par Bulgheroni, Maura Alba 
Président du jury Gosselain, Olivier
Promoteur Angé, Olivia
Co-Promoteur Joiris, Véronique
Publication Non publié, 2026-06-30
Président du jury Gosselain, Olivier
Promoteur Angé, Olivia
Co-Promoteur Joiris, Véronique
Publication Non publié, 2026-06-30
Thèse de doctorat
| Résumé : | This dissertation investigates how Gaddi people in the high-altitude settlements of Himachal Pradeshexperience climate change. In these Himalayan regions, where snow once covered rooftops for monthsand cold permeated daily life almost throughout the year, decreasing snowfall and rising temperatureshave profoundly transformed local practices and ways of living. Based on ethnographic fieldworkconducted between 2012 and 2018 in the Bharmour region and among Gaddi transhumant herders fromboth Bharmour and the wider region of Himachal Pradesh, this work explores how climatictransformations are perceived, interpreted, and lived. Drawing on a dwelling perspective and theconcept of taskscape, it argues that climate change emerges not simply as a matter of changingtemperatures, rainfall, or snow patterns. Climate change exists in the region both as a physical and as adiscursive phenomenon carried by official institutions, and in both cases emerges through its relationswith local practices, engagements, and ways of inhabiting the environment. The Gaddi of these high-altitude regions do not perceive themselves as separated from their environment, but continuously shapethe world they inhabit through everyday processes of co-construction among the different agents thatform part of the taskscape. In this way, climatic conditions and shifts in practice cannot be understoodin isolation, but as part of broader transformations linked to modernity, morality, livelihoods,infrastructures, social relations, and ways of being-in-the-world, within which climate change itselfbecomes a mirror of people and society. Consequently, from a perspective that does not separate humansfrom their climate, the concept of ‘adaptation to climate change’ does not fully correspond to the wayslocal dynamics unfold, challenging adaptationist approaches that continue to rely on nature-culturedistinctions in the study of climate change. By analysing local discourses and interpretations of whatlocally constitutes ‘change’, both in climate and in practices, the dissertation highlights the importanceof understanding change as a question of engagement with, and inhabitation of, an ever-changingenvironment whose conditions people continually reshape through their everyday lives. |
