‘When we were children we had dreams, then we came to Dhaka to survive’: urban stories connecting loss of wellbeing, displacement and (im)mobility

ABSTRACT

This article uses storytelling methodology to investigate the connections between urban climate-induced loss of wellbeing and (im)mobility in Bhola Slum, an informal settlement in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The settlement houses Internally Displaced People from the southern coast who built and named the slum after their home - Bhola Island. The storytelling sessions revealed that loss of belonging, identity, quality of life and social value produced in people a desire to return. Nostalgic storylines of home also shaped the narratives of the children born in the slum who often referred to the island as their home. Some women felt that the move had resulted in more liberty, but also claimed that it had increased the risk of social punishment and stigmatisation. Social stigma often extended from parents to children. More women than men reported feeling unsafe, depressed and anxious. Mental and physical ill health were both common consequences of the compromised living and working conditions of the slum. Loss of health (due to injuries or disease) damaged people's wellbeing and pushed already fragile families into a downward spiral with no escape. Few empirical studies investigate ‘trapped’ populations and non-economic losses and damages in urban environments. The insights gained from this work can therefore help safeguard vulnerable populations worldwide and build more robust climate policy frameworks.

KEYWORDS:

• Climate change
• diaspora
• displacement
• gender
• human mobility
• immobility
• mental health
• non-economic loss and damage
• slum wellbeing
• trapped populations

Acknowledgments

First and foremost, I would like to thank the people who opened their homes and dedicated their time to this research. I also thank Prof Dominic Kniveton at University of Sussex and Mr Terry Cannon at Institute of Development Studies for their constructive comments and for our extensive critical conversations leading up to the improvement of the manuscript. I am grateful for the heartfelt support from my Gibika project team, and especially Mr Istiakh Ahmed for all the times we spent in field. I also thank our colleagues at Munich Re Foundation, in particular Mr Thomas Loster and Mr Christian Barthelt. I am also appreciative of the efforts invested by additional colleagues at the International Centre for Climate Change and Development, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UN University's Institute for Environment and Human Security and Durham University, and particularly Dr Christopher D. Smith, Dr Andrew Baldwin and Prof David Ockwell, who in one way or another have supported the article development.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 In this article, the author chooses to broaden the use of the word ‘slum’ to also include urban and informal ‘settlement’. This is to acknowledge and neutralise negative associations or stigma around words such as ‘slum’ and ‘slum dwellers’. Since Bhola Slum was built without the permissions or support of the government, the settlement was determined illegal and the people living there accused of occupying government land. To avoid stigma and negative connotations, the author also refrains from using terms such as ‘illegal’ or ‘occupants’.

2 In this article, Internally Displaced People (IDP) refers to UNHCR’s definition; "persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized state border." For more information, see https://emergency.unhcr.org/entry/250553/idp-definition. For further details around people’s self-identification as ‘trapped’ or ‘immobile’ in Bhola Slum, see Ayeb-Karlsson et al. (2020).

3 In this article, Trapped Populations or Non-Economic Loss and Damage (in capital letters) are used to refer to the concepts (noun); trapped or lost and damaged (no capital letter) are used to refer to the verbs e.g. the action of being rendered immobile or an element being lost or damaged (verb); and finally, ‘trapped’ is used to refer to the adjective e.g. when a person is labelled as being thus, while ‘lost’ or ‘damaged’ is used to describe when a non-economic element is lost or damaged (adjective).

4 In this article, discourse is understood as ‘collectively shared domains of statements’. As discourses can interact, complement or compete with one another, we aim to broaden the linguistic analysis beyond one collective narrative, attitude or perception (see Foucault 1981 and Fairclough 2003).

5 Storytelling is an umbrella term that describes a methodological approach involving storytelling elements (as described in Pfahl & Wiessner, 2007; Bell 2010; Ali 2013). The diverse methods used in this study, e.g. Livelihood History Interviews (LHI), Key Experience Sessions (KES), Collective Storytelling Sessions (CSS) and Resettlement Choice Exercise (RCE) are in this way all different storytelling methods. For more details on each and every method, as well as access to the questionnaires see Ayeb-Karlsson et al. (2016, 2020) and Ayeb-Karlsson (2018).

6 The term ‘binary opposites’ in this article refers to a situation where a pair (words, things or characteristics such as man-woman, body-soul, black-white, east-west, and rural-urban) are defined against one and another. The system was seen as a fundamental organiser of all languages and thoughts.

7 The author acknowledges the support of Md. Jatar Iqbal who is behind the creation of Figure 1.

8 ‘Discursive behaviour’ here refers to the normative behaviour reproduced within a discourse and therefore ‘expected’ of a person by its social surrounding. The rules and norms may vary depending on the social role of the person (Foucault 1981; Butler 2011).

9 Here the author acknowledges the difference between feelings and emotions; where feelings are experienced consciously, while emotions manifest either consciously or subconsciously.

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Sonja Ayeb-Karlsson

Dr Sonja Ayeb-Karlsson researches (im)mobility, migration, health and mental wellbeing in the context of climate change. Her research combines quantitative and qualitative methods such as Q, survey design, storytelling methodology and discourse analysis. She is a Senior Researcher at UNU-EHS, part of Lancet Countdown's WG1 and WG2, a University of Sussex Lecturer and Co-Investigator on the Sussex Sustainability Research Programme and an editorial board member of Climate and Development.