Regional Environmental Change
(2022) 22:123
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-022-01974-4
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Gendered (im)mobility: emotional decisions of staying in the context
of climate risks in Bangladesh
Basundhara Tripathy Furlong1
· Helen Adams2 · Ingrid Boas3 · Jeroen Warner4 · Han Van Dijk4
Received: 11 January 2021 / Accepted: 9 September 2022
© The Author(s) 2022
Abstract
Immobility in the context of climate change and environmental risks is understudied, particularly its relation to gender. In
this article, we further understanding of immobility to include the gendered influences on potential of people to decide nonmovement, decipher meanings that are attached with it and explore how it relates to mobility. We analyse emotions of women
and men with different mobility experiences, reflecting their ideas of home, risk perceptions and construction of identity
that are informed by gender and central to understanding immobility. Through ethnographic data collected in Bangladesh,
we look into details of gendered ways of experiencing immobility where male and female attitudes to staying are distinctly
different, yet intersect in many ways. Our data reveal how social and cultural context (patriarchy, social norms, cultural
values and shared beliefs) and personal emotions (feelings of belonging, attachment, loyalty, modesty) regulate people’s
actions on immobility decisions. The decision to stay is relational, where individuals practicing mobility and immobility
interact in specific contexts of climate change. The act of staying, especially for women, is dictated by degrees of freedom
of want, where desires of movement might exist, but reality of fulfilling them does not. Immobility can have its limitations
for women, but can also be an empowering experience for some. Thus, to better understand gendered immobility, we must
explore the emotions that provide meaning to the process of staying, while recognizing its interrelationship with mobility.
Keywords Immobility · Gender · Climate risks · Emotions · Mobility
Introduction
Communicated by Bishawjit Mallick and accepted by Topical
Collection Chief Editor Christopher Reyer.
This article is part of the Topical Collection on Environmental NonMigration: Frameworks, Methods, and Cases.
The past decade has seen a lively debate on how immobility
relates to regional environmental change (Black et al. 2013;
Boas et al. 2019; Cundill et al. 2021) and is associated with
non-migrants, stayers, immobile people, involuntary immobility and those “left behind” (Carling 2002; Mata-Codesal
2018; Zickgraf 2019). Immobility associated with gender
* Basundhara Tripathy Furlong
basundhara.tripathy@gmail.com
Helen Adams
helen.j.adams@kcl.ac.uk
2
Government of United Kingdom, COP26 Unit, Cabinet
Office, 70 Whitehall, London SW1A 2AS, UK
Ingrid Boas
ingrid.boas@wur.nl
3
Environmental Policy Group, Wageningen School
of Social Sciences, Wageningen University and Research,
Hollandseweg 1, 6706 KN Wageningen, Netherlands
4
The Sociology of Development Change Group, Wageningen
School of Social Sciences, Wageningen University
and Research, Hollandseweg 1, 6706 KN Wageningen,
Netherlands
Jeroen Warner
jeroen.warner@wur.nl
Han Van Dijk
han.vandijk@wur.nl
1
of Social Sciences, Wageningen University and Research,
Hollandseweg 1, 6706 KN Wageningen, Netherlands
The Sociology of Development Change Group &
Environmental Policy Group, Wageningen School
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is stereotypically linked to women as stayers, with limited
work opportunities, while men migrate (Desai and Banerji
2008; Hanson 2010; Zharkevich 2019). There is a dearth
of knowledge on immobility related to climate change
and its gendered implications. Most literature neglects the
complexities attached to the decision to stay and the sociocultural and economic conditions of the area and ignore
distinctions and inequalities between people (Adams 2016).
In addressing this gap, we aim to highlight some of the hidden narratives of immobility using a gendered approach.
Our findings demonstrate how gender informs perceptions
of climate risk, what it means to stay and how immobility
relates to mobility.
The analysis is based on data from Bangladesh where
people have unequal and gendered abilities to movement
when a disaster strikes (Ayeb-Karlsson 2020; Evertsen and
van der Geest 2020; Khalil et al. 2021). Several researchers
have acknowledged the predominant masculinity of mobility
in Bangladesh, as men have a greater ability to move in comparison to women (Cannon 2002; Ayeb-Karlsson et al. 2020;
Mallick et al. 2020; Alam and Rahman 2014). We expand
on the gendered differences between male and female staying experiences, what makes women choose immobility and
if they have a choice.
A gendered perspective critically engages with men
and women’s lived realities, which has been lacking in the
immobility literature (Uteng and Cresswell 2008; Pessar
and Mahler 2003; Evertsen and van der Geest 2020). In our
lived realities, we use empirical data that constitutes emotions in making meaning of how and why we stay. Since
human life is constructed and lived through emotions,
(im)mobility decisions and attitudes comprise them too.
