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Professors John O’Loughlin (Professor of Geography and Fellow, Institute of Behavioral Science), Terry McCabe (Fellow, Institute of Behavioral Science and Emeritus Professor of Anthropology) and Andrew Linke (Associate Professor of Geography at University of Utah and former PhD student in Geography) have been awarded $804,990 from the National Science Foundation programs in Human-Environment and Geographical Sciences (HEGS) and Cultural Anthropology for a study on the relationship between climate change and support for violence in Kenya. 

Using a geographically-stratified representative sample of 3000 rural Kenyan households in 11 counties (map) for a 5 wave panel survey, guided by in-depth interviews and focus groups of key informants, the project will examine how households adapt to environmental stressors caused by weather changes? Adaptions include the sources of incomes and household contributions, intentions to move, actual migration, increased sharing of scarce resources and political mobilization including protests and violence. The effects of seasonal changes in the weather on attitudes and behavior regarding cooperation or conflict with members of the same group/locale and with other ethnic groups will be examined by looking at the changing roles of formal institutions (national and local governmental), as well as informal institutions (traditional customs and the role of elders). Especially focusing on the levels of food insecurity that vary greatly between livelihoods and counties, the project will also map the level of both governmental and non-governmental aid reaching the communities.

The topic of the effects of climate change in the Global South continues to gain both public and academic interest as its consequences become more evident. Among the expected effects on human livelihoods are growing food insecurity, deteriorating health conditions, increases in migration, and pressures on scarce household resources. Less evident are outcomes that might lead to changes in traditional livelihood practices, including arrangements for sharing of resources; such outcomes could lead to more reliance on cooperative customs. This project on climate change effects will focus on the differential impacts across societal groups and across different ecological and livelihood zones since rural livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa are highly vulnerable to climate and environmental change.