Climate Change, Population Health and Island States: Socio-Cultural Dimensions

This unique collection examines climate change, disasters and human health in both ’developed’ and ’developing’ island nations, highlighting socio-cultural issues in three different countries: the United Kingdom, Sri Lanka, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

Examining how domestic and international policies often disregard the contributions which can be made by poor and marginalised communities, the book demonstrates how traditional ecological knowledge systems, which once enabled effective adaptation to environmental variability, have been systematically marginalised through processes of modernisation and globalisation. Instead, the book argues that colonial model of prevention and responses should be reconsidered, advocating instead for a more inclusive, collaborative approach to climate-health governance - one that meaningfully incorporates local perspectives while addressing structural vulnerabilities to develop equitable, context-specific solutions for island states facing the escalating challenges of climate change and disaster-related health risks.

This critical analysis will be of interest to students, scholars and policymakers in Public Health, Climate Change and Sustainability, Disaster Risk Reduction, History, Anthropology, Sociology, and Human Geography.

The Open Access version of this book, available at http: //www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

Janaka Jayawickrama, Department of History, College of Liberal Arts, Shanghai University, China. Janaka is professor of social anthropology and has been collaborating with conflict and disaster-affected communities in Asia, Africa, and West Asia to facilitate wellbeing. He has conducted frontline humanitarian responses, research, evaluations, and policy analysis for the UN, governments, and humanitarian agencies since 1994. Janaka is also the Director of the Research Centre for Health and Wellbeing.

Arnab Chakraborty, Department of History, College of Liberal Arts, Shanghai University, China. Arnab is an Associate Professor of Health Histories that engages with global health, medicine, and Diseases, especially within the context of policy and practice. He has conducted his research in India, the UK, the USA, the Philippines, and Fiji. Arnab’s current research lies at the intersection of health policies, migration studies, and the history of medicine in non-Western societies within the context of development.

Yong-an Zhang, Department of History, College of Liberal Arts, Shanghai University, China. Yong-an is a professor of history and Director of the International Center for Drug Policy Studies. He has been conducting policy research from a historical perspective and focuses on the delivery of them for the benefit of the people.