Emotions are significant to the narratives of (im)mobility, which reaches beyond simply explaining (im)mobility
as non-migration, instead exploring processes of attachment (Adams, 2016; Adams and Kay 2019; Blondin, 2021;
Khalil and Jacobs 2021), belonging and home (Boccagni
and Baldassar 2015; Skrbis 2008) and identity formation
(Farbotko and McMichael 2019; Huntington et al. 2018) that
correlate to needs, desires as well as the effects of structural
and socio-cultural forces (Parsons 2019; Simonsen 2007;
Svašek 2010). Exploring immobility and emotions further
gives us insights into: How is immobility gendered? What
are the implications of immobility for (dis)empowerment
and female agency?
This paper is structured as follows: we begin with conceptualizing and exploring the relationship between gender,
environment, immobility and emotions. Such comprehension allows interpreting gendered immobility, using emotions. The “Methods” section elaborate on the Bangladesh
climate risk context and the research tools used to categorize the immobility decision-making process. The findings
illustrate our arguments of how immobility is emotionally
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(2022) 22:123
charged, relationally mediated, gendered and a choice that
has its limitations. The “Discussion” section brings together
the findings with perspectives from gender and climate
change literature. We conclude by providing an alternate
perspective of immobility that is led by emotions and gender
and highlighting its relation with mobility in a climate risk
context.
Conceptualizing gender, environment,
immobility and emotions
Gender and environmental change
Moving beyond male–female binary distinctions, gender is
what we do (West and Zimmerman 1987) and how we perform in our everyday lives, acknowledging its performative
and action-related tendencies (Butler 1990). In mobilities
and climate change literature, gender is linked with inequality, class, vulnerability, climate adaptation, environmental
knowledge and social connections affecting men and women
in an unequal way (Adey 2006; Pearse 2017; Urry 2015;
Denton 2002; Demetriades and Esplen 2008). In this analysis, we refer to women and men as socially formulated,
dynamic actors that act and perform differently based on the
social context and changing climate. Gender and environment literatures generally agree with the hypothesis that the
impact of environmental and climate change is not genderneutral but has differentiated causes and effects on different
genders (Pearse 2017).
In this context, the poor and marginalized can be expected
to have the least capacity to adapt to a changing climate,
making them more vulnerable (Adger et al. 2009; Call et al.
2017; McLeman and Hunter 2010). There is a growing body
of evidence linking disaster impacts and environmental
change to women being disproportionately and adversely
impacted when compared to other vulnerable groups
(Chindarkar 2012; Arora-Jonsson 2011; Masika 2002;
Hunter and David 2009). However, this disproportionate and
gendered adversity impacting women is not based on the
inherent female nature or “women’s intrinsic vulnerability”
but on the gendered patterns of adaptation to environmental
and climate change (Pearse 2017). For instance, Rao and
colleagues’ study (Rao et al. 2019b) of 25 climate hot spots
in the Global South found increasing climate variability and
environmental degradation to be associated with gendered
rural out-migration (men migrating in larger numbers).
Women continued to live in the climatically fragile places
of origin and engaged in risky and low-paid informal work
with negative consequences on their well-being.
Alternatively, many studies have argued against this
“men-versus-women dichotomy” in climate change studies, suggesting that this “feminisation of vulnerability”
Regional Environmental Change
(2022) 22:123
reinforces a “victimization discourse” (Djoudi et al.
2016:248). In fact, some studies highlight how immobility and mobility dynamics can increase women’s adaptive
capacity (Khalil et al. 2020). For example, some studies
found an increase in autonomy and greater decision-making
powers of women after male out-migration (Chant 1998;
Rao et al. 2019a, b) and increase in women’s agency (Rao
et al. 2019b; Kabeer 1999). Furthermore, evidence from a
recent study in Bhola, Bangladesh, shows that, similar to
men, women may also adapt through migration when environmental stressors diminish livelihoods opportunities of
their households (Evertsen and van der Geest 2020). Women
also have to be considered active agents of change possessing knowledge and skill (Luke and Munshi 2011; Khalil
et al. 2020).
In our approach, we acknowledge a pattern of women’s
confinement and limitations within physical and social
boundaries yet challenge the reductive accounts of women’s
vulnerability through evidence. We do so by delving into
emotional representations of identity, belonging and perceptions of those being immobile.
Examining immobility and emotions
Recently, the concept of immobility has been gaining attention in conjunction with climate risks, because of a primary
concern that people most vulnerable and who are immobile
will be “trapped” (Black and Collyer 2014). The Foresight:
Migration and Global Environmental Change Report (2011)
was the first to highlight the future of potential immobility
with people choosing or forced to stay in areas vulnerable
to climate risks, with a major focus on the latter aspect. The
report’s findings suggest that the environment along with
other socio-economic and political drivers can increase the
desire to migrate but can also diminish the ability to move
(Foresight 2011; Black et al. 2011a, b). While the “trapped
population” thesis sheds light on a significant policy area, it
falls short in addressing the diversity of choices, contextual
experiences of the immobile and how immobility decisionmaking relates to mobility (Wiegel et al. 2019; Pemberton
et al. 2021; Boas et al. 2019).
