Vortrag von Joram Tarusarira im Rahmen der Monday-Lectures, die gemeinsam von Max-Weber-Kolleg, Seminar für Religionswissenschaft sowie dem Theologischen Forschungskolleg t³ Theologie — Tradition — Transformation veranstaltet werden.
Cultural and religious values are crucial in defining and framing climate change and its impacts. However, current humanitarian and development discourses emphasize biospheric, environmental, and vulnerability approaches, which favor macro and institutional strategies for climate action. These methods marginalize cultural and religious values by suggesting they cannot be objectively observed, validated, or measured. My presentation will focus on the interaction between climate-related conflict, migration, and displacement. It is based on participatory methodologies and ethnographic research conducted in Mozambique and Zimbabwe. It will demonstrate how religious and cultural values are key to interpreting, defining, and shaping responses to climate-related conflict, migration, and displacement. It will critique the dominance of technological innovations not because it finds the science behind them wrong or unnecessary but because there is more to the story than what technoscience conveys. Furthermore, it will argue that cultural and religious values impart meaning to climate crises and influence the everyday practices that affect people’s vulnerability and adaptive capacity. Ultimately, it will encourage a more inclusive approach to climate change that respects and integrates diverse cultural and religious values.
