ABSTRACT
Social path dependencies exist within climate institutions, such as local and regional institutions that respond to climate-related hazards. These dependencies, including masculine and Western cultural norms embedded in emergency response and climate adaptation planning, have contributed to an emphasis on technical, physical, and economic impacts and solutions. Impacts on social and more intangible values – and the diverse experiences of people who respond to hazards – often garner significantly less attention. Our role as feminist scholars is, in part, to build, model, and promote participatory tools that support change in policy, decisions, and practice within and across institutional levels. However, realising this potential will require more attention by researchers and other societal stakeholders and decision-makers to come together to facilitate meaningful dialogue and drive actions that break from path dependencies. Photovoice – a participatory research method – may be one such tool. Photovoice involves participants taking photographs that reflect specific aspects of their lived experiences and subsequently using those photos to foster critical reflection and collective dialogue around salient community issues. Drawing on two empirical studies involving community experiences of wildfire and flooding in Canada, this chapter discusses the opportunities and challenges of photovoice as a potential tool for countering gendered and hegemonic cultural path dependence in climate institutions.