To better understand immobility, we must analyse its relationship with mobility. In this article, we distinguish immobility from a sedentarist perspective (see Cresswell 2006),
which relates to non-migration as “the norm” or common
practice. In contrast, an environmental risk context implies
a negative characterization of immobility, whereby mobility
is desirable. It is assumed that immobility might not be the
desired choice, but be an enabler for others to migrate. In
Bangladesh, sedentarism through social and cultural roles
of femininity is the norm, yet immobility is generally considered lacking agency and “being trapped” (Shamsuddoha
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123
et al. 2012; Foresight 2011). Contesting this theorisation, we
bring forward a different perspective to immobility through a
gendered lens, which ascertains male and female behaviour
and decisions significantly based on emotions.
What do emotions mean? Why are they relevant to immobility? Using perspectives from geography, emotions can
be defined as “dynamic processes through which individuals experience and interpret the changing world, position
themselves vis-a-vis others, and shape their subjectivities”
(Svašek 2010: 868). Feelings, senses and emotions are
embodied between the self and place (Bondi 2006). The
self, in this perspective, is not an entity that simply reacts to
the outside but rather a relational being that engages with
their human and non-human surroundings. In the context
of climate change and mobilities, emotions are under-recognized, yet few studies have linked (im)mobility to place
attachment and place dependence (Adams 2016; Farbotko
and McMichael 2019; Khalil and Jacobs 2021), psychosocial
factors (Ayeb-Karlsson 2020; Ayeb-Karlsson et al. 2020) and
emotional connections (Lewicka 2011; Anton and Lawrence
2014). In a post-disaster context, place attachment has been
linked to gender enabling women to adapt “in place” and
expand on climate adaptable livelihoods (Khalil and Jacobs
2021). Others have perceived place attachment as an interrelation between fixity and flow allowing greater focus on the
relational aspect of im(mobility) and its bearings on place
(Adams 2016; Di Masso et al. 2019). The “emotional landscape of climate change” identifies the subjective and physical dimensions of environmental mobility (Parsons 2019).
Similarly, for immobility a gendered approach that seeks to
engage with emotions offers a complex inter-subjectivity of
responses to climate change. Climate change is experienced
differently by each individual based on subjective (norms,
emotions and culture) and objective (economy, topography
and demography) realities that leads to various mobility outcomes (Parsons 2019). For example, in a distressful (climate
affected) situation, the embodiment processes (evaluating
emotions) can be responsible for anticipating emotional
events (mobility/immobility) (Svašek 2010), which might
differ based on socio-cultural and objective realties of those
concerned. It includes the agency of actors involved, in how
they interpret their situation, which may be deemed “vulnerable” or “uninhabitable” in our case.
We focus on the subjective dimensions of climate (im)
mobility that elaborate on emotions as conscious experience of feelings that can influence our judgements (Davidson
and Milligan 2004; McKay 2005; Boccagni and Baldassar
2015). We illustrate in the findings how contrasting emotions of hope, fear, nostalgia, belonging, loyalty and modesty
become manifest in immobility decisions. Emotions guide
perceptions (Gorman-Murray 2009) that inform people
about immobility opportunities available and its associated costs (Evertsen and van der Geest 2020). Awareness
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Regional Environmental Change
(2022) 22:123
Fig 1 Map of study site, Koyra Upazila, Khulna district in Bangladesh (left) and map of cyclone-affected areas in Bangladesh (right)
of the implications or the costs attached to staying and leaving enables relevant action. The costs attached can relate
to the notion of agency as women’s intentions and desires
are linked to social practices (Mahmood 2005) that in cases
may favour immobility. For example, in our study, certain
women in rural Bangladesh, despite having desires of mobility, remain immobile after marriage. The social and cultural
costs of marital status and expectation of modesty attached
to mobility come with greater implications, where women’s
dreams to be mobile might not have changed, but their realities have changed.
Methods
Study site and methods
Bangladesh remains one of the countries most susceptible
to extreme weather events including cyclones and floods
(Ali 1999; Huq 2001; Huq and Ayers 2008). The Southwest
region of Bangladesh is prone to environmental change,
13
disasters and out-migration (Mallick et al. 2017). Its vulnerability is not only dependent on its topography, geographical location and biophysical features (delta country,
low lying), but also on socio-economic indicators such as
high population density, poverty and dependence on agriculture (Rahman 2013; Imam et al., 2018) . The study was
conducted in the Southwest region (Koyra Upazila, Khulna
district) in three coastal villages—Padmapukur, Jorsing
and Angtihara between September 2018 and August 2019.
