Contribution to the conceptual-categorical framework regarding those affected by climate change

Abstract

This essay aims to gather initial elements to provoke and advance the construction of the concept of individuals and communities affected by climate change, as well as to promote dialogue and knowledge exchange aimed at fostering a more comprehensive understanding of the multiple violations that capitalism promotes in contexts of large-scale projects and climate change. This emerging category, while revealing contradictions inherent in the current process of accumulation, has also established itself as a relevant tool for enabling deeper research into the socio-territorial impacts of climate change on the lives of various vulnerable populations. We acknowledge the contribution of collective organizing in the process of resistance as a key input for knowledge production about affected peoples, and in systematizing the forms of violence that should be addressed by public policies. The article addresses both the theoretical-conceptual challenges and their relationship with current public policies. Bibliographic review, document analysis, interviews, and dialogues with affected individuals and those engaged in contentious actions served as material for analysis and reflection, under the guidance of materialist dialectics, to substantiate some of the claims presented.