The risks of invisibilization of populations and places in environment-migration research

Abstract

Recent years have seen an increase in the use of secondary data in climate adaptation research. While these valuable datasets have proven to be powerful tools for studying the relationships between people and their environment, they also introduce unique oversights and forms of invisibility, which have the potential to become endemic in the climate adaptation literature. This is especially dangerous as it has the potential to introduce a double exposure where the individuals and groups most likely to be invisible to climate adaptation research using secondary datasets are also the most vulnerable to climate change. Building on significant literature on invisibility in survey data focused on hard-to-reach and under-sampled populations, we expand the idea of invisibility to all stages of the research process. We argue that invisibility goes beyond a need for more data. The production of invisibility is an active process in which vulnerable individuals and their experiences are made invisible during distinct phases of the research process and constitutes an injustice. We draw on examples from the specific subfield of environmental change and migration to show how projects using secondary data can produce novel forms of invisibility at each step of the project conception, design, and execution. In doing so, we hope to provide a framework for writing people, groups, and communities back into projects that use secondary data and help researchers and policymakers incorporate individuals into more equitable climate planning scenarios that “leave no one behind.”

Environmental justice and drinking water: A critical review of primary data studies

“…Our review focuses on primary data studies because certain research questions, such as uncovering on-the-ground community experiences, are accessible only through the collection of primary data; these questions are important enough to warrant their own review. Furthermore, secondary data can potentially obscure what is happening at more granular levels: for example, it can "invisibilize" small populations such as the unhoused or undocumented (Borderon et al, 2021). By focusing specifically on studies that collected primary data, we surface on-the-ground as well as perceived injustices closest to communities.…”

Towards a Theory of Art- and Media-Based Communication of Knowledge

“…research with peasant farmers in the colonial context of South America (Jason & Glenwick, 2016). Deprived of opportunity for literacy and the means for basic survival, the community members which inform Freire's work brings an important lens of communities who are so marginalized that they can be deemed as invisibilized (Barongo-Muweke, 2016; Borderon et al, 2021;Soroka et al, 2003). For some individuals, survival is not granted by society but rather imposed as a task.…”

The history of natural history and race: Decolonizing human dimensions of ecology

“…Racialized biases in ecology have been presented in educational (Nxumalo & Ross, 2019 ; Stapleton, 2020 ) and societal (Hickcox, 2018 ) contexts. Such biases can also influence outcomes of ecological research (Borderon et al, 2021 ; Schell, Dyson, et al, 2020 ). Consistent among these studies is recognizing the value of multiple forms of ecological knowledge.…”