The selection of our study site was driven by the following
considerations, firstly, for its high climate vulnerability and
frequency of disaster risks (see Fig. 1, cyclone Aila 2009).
The second is for the presence of immobile people in a climate-affected region where mobility is practised. The third
is the location being remote and rural with villages chosen
to show similarities and differences within the rural context.
Finally, our ability to enhance the contextual and qualitative
nature of data is facilitated by the geographical scale of this
analysis. The chosen sites are representative of the Southwest region yet could have certain distinctions based on their
remoteness and rural location.
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Table 1 Village census and housing data
Village name
Padmapukur
Jorsing
Angtihara
Households
327
803
195
Population
Total
Male
Female
1262
3345
724
634
1650
344
628
1695
380
Source: Population and Housing Census 2011, Bangladesh Bureau of
Statistics (2015)
Table 2 Number of field
interviews and focus group
discussions
Methods
Semi-structured interviews
Focus group discussions
later manually coded and categorized for pre-determined and
emergent themes. Key informants who were locals familiarized the author to the place and people. Sampling was purposeful, with inclusion of variation based on gender, class,
social status, education and livelihoods. Targeted interviews
with male and female non-migrants were administered separately, keeping in mind the patriarchal social structure.
The study was reviewed and approved by the institutional social science ethics committee and complies with
the Netherlands Code of Conduct for Scientific Practice. A
Male
Female
Total
Migrants
Non-migrants
Migrants
Non-migrants
12
9
20
18
2
2
26
21
The selected villages have a nearly equal ratio of men and
women based on the data available (see Table 1), although
these figures could be slightly misleading as they do not
account for seasonal migration patterns.
The subjective nature of enquiry and analysis of attitudes
and emotions using a gendered lens led to the use of ethnography (Clifford and Marcus 1986; Lewis and Russell
2011). The first author spent 8 months in the chosen site for
this research, with prior exposure to the local context. The
lead author stayed with a host family in Padmapukur village during the entire period of study. Living with the local
family, sharing a room in their home was an important part
of ethnographic immersion. As we would like to believe, it
is these close connections and acts of acceptance within the
community that led to gathering of rich data. Engaging with
daily chores, accompanying the head of the household to the
agricultural farm, visiting households through the day and
spending time in the local market communicating with people strengthened the trust between the community members
and the author.
Together with ethnography, a mixed methods approach
was applied using semi-structured interviews and focus
group discussions (FGDs) (see Table 2).
Each interview lasted for 1 to 2 h depending on the
willingness or availability of the participants. Some of the
participants were interviewed multiple times based on the
information they provided and to follow the individual and
their families (im)mobility practices. We interviewed nonmigrants (no history of migration out of the study site for
6 months or more), permanent migrants (those out of the
study site for 6 months or more) and seasonal migrants
(those out of the study site for 3 months or more in a year).
This was done to include a range of (im)mobility capabilities, aspirations, perspectives and experiences. The interview
responses were maintained using diaries and journals and
123
60 interviews
8 FGDs
questionnaire for risk assessment for the qualitative study
was submitted to and approved by the institutional ethics
review committee. All subjects gave their informed consent
for inclusion before they participated in the research. The
first author is fluent in the local language but had assistance
of a local translator for this research. We use pseudonyms
and not actual names of participants, protecting their identity
and keeping in line with research ethics.
Why do we stay?
In decoding the immobility puzzle, the macro factors influencing decision to migrate or stay were considered. This
includes environmental, political, demographic, economic
and social factors which are well established in climate
mobility literature (Black et al. 2011a) . Our enquiry focused
on certain micro level considerations that formulated the
decision to stay. At the micro level, (i) home and belonging, (ii) identity constructions and (iii) risk perceptions were
gendered and relevant factors for immobility in the rural
context. Questions related to aspirations/desires, choice,
capabilities and agency led to this disclosure.
Some pertinent questions to answer are as follows: What
led us to analyse the three micro factors? How did we reach
this conclusion? Firstly, methodological commitment to
qualitative and subjective accounts led us to categorize
areas that were frequently referred to in the decision-making
process. Home, land, place, identity, culture, social norms
and risks associated with place were themes mentioned
repeatedly as important determinants by migrants and nonmigrants. Secondly, the three factors seemed to invoke different emotions and reactions from migrants, non-migrants
and different genders. For instance, in our study, married
women did not perceive climate risks as immense threats
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that would force them to move. This was in opposition to
how their male counterparts perceived climate risks as
important factors for migrating for themselves but differently (women should stay) when it came to women. This
ties back to Parsons (2019) argument on how experiencing
climate is not the same for everyone based on the dualism
of subjective and objective realties that can result in different mobility outcomes. Finally, the factors explored the
ideas of “bodies and place” (Bondi 2006) and what lies in
between, which is emotions. At an empirical level, the three
factors are certainly interrelated, but for analytical purposes,
it is helpful to separate them as they have distinct emotional
processes that are gendered.
