A participatory photography project on the vulnerability of migrant residents to heatwaves in the neighborhood of Raval, Barcelona

How do heatwaves impact migrant residents?

How do residents with an immigration background of el Raval experience their neighborhood during heat waves? What factors shape their experiences of relief and discomfort during intense climate events?  Neighbors are asked to answer these questions through a process known as Photovoice. Throughout a series of workshops, neighbors with an immigrant background from countries of the Global South, take and collect photographs and co-create a narrative around the effect of heatwaves in El Raval. Discussing the photos they took of their close and everyday environments, conversations are opened about the infrastructures and institutions that exist, and those that are lacking, in order to tackle climate health impacts in an equitable manner. 

Research team:
Manuel Franco, Valeria Cuenca (Universidad de Alcalá, Madrid)
Panagiota Kotsila, Helen Cole, Lourenço Melo (BCNUEJ, ICTA-UAB)
Photographer: Edgar Melo

Background

Under the umbrella of the Biennal Ciutat i Ciencia 2023 of the Barcelona City Council, this project set out to understand how immigrant residents perceive their neighborhood during extreme climatic events and what strategies they follow to protect and adapt. 

This project was a collaboration between Universidad de Alcalá, Madrid and BCNUEJ, ICTA, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.

Resilient Raval: adapting to heatwaves in Raval’s migrant communities

Climate change may trigger migration, but does this mean that migrants end up in a safer place? Little is known about climate vulnerabilities and adaptations following migration.

At the Biennal Ciutat i Ciència 2023, our researcher Panagiota Kotsila explored climate-related health vulnerabilities through the knowledge that is exchanged, practised and negotiated in the traffic between places of origin and destination. The session focused on key migrant populations as postcolonial subjects in current processes of nation- and place-making in European cities.

Shifting the focus from migration as a response to climate change, to migration as a source of knowledge for adaptation opens up new horizons needed in the theory and practice of climate justice. Focusing on the case of heatwaves and vulnerability to extreme heat in Barcelona, Kotsila pointed to interesting new directions for research and activist alliances.