The Impact of Faith-Based Narratives on Climate Change Adaptation in Narikoso, Fiji

Bertana, Amanda

doi:10.1080/00664677.2020.1812050

Cited by 13 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…For, if the success of climate change projects is tied to an understanding of the interconnectedness between the people, their spirituality, the land, and the environment, then it follows that the effectiveness and sustainability of aid projects hinge on their adoption of holistic perspectives [18,19]. There is thus a tension between secular funders, who generally do not acknowledge the spirituality of the recipients, and the values and practices of the recipient populations that hold spiritually informed worldviews, especially in the Pacific [2,11]. Thus, there is an opportunity to leverage societal impact through research that better aligns worldview orientations and sustainable development processes and outcomes.…”

Section: Social Context Study Framework and Intended Contributionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Even so, all groups reported on religion to a certain degree. We surmise that this may be linked to the fact that all NGOs are working in Pacific Island countries that are characterised by very high degrees of religious engagement [9][10][11].…”

Section: Reporting Areasmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hence there is a good evidence base to more openly engage spirituality in support of environmentally sympathetic development [53]. Accordingly, contemporary development policy and programming practice will benefit from engaging them in tandem, both to harness their synergistic capacity as well as to enable more effective sustainable development and climate-change adaptation in Pacific Island countries [9][10][11].…”

Section: Synthesis: An Agenda For Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The scope of this research is limited to aid delivered to Pacific Island countries, as this region receives 48% of all Australian overseas development aid (ODA) funding (https:// www.dfat.gov.au/sites/default/files/pbs-2020-21-dfat-aid-budget-summary.pdf, accessed on 22 December 2022), and where spirituality is the foundation to cultural beliefs and practices [9][10][11]. In 2020-2021, the Pacific Island countries receiving the highest ODA funding were Papua New Guinea (AUD 491 m), the Solomon Islands (AUD 103 m), Vanuatu (AUD 46 m), and Fiji (AUD 40 m), equating to per capita amounts of AUD 54, AUD 141, AUD 153, and AUD 45, respectively (based on SPC population data for the year 2021; https://sdd.spc.int/indicators-stat, accessed on 14 October 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Spirituality and Sustainable Development: A Systematic Word Frequency Analysis and an Agenda for Research in Pacific Island Countries

et al. 2023

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While different in emphasis, spirituality and sustainable development are intertwined concepts that cannot be meaningfully discussed in isolation from each other. This is especially pertinent in Pacific Island countries that are characterised by both high degrees of vulnerability to climate change and high degrees of religious engagement. There is a paucity of research that examines the relationship between spirituality and sustainable development in contemporary human development discourse. To address this gap in the literature, this research employs an inductive and exploratory methodological approach to the study of major development organisations in Australia. It investigates what significance contemporary NGOs ascribe to matters of spirituality in the design and implementation of their community aid and development programming in the Pacific and beyond. To achieve its goal, the study conducts a systematic term frequency analysis in the annual reports of government-funded and independently funded NGOs, both faith-based and secular. It extends previous research by focusing expressly on the intersectionality of sustainable development and spirituality as a fertile space for interdisciplinary inquiry. The findings link development policy and practice more closely to the needs and worldviews of Pacific peoples. A better understanding of the spirituality–sustainability nexus will enable more effective, sustainable, equitable, ethical, and culturally acceptable development programming. Crucially, integrated approaches promise to make ongoing community development programmes and adaptation responses to climate-driven environmental change more effective and sustainable. Finally, it is an important aim of this study to conceptualise various opportunities for future research, thus laying the foundation for an important emergent research agenda.

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Section: Social Context Study Framework and Intended Contributionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Reporting Areasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Synthesis: An Agenda For Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Spirituality and Sustainable Development: A Systematic Word Frequency Analysis and an Agenda for Research in Pacific Island Countries

et al. 2023

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“…Yet, AmandaBertana (2020) documents that in Fiji some religious leaders suggest that God gave humankind control over 'nature'. This further illustrates the heterogeneity of religiously-informed views of climate change, as highlighted in this paper.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Turning Away from Wicked Ways: Christian Climate Change Politics in the Pacific Island Region

Fache

Fair

2020

Anthropological Forum

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Based on the cross-referencing of ethnographic materials collected in Fiji and Vanuatu, this article explores the diverse ways faith and climate change are connected together and how these connections are sustained and transformed over time. It does so through the prism of three 'practices of assemblage' identified by Tania Murray Li, namely forging alignments, authorising knowledge, and reassembling. It emphasises the partnership and combined efficacy of faith-based organisations and the Bible in these practices, while revealing the role of various other actants including God, NGOs, youth activists, cyclones, a Ni-Vanuatu canoe, and Fiji's Presidency of COP23. This approach highlights the coexistence, in both Fiji and Vanuatu, of a religiously informed and adaptation-oriented environmental stewardship narrative, stressing human responsibility in the face of climate change, with a counter-narrative considering climate change as God's business. This coexistence sometimes creates tensions between worldly and religious responses to climate change. These different religious perspectives of climate change can also be deployed as a political resource in nation-building processes, regional power relations, and international climate negotiations. In Oceania indeed, climate change appears as a new arena in which the inextricable entanglement of Christianity and politics is revealed.

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Indigenous Sustainability

Beehner

2024

Palgrave Studies in Workplace Spirituality and Fulfillment

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The Impact of Faith-Based Narratives on Climate Change Adaptation in Narikoso, Fiji

Cited by 13 publications

References 40 publications

Spirituality and Sustainable Development: A Systematic Word Frequency Analysis and an Agenda for Research in Pacific Island Countries

Spirituality and Sustainable Development: A Systematic Word Frequency Analysis and an Agenda for Research in Pacific Island Countries

Turning Away from Wicked Ways: Christian Climate Change Politics in the Pacific Island Region

Indigenous Sustainability

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