In the next section, we explore the intricacies of gendered
immobility and how it mirrors the mobility of men.
Gendered ways of experiencing immobility
Home and belonging
The complex question of what keeps people from moving in
a climate-affected scenario of rural coastal Bangladesh had
insightful answers. A common word that featured in most
of the responses was the Bangla word bari or home. Many
female stayers referred to it as amar matribhoomi or “my
motherland”, amar gorbo “my pride” and amar jagah “my
space”. Men who stayed invoked similar emotions but spoke
about home as “my land” and “my place of birth and death”.
Home or dwelling had different meanings for men
and women, given the social and cultural norms of rural
Bangladesh and the patriarchal nature of society. Many of
the immobile women today have been mobile previously,
through marriage. In rural Koyra district, it was common
for women to move from their parents’ house into their
husband’s home (one village to another) after marriage. As
Ayesha in Padmapukur village narrates, “I lived here since
I was 18. I had never been to this village before marriage”.
Her previous home was 50 km away, where she visits a few
times a year. Speaking of what home means to her and why
she continues to stay when her husband is away, young
Ayesha notes,
My husband’s house is my home. I left my house
[parents home] the day I got married...I live here even
when he is away because it’s my job to take care of
my house. If I won’t then who will? This is the only
home I have.. He will return to his desh-er-bari (his
true/village home).
In feminist literature, the idea of home is suggested to
have a male bias, wherein the male perspective is imposed
on women (Chant 1998). Men build the infrastructure or
material home and women nurture. The caring role of the
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mother is passed on to the next female member (partner or
wife), keeping the identity of home intact. Male members,
in a patriarchal society, pass the nostalgia of home on to
women, whose confinement within the material structure
reflects men’s own fixed identity. Interviews with male
non-migrants had many differences when compared to
female non-migrants. Men referred to the “only home”
they have ever had and will have in future, as an important
factor for staying. As Shamim states, “I am here because
I don’t like it outside. I had worked in Dhaka (city) for a
few years. I like it at home. Life outside doesn’t suit me”.
Interviews and focus group discussions on staying elicited different responses from a group of married female
non-migrants reflecting on responsibility of home, attachment to place and ease of living within a familiar social
milieu. This was different to responses from young,
unmarried women who stayed (Table 3).
From these responses, we extrapolate a general consensus among married women in the research area viewing
mobility unfavourably, being fearful of the unknown and a
life choice that does not intersect with women’s lifestyle in
the rural areas. Women are limited by convention in their
mobility or ability to travel on their own, although they
have been permanent migrants earlier, relocating to their
husband’s village and home. This would be in contrast to
results from unmarried young women (respondent 5 and
6), who did not put emphasis on “rootedness and home”
but on education and opportunity. Young women looked
for opportunities through their immediate social networks.
Immobility is not deterministic or constant but evolving
over time. The shared experiences of immobility among
women with similar personal situation in rural Bangladesh
are related to the common cultural and social context. One
might then ask, why is it that not all married women feel the
same way about immobility although it is broadly approved?
Home, “motherland” and a sense of loyalty to family and
household seemed common among respondents, with diversity in personal experiences and perceptions of immobility.
As we learn from respondent 4, a change in marital status
altered her desire to be mobile. She would have liked to “try”
migrating earlier, but that opportunity had passed since she
married. This was in contrast to respondent 3 who would
choose to stay even if given the opportunity to migrate.
Respondents 5 and 6 are educated with strong household
economy pursuing their desires to be mobile unlike the other
participants. The diverse personal characteristics (marital
status, age, education, class and financial assets) of women
and gendered subjectivities implies distinctive emotions and
capacities to feel, reflect and act within the patriarchal social
relations and historical context of Bangladesh which results
in different responses. This explains why intersectionality
and diversity matters when reviewing gender as “all inequality is not equal”.
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Table 3 Responses of women on home and place attachment (author interview responses)
Participant
Response
Respondent 1 “In the absence of my husband, I take care of
home. Leaving this place can be imagined in a
dream, never in reality. I belong here, like all
other women. This is our life, our society, our
destiny.”
Respondent 2 “Even if I thought of leaving, where would I go?
I can’t go alone. What [work] will I do there
(city/other rural places)? I have no education.
Who will hire me?”
When asked if her husband who migrated was
literate she responded,
“He is a man. Labour work requires physical
strength. You don’t need education for that. He
isn’t educated. It isn’t the same for women.”
Respondent 3 “I like it here. My people live here. This is my
culture and way of life. It will be different
outside. I am scared of change. I choose to
stay here. Even if I get the opportunity, I won’t
migrate.”
Respondent 4 “I was interested in migrating earlier. I would
have liked to try, but I can’t now. I am a married woman and my home is here. Now I have
children, family and responsibilities. It [migration] isn’t possible.”
