Abstract
A survey of rural communities in North and Central Yakutia provides an opportunity to identify and analyze the social consequences of natural disasters related to climate change, with a focus on the gender dimension. It was found that in situations of natural disasters archaic patterns of gender behavior tend to appear. The social anxiety of rural residents differentiates by gender. The shrinking of “living space” is noted by representatives of both sexes: the reduction of the areas of hayfields, pastures, deterioration of the transport and communications infrastructure under the influence of climatic changes. The men, mostly middle-aged and older, are concerned about the prospect of the loss of traditional occupations. Men consider it necessary to preserve traditional occupations and are more oriented to stay in ancestral lands. The women of these age groups are more concerned about the threats to health and safety associated with the effects of climate change. Women are more willing than men to change either location or occupation or both. The gender and age gap in life strategies is a serious threat to the safety (sustainability) of the rural communities of Yakutia.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Chislennost’. (2004). Chislennost’ i razmeshsenie naseleniya Respubliki Sakha (Yakutiia). Itogy Vserossyskoi perepisi naseleniya 2002 goda. Statisticheskiy sbornik. [Number and settlement of population of Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). Results of 2002 All-Russia population census. Statistical collection.] Yakutsk: Komstat RS(Ya).
Crate, S. A. (2013). Global climate change and the changing seasons: Dr. S. Crate in cooperation with Institute for Humanitarian Research and North Indigenous peoples’ problems, Siberian branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. North – Eastern Journal of the Humanities, 2(7), 80–90.
Crate, S. A. (with Fedorov A., Egorov P., Filippova V., Solovieva V., Ransom N., & Balls C.) (2013b). Alamay tyyn: Byulyuu uluustarygar climat ularyytyn tuhunan uonna baar khyhalgalar [Precious life: About climatic changes and current challengers in Vilyiu counties]. Yakutsk: Bichik.
Field materials of the author in rural districts of Yakutia during 2001–2014.
Filippova, V. V. (2007). Korennye malochislennye narody Severa Yakutii v menyayushemsya prostranstve zizhnedeyatelnosty [Indigenous peoples of Northern Yakutia in the changing space of life. The second half of 20th century]. Novosibirsk: Nauka.
Filippova, V.V. (2009) K voprosu o navodneniyakh v Yakutii [On the question of the floods in Yakutia ] Gumanitarnye nauki v Yakutii: issledovaniya molodykh uchenykh [Humanities in Yakutia: Research of young scientists] (pp. 338–347). Yakutsk: IGIiPMNS SO RAN
Filippova, V. V. (2011). Sotsialnye vyzovy periodicheskykh navodneniy v Yakutii [Social challenges of periodic floods in Yakutia]. Arktika i Sever, 4, 207–212.
Grigorev, S. A. (2012) Razvitie ekologicheskogo dvizheniya Yakutii v kontse XX v. [The development of the environmental movement in Yakutia in the late XX century)] Nauchnye problemy gumanitarnykh issledovany, 3, 19–26.
Otchety ispolnitelnykh organov gosudarstvennoi vlasti Respubliki Sakha (Yakutia) ob itogakh deyatelnosty za 2012, 2013, 2014 gody. [Reports of the executive authorities of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) on the results of operations for 2012, 2013, 2014]. Retrieved from http://www.sakha.gov.ru/
Results of 2010 All-Russia population census. Retrieved from: http://www.gks.ru/free_doc/new_site/perepis2010
Vinokurova, L. (1993) Kadry selskogo khozaystva Yakutii. 1961–1985. [Agricultural workers of Yakutia. 1961–1985.] Yakutsk: Yakutsk Scientific Centre.
Vinokurova, L. (2010). Yakutia’s men today: Widowing wives and longing for life? Anthropology of East Europe Review, 28(2), 131–153.
Vinokurova, L. (2014) The consequences of climate change in Yakutia: the socio-economic challenges for rural communities. In Proceeding of 2nd International Conference “Global Warming and the Human-Nature Dimension in Siberia: Social Adaptation to the Changes of the Terrestrial Ecosystem, with an Emphasis on Water Environments” and the 7th Annual International Workshop “C/H2O/Energy balance and climate over boreal and arctic regions with special emphasis on eastern Eurasia”, 8–11 October 2013 (pp. 27–29). Yakutsk: Kyoto.
Vinokurova, L. I., Popova, A. G., Boyakova, S. I., Mayrikaynova, E. T. (2004). Zhenshina Severa: poisk novoy socialnoy identichnosty [Northern Woman: in the search of a new social identity]. Novosibirsk: Nauka.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Viktoriya Filippova, Senior Researcher at the Arctic Research Section of Institute for Humanities Research and Indigenous Studies of the North, for her advice on this article and her help in producing the figures and tables. I would also like to thank my other colleagues at the Institute for their support of my long-term field work.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Vinokurova, L. (2017). Gendered Consequences of Climate Change in Rural Yakutia. In: Fondahl, G., Wilson, G. (eds) Northern Sustainabilities: Understanding and Addressing Change in the Circumpolar World. Springer Polar Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46150-2_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46150-2_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-46148-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-46150-2
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)