Climate change is already threatening the lives and livelihoods of Yangon’s residents, with low-income informal settlements experiencing high levels of vulnerability, while receiving little protection in the face of spatially violent development, policy and planning. This dissertation aims to situate current climate change adaptation needs within the context of historical and contemporary spatial violence that continues to impact everyday lived realities in low-income settlements. Spatial violence in the form of displacement, dislocation and dispossession threatens to continue along the current trajectory perpetuating high levels of vulnerability. With so called ‘green’ development putting those most vulnerable into further states of precarity, this dissertation utilises a Feminist Political Ecology lens to explore the reality for women in Yangon, who despite traditional narratives of relative equality, experience high levels of vulnerability due to their gendered experiences. As a reaction to perpetuating spatial violence and threats of further precarity, women and community groups in Yangon are emerging as agents of their own adaptation in the form of community housing and infrastructure upgrading initiatives. Without acknowledgement for the current experience of spatial violence in the city, and the reactions of the most vulnerable communities, adaptation that aims to challenge the structures behind current vulnerability will not occur. This dissertation found that while there is a lack of care and acknowledgement for the reality of the most marginalised communities, they respond to threats of further precarity with agency, that if supported, could lead to transformative adaptation for the city of Yangon.
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