Respondent 5 “I was in Khulna for high school. I am at home
preparing for exams, so that I can pursue
higher education in Khulna.”
Respondent 6 “If I find work in the city, I will take it. I am
asking friends and relatives to help.”
Age Education
Economic condition
45
No education
Family owns land, rears chicken to sell in the
village
24
No education
Landless, no property or fixed assets
50
No education
Family owns land and gher and has a house with
television
Owns assets as well
26
Educated till class 5
Family owns house and farm land
19
Educated till class 12 Family owns house, farm land and gher
20
Undergraduate
Women’s perceptions and social identities can overlap,
creating varied experiences of immobility. Women speak of
immobility through their everyday lived experiences, making
it simpler to understand gendered practices of im(mobility)
at a personal yet relational level rather than fixed subjective level. These findings reflect the idea of agency where
women have the universal freedom to act, but nonetheless
their actions are guided by socio-cultural factors, meaning
agency is locally bound (Mahmood 2005, 2001).
Anthropologist Saba Mahmood’s ethnographic work
on Muslim women, agency and piety (Mahmood 2005)
illustrates the notion of embodied agency as intentions and
desires that are fulfilled by a conscious subject and repeated
practice. In her study, Mahmood followed women’s mosque
movement in Egypt over 2 years, focusing on how female
agency is formed in a historical, social context with the help
of bodily practices (2005). Mahmood found that Islamic
women consciously cultivate themselves (their intentions
and desires) to be respectable, proper women by practicing certain “feminine” virtues of shyness and piety by acts
of veiling or learning to be shy: even if it did not come to
them naturally, the practice imprints shyness and modesty
upon them over time. Drawing on this idea, our findings
suggest that some women in environmentally affected rural
Family owns, home, farm land, gher and other
assets
Bangladesh, although with varied perceptions on immobility, with the conscious practice of “staying”, providing loyalty and a sense of attachment to home, had subscribed to
the moral obligations of being respectable wives. The moral
virtues (e.g. loyalty, modesty) are acquired through outward
behaviour (e.g. homemaker, caretaker) with inward dispositions (e.g. emotions, feelings, thoughts, desires) through
repeated performance of acts (e.g. staying) that necessitate
those particular virtues (Mahmood 2005: 136). Immobility, however, is not a form of submission to patriarchal
structures or merely a symbolic gesture of marking one’s
feminine rural identity. Following Mahmood, immobility
can be understood as a conscious action (maintaining the
house, assets) cultivated over time, through which the idea
of “home” is realized and sustained.
In contrast, the masculine approach to immobility was
different when compared to women considering the idea
of home is not the same for both. Men who preferred to
stay made this choice based on their physical condition,
old/ill/unfit (negative choice), and on their preference of
home (positive choice) after experiencing life outside the
village (could be interpreted negatively) through short-term
migration. While the masculine and feminine distinctions
in approach to immobility become apparent, gendered
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immobilities can have similarities in experiences. The comfort, familiarity and knowledge of local place and people
had a significant impact on immobility decision-making for
men and women. Gendered nuances of home and belonging,
person-place bond stems from the social characteristics of
place and its relation with people. The physical landscape
becomes an extension of women’s self-identity.
Identity constructions
Patriarchal context: social rules and norms
Bangladesh has a traditional, conservative social and cultural system, based on patriarchy (Islam 2014). Culturally,
women here have a lower social status with rules and norms
favouring men. Gender inequality, unequal distribution of
assets and power are determined by the patriarchal power
structure entrenched in this society. Living in the village, we
witnessed gendered daily rituals that emphasized women’s
role and place in society, informing their gendered identities.
The quaint villages in southwest Bangladesh wake
up with the rising sun with women being the first to rise.
Women are up early to prepare their homes for the rest of
the day. Anika notes, “I do all the work at home. Cooking,
cleaning, taking care of the children, supporting my in-laws
and also look after the gher and vegetable patch attached to
our home”. In similar vein, Farida narrates, “We [women]
wake up at the break of dawn and usually start our day with
cleaning the veranda. I water my vegetable garden, walk
down to our gher (aquaculture farm) to catch fresh fish for
our meal and collect some vegetables too from the garden
for cooking”. The tasks of cleaning, cooking and managing
home are associated with women. Alternatively, Soleiman,
a man in his 40 s, lives at home, while his two brothers have
migrated. He does not contribute in the cooking, cleaning
and rearing of children but continues to support the family
by buying groceries from the market. “I look after the farm
land and do most of the work outside the house. Home tasks
are for women, not us men. We help when needed”.
Culture determines the appropriate role men and women
play within and beyond the household. A gendered perspective on how men and women perceive their roles in society
and what dictates the masculine and feminine nature of these
jobs is an interesting part of the immobility puzzle. Patriarchy is inherently present in this society where social structures are male-dominated and women experience systematic
exclusion from the economic spheres of life. Women are
associated with feminine, domestic and care-taking roles,
while men with competitive occupation, provider and economic roles.
On examining gendered perspectives to identity and why
staying was associated with women more “naturally” than
men, some of the respondents commented,
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Women are meant to be at home and are natural caretakers. Men bring the money home that is most important for a house to function. Us men have the choice to
migrate, but not all women can migrate.
I will go to work in Dhaka next year. As soon as I find
work I will leave. It isn’t the same for my sister. She
is a woman.
These views were commonly held by male migrants
and non-migrants. The unwritten rules of society and cultural norms permeate deep into the consciousness of rural
Bangladeshis.
Unequal power structures and access to resources
The public space or the markets are dominated by men
in the villages. Men carry out business in the morning
in these spaces, while in the evening, it is a place for
entertainment where they meet to discuss their lives and
politics and enjoy watching sports or television together.
Women avoid these spaces and are not generally seen in
this area. This has changed significantly since the uptick
in male migration, increasing women’s access to the
local market and their interactions in the public domain.
Absence of male members of the family has made women
access markets. They buy groceries, and sometimes sell
some of their backyard garden produce in the haat.1 For
certain other women, although they are the only adult
member in the household, they do not visit the market,
especially if they are very young.
I don’t visit the market on my own. It’s usually someone from my father’s house, like my father, chacha
(maternal uncle), brother who do the vegetable shopping for me. If I need something urgently and I can’t
get through to them, I visitthe market, but I try to avoid
it.
The more religious families and conservative households
had an objection to women’s mobility. The immobility aspect
of women is celebrated as a sign of honour, pride, good
nature and of a responsible wife/daughter/daughter-in-law/
mother. For all these different roles played by women, staying at home does justice to it. If they decide to be mobile,
this would affect their success in delivering these roles for
the rest of the members in the household and larger community. Mobility is also associated with bringing shame on
the family, especially if it is a woman going out of the village
to work on her own. In the nearby villages, some girls have
migrated to work in the garment factories in Gazipur on the
outskirts of Dhaka city. People in the studied villages are
1
Local informal market, held twice a week in the village.
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aware of it and see it as a positive step, but when asked if
they would send their daughters or women to the garment
factories, they would reply with a resounding “No”.
Voluntary migration of women is correlated to specific social contexts (Chindarkar 2012), and similarly
the findings exhibit voluntary immobility too is interrelated to the social situation. The rural landscape of Koyra
upazila is predominantly patriarchal with men holding
power, displaying their dominance within the household
and society at large. In households where men remained
in the village, they exercised control over family, even
though their social ranking/relationship was much lower
than the female’s. For instance, Farid, the eldest in the
family, lives with his wife (Nadia), two children, two
younger brothers, a sister-in-law and mother. When Farid
migrates to Barguna, he leaves his younger brother in
charge of the household, although he is younger to Nadia,
both in social relationship (younger brother in law) and
age.
In contrast, households where men migrated and did not
have another healthy male counterpart to take their place,
women stepped in. Renuka is the head of the household
since her husband migrated, and she is staying in the village
with her children and ageing in-laws. She looks after the
finances of the house, goes to the market for groceries and
sometimes even travels as far as the nearest town in Koyra
to buy medicines for the household. Therefore, the patriarchal context was not a blanket condition that affected all
women uniformly. Variations in power or access to resources
were dependent on individual social situation. Power tilted
in favour of some women, but as the findings suggest, only
in cases where men were missing.
Expanding women’s traditional role
Mobility of men over time has created new roles for women
within the household and community (Khalil et al. 2020).
In the rural villages of Koyra, women looked after the gher,
while the husband was away for 6 months. With continued
male absence and few options for help, female members of
the migrants were engaged in gher ghas porishkar (cleaning
weeds from the gher) and adding fertilizer to the agricultural
land and in certain cases took up physical labour opportunities, such as mending the edges of the road. As narrated by
a woman,
Since my husband has been migrating, I have taken
up more responsibility in the 2 bigha gher (a little
over half an acre of aquaculture land). I manage the
housework and the gher. I clean the gher, add chunna
(slaked lime) with hot water to the gher to keep the
water and land clean of any pests.
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123
Women in these situations have acquired new knowledge on aquaculture which is traditionally passed down to
male members of the family. Using new farming knowledge, some have taken the lead in implementing new
learned practices in their aquaculture farms. Women’s
instrumental agency increased, or the power to make
choices of how the resources are managed which affected
their immobility status positively in certain circumstances.
A variety of tasks were practised by women in Jorsing
village, including removal of husk (outer covering) from
paddy, feeding paddy husk to ducks/chicken/cows, rearing
animals and growing large quantities of vegetables in the
back gardens.
