Original Research - Special Collection: Climate and Beliefs

Religious beliefs and climate change adaptation: A study of three rural South African communities

Simone Schuman, Jon-Vegard Dokken, Dewald van Niekerk, Ruth A. Loubser
Jàmbá: Journal of Disaster Risk Studies | Vol 10, No 1 | a509 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/jamba.v10i1.509 | © 2018 Simone Schuman-Eloff, Jon-Vegard Dokken, Dewald Van Niekerk, Ananka R. Loubser | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 21 June 2017 | Published: 16 October 2018

About the author(s)

Simone Schuman, Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management, African Centre for Disaster Studies, North-West University, South Africa
Jon-Vegard Dokken, Department of Sociology and Human Geography, University of Oslo, Norway
Dewald van Niekerk, Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management, African Centre for Disaster Studies, North-West University, South Africa
Ruth A. Loubser, School of Philosophy, North-West University, South Africa

Abstract

This article argues that religious beliefs significantly influence a community’s understanding and experience of climate change adaptation, indicating the need for an inclusion of such information in climate change adaptation education. Data were collected using the Q-method, whereby recurring statements were identified from semi-structured interviews with participants from three rural communities in the North-West province of South Africa: Ikageng, Ventersdorp and Jouberton. The research found that community members who regard themselves as religious (overall of the Christian faith) fall under two groups: the religious determinists or fatalists, who see climate as a natural process that is governed by God, and religious participants who deny this ‘naturalness’ and acknowledge humans’ impact on the climate.

Keywords

adaptation; beliefs; climate change; religious beliefs; South Africa

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Crossref Citations

1. Influence of Religion, Culture and Education on Perception of Climate Change, and its Implications
Mikiyasu Nakayama, Irene Taafaki, Takuia Uakeia, Jennifer Seru, Yolanda McKay, Hermon Lajar
Journal of Disaster Research  vol: 14  issue: 9  first page: 1297  year: 2019  
doi: 10.20965/jdr.2019.p1297