Vulnerable or Capable? Adolescent girls and vulnerability to climate risks. A case study from El Salvador Marit Flood Aakvaag Master Thesis in Human Geography Institute of Sociology and Human Geography UNIVERSITY OF OSLO 2013 I Vulnerable or Capable? Adolescent girls and vulnerability to climate risks. A case study from El Salvador II © Marit Flood Aakvaag 2013 Vulnerable or capable? Adolescent girls and vulnerability to climate risks. A case study from El Salvador. Marit Flood Aakvaag http://www.duo.uio.no/ Print: OKPrintShop, Oslo III Abstract The recent attention from NGOs and other organizations towards young people underscores a need to improve our understanding of the vulnerability and capacities of the adolescent population in places around the world. Adolescent girls are of particular interest when it comes to vulnerability research, as they can analytically be included in the categories of both children and women. Given two different perspectives on children and women’s vulnerability, viewing them as inherently vulnerable and as potential agents of change, this qualitative study examines the situation and experiences of adolescent girls’ relation to climate risks in two communities in rural El Salvador. This thesis it explores the question of how to conceive adolescent girls’ vulnerability to climate risks, and suggests that a useful approach is to understand them as both vulnerable and capable, within the social context in which they live. IV V Acknowledgements I would like to thank the people in the municipalities of Arcatao and Nueva Trinidad for accepting me and sharing with me their stories and thoughts, especially all the wonderful girls, without whom this thesis would not have been realized. I am very grateful for the generosity of all the staff at Centro Bartolomé de Las Casas; Bobby, Cristi, Héctor, Larry, Mónica, Rutilio, Wendy and Walberto, and for their inspiration, support and guidance in El Salvador. I have been very fortunate to have Professor Karen O’Brien as my supervisor on this thesis, and her insights, enthusiasm and integrity have helped me develop my understandings both within and outside of the academia. I would like to thank the Institute of Sociology and Human Geography at the University of Oslo for financial support for the field work. Thanks to Alberto Vargas Prieto for valuable feedback. I am honored to have such caring and thoughtful family and friends supporting me in the finishing of this thesis. A special thanks to my parents for continuous support, and also to Kristin, Ingrid and Elisabeth for their comments on the text. I am especially grateful for Helene’s feedback, discussions and social support during the entire process of this thesis. Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to Fito, for always being there (although often at great distance), and for never stopping to believe in me. VI VII Table of contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................................ IV Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................................. VI Table of contents ............................................................................................................................... VIII Table of figures and images ................................................................................................................. X 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Climate risk and adolescents ................................................................................................... 3 1.2 Outline of the thesis ................................................................................................................. 5 2 Background .................................................................................................................................... 7 2.1 Socio-economic context .......................................................................................................... 7 2.2 Agriculture and Salvadorian environment ............................................................................... 8 2.3 The communities under study ................................................................................................. 9 2.4 Youth in El Salvador ............................................................................................................. 12 2.5 Women in El Salvador .......................................................................................................... 14 3 Two perspectives on vulnerability ............................................................................................. 17 3.1 Perspective one: traditional view of “vulnerable victims” .................................................... 17 3.1.1 Women .......................................................................................................................... 17 3.1.2 Children ......................................................................................................................... 18 3.1.3 Critique of the “vulnerable victims” perspective .......................................................... 19 3.2 Perspective two; women and children as “agents of change” ............................................... 22 3.2.1 Children ......................................................................................................................... 22 3.2.2 Women .......................................................................................................................... 23 3.2.3 Critique of the “agents of change” perspective ............................................................. 24 4 Theoretical framework; vulnerability and adaptive capacity ................................................. 27 4.1 Vulnerability .......................................................................................................................... 27 4.1.1 Outcome vulnerability ................................................................................................... 28 4.1.2 Contextual vulnerability ................................................................................................ 29 4.2 Adaptive capacity .................................................................................................................. 30 4.3 Features of individual and collective capacities .................................................................... 32 4.3.1 Agency ........................................................................................................................... 34 4.3.2 Structure and agency ..................................................................................................... 38 4.4 An integral approach ............................................................................................................. 39 4.5 Summing up .......................................................................................................................... 42 5 Methods ........................................................................................................................................ 45 VIII 5.1 Qualitative research and case study ....................................................................................... 45 5.2 Going into the case ................................................................................................................ 46 5.3 Getting access and finding informants .................................................................................. 48 5.3.1 Gatekeepers ................................................................................................................... 48 5.3.2 The role of the researcher .............................................................................................. 49 5.3.3 The informants .............................................................................................................. 50 5.4 Interviews .............................................................................................................................. 51 5.5 Focus group ........................................................................................................................... 53 5.6 Observations .......................................................................................................................... 55 5.7 The process of analysis .......................................................................................................... 55 5.8 Ethics when researching with children .................................................................................. 56 5.9 Credibility .............................................................................................................................. 59 5.10 Summing up .......................................................................................................................... 59 6 Girls’ vulnerability to climate risks ........................................................................................... 60 6.1 Food insecurity: “It’s always about the crops” ...................................................................... 60 6.2 Economy: “Everyone does their own laundry here” ............................................................. 62 6.3 School attendance: “Those beans they