Ami rakhi hans, murgi aar goru (I keep ducks,
chicken and cows). It costs 450 Tk to buy a deshi
chicken (country chicken) from the market. Duck is
very expensive to buy from the market. We sell it. Interviewee, Jorsing village
Married women are able to make a bigger contribution
to the household economically which has improved their
living standards. They do not wish to migrate and feel
secure with the change in livelihood that has given them an
opportunity to become self-sustaining. Although immobility for women was common in this region, mobility within
the village became an option for some. In cases such as
Shaheen’s, a disaster like Aila (cyclone in 2009) became
an opportunity to relocate and build a new house (more
resistant to cyclones) in the village.
My in-laws did not treat me well since we had a love
marriage. We did not get any land or money either
from my parents or my husband’s parents. During
Aila, our house was completely destroyed. Since
we had to rebuild it after Aila, we decided to make
our own separate home away from my in-laws compound. I sold my gold earrings to make this house.
Her husband migrates for most of the year, while she
lives in the village with her children. When asked if
immobility is a choice, she responds, “In my case it isn’t
an option, although most women here do not migrate. I
moved within this village, out of my in-laws house to my
own. That is enough for me”.
I asked, “What has staying behind meant for you”? “I learnt
many things since my husband migrated. I know how to use
BKash. I use it every month to receive money from him. He
sends 1000–2000 Tk monthly”, she responded. “Have you
used a mobile before he left the village”? “No I had not used
it much. Now I have my mobile. I use it regularly to keep in
touch with my husband. I can teach you how to use the messaging app as well”, she laughed. “I save some money and
use it more efficiently than my husband I believe. I use it for
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Table 4 Author discussion responses to questions on climate risks (focus group discussions)
Q. Is there a climate risk?
Responses by male migrants
Responses by female non-migrants
Responses by male non-migrants
“There is great climate risk…my family faces
it every year. We are forced to spend money
on repairing/rebuilding the house and face
crop loss”
“It’s the uncertainty that makes the village
risky.”
“There isn’t much work in the village because
of climate risks.”
“The river gives you everything, it also takes
away from you. That is the law of nature.”
“Cyclones, floods and river erosion are real. We
are witness to it. The risks are plenty.”
“I don’t think I would call it risk. I would call
it life. We have to learn to live with it.”
“Rivers flood and cause suffering, but they
also give us water for farming and aquaculture.”
“Climate changes are causing much damage but
we are trying to manage with what we have.”
“Embankment is our main issue. If solved, life
would be much easier. Rest, we can’t change.”
buying goats, chicken. I did this through my own effort. I saw
my mother-in-law doing it and learned from her”.
Over the next few months, I spoke to her many times.
She proudly said to me, “I can’t move out of the village. I
am not you. But I have the freedom to move within this village. I don’t have to ask someone else for help, which I did
when I lived with my in-laws. I feel good now. I feel my own
sadhinata (freedom)”.
lost many to the liberation war”, said Gopal. In a similar vein
Ram claimed, “Moving from one place to another is painful. I have experienced that pain. My uncle and aunt moved
to India with their children. I don’t see my cousins much”.
The historical implications of mobility feed into the current
trends of movement, whereby those who do not move attach
it with pain, suffering and uprooting.
Risk perceptions and management
Climate risk
Historical outlook
The risk of living in a climate-fragile area seems immense to
scholars, development practitioners, civil society members
and government officials, but is not the same for people living in these conditions. Questions on climate risks and its
significance in their decision to be immobile were met with
mixed feelings (Table 4).
Migrants perceive the village as challenging and risky
with a degree of uncertainty in climate that contributes
to their mobility and lack of work opportunities in the
rural areas. Conversely, female non-migrants spoke of
minimal risks and viewed nature more positively and
the negatives of climate change as a consequence of life.
These statements give us two critical points to consider:
Firstly, men recognize the village as climatically vulnerable and are mobile, spending a considerable part of the
year away from the perceived risk. On the other hand,
women do not view climate as a threat enough for them
to leave the village. Secondly, there is a difference in perspectives of male and female non-migrants. Men admit
the risks attached to staying in a climate-affected area,
which is starkly opposite to women’s view of climate risks
that are more encouraging. Women’s positive reinforcement of nature and how to establish everyday life around
it makes the decision to stay easier and comforting for
them. Having said this, by no means do we proclaim all
women’s views are homogenous. There are differing views
among them as well, but largely the data reflects female
non-migrants positive outlook towards nature.
Geographically, the villages in Koyra upazila have immense
risk of climatic disasters and face regular cyclones, river
erosion, floods and storms. The climatic risks are not a new
feature to the area but have a historical significance. Recent
cyclones Sidr (2007), Aila (2009) and Amphan (2020) have
caused massive destruction to land, livelihoods, coastal
embankments and houses in the studied areas.
The historical underpinnings of disasters and continued
vulnerability to it are central in understanding risk perceptions that influence im(mobility). In the interviews and
prolonged discussions with non-migrants and migrