From Blue Community Ambassador Lyla Mehta:
Global Social Challenges Journal, Volume 5 (2026):
Special Collection: Transformative Environments: Climate Change Uncertainties, Marginality and Locally-Driven Transformative Change in India and Bangladesh. Guest Edited by Lyla Mehta, Synne Movik and Shilpi Srivastava
Climate is creating an uncertain world for societies and ecosystems. However, one thing is clear: incremental approaches to climate adaptation are increasingly inadequate as they either reproduce inequalities or lead to maladaptation. Instead, more systemic and transformative forms of change are needed.
While transformation is necessary, there is a limited understanding of how transformative processes unfold and are experienced by local people on the ground. This is particularly true of so-called ‘marginal environments’ that are often characterised by state neglect and are also highly vulnerable to climatic and other uncertainties linked to rapid industrialisation, resource grabs, pollution and real estate developments. Our new special collection explores what transformation looks like ‘from below’. It is based on empirical research conducted in the TAPESTRY1 project across vulnerable coastal and deltaic regions in South Asia, namely Mumbai and dryland Kutch (India) and the Sundarbans delta in both India and Bangladesh.
