................................... 120 Cultivating the home and the fields: women’s labor, responsibilities and resources121 Food security and the cultural value of maize....................................................... 126 Perceived risks and food security ......................................................................... 130 Conclusions.......................................................................................................... 135 Figures................................................................................................................. 139 References ........................................................................................................... 142 v Chapter 3. WHO REAPS WHAT IS SOWN? CONTEXTUALIZING ADAPTIVE CAPACITY IN TWO MEXICAN EJIDOS................................................................. 156 Introduction.......................................................................................................... 157 Agrarian change and crisis in Mexico................................................................... 160 Smallholder adaptation and vulnerabilities ........................................................... 163 Feminist theories of knowledge production and power ......................................... 166 Methods and data ................................................................................................. 170 The distribution of land, labor, and resources ....................................................... 172 Land tenure ................................................................................................... 172 Migration ...................................................................................................... 174 Farm labor..................................................................................................... 178 Women’s labor in and around the home......................................................... 179 The production and reproduction of climate knowledge.......................................