About the Book
This study transcends the homogenizing (inter-)national level of argumentation (‘rich’ versus ‘poor’ countries), and instead looks at a sub-national level in two respects: (1) geographically it focuses on the rapidly growing megacity of Hyderabad; (2) in socio-economic terms the urban population is disaggregated by taking a lifestyle typology approach. For the first time, the lifestyle concept – traditionally being used in affluent consumer societies – is applied to a dynamically transforming and socially heterogeneous urban society. Methodically, the author includes India-specific value orientations as well as social practices as markers of social structural differentiation. The study identifies differentials of lifestyle-induced GHG emissions (carbon footprints) and underlines the ambiguity of a purely income based differentiation with regard to the levels of contribution to the climate problem.
Contents
1. Introduction: Climate Change and Lifestyle – The Relevance of New Concepts for Social-Ecological Research
2. Approaches of Measuring Human Impacts on Climate Change
3. The Research Context: India and the Megacity of Hyderabad
4.
Conceptualisation and Operationalisation – A Social Geography of
Climate Change: Social-Cultural Mentalities, Lifestyle, and Related GHG
Emission Effects in Indian Cities
5. Results Part I: Descriptive Analysis of Manifest Variables and Preparation of Latent Components for the Lifestyle Analysis
6. Results Part II: Income, Practice, and Lifestyle-Oriented Analysis of Personal-Level GHG Emissions
7. Discussion
8. Final Conclusions: Understanding Inequalities in Consumption-Based, Personal-Level GHG Emissions
About the Author / Editor
Lutz Meyer-Ohlendorf is a social geographer at Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) in Germany.
