ABSTRACT
International climate change discourses and policies have mostly stressed the proximate causes of vulnerability without acknowledging how vulnerabilities are reinforced and produced by unequal political-economic structures. We posit that transforming hegemonic climate change discourses requires critical and relational action research that builds on how farmers experience and understand their own vulnerabilities. We used participatory video to support deliberation between farmers and other stakeholders to challenge hegemonic discourses on vulnerabilities in Nepal. We assessed the discursive positioning of different participants in relation to the risk-hazard perspective and the, more critical, political-economy perspective. Our findings evidence discursive shifts, notably through the acknowledgement of the structural causes of vulnerabilities during some, but not all, events. However, these discursive shifts are not necessarily supportive of transformative change if not linked with a relational process whereby farmers, researchers, and ‘change-makers’ acknowledge and listen to each other. On the other hand, processes of deliberation based on respect did not necessarily lead to shifts towards more critical discourses. Last, our results stress the potential of using art-based tools for action research but their effectiveness to open up discursive space largely depends on how the settings and rules for engagement, and in particular facilitation, address unbalanced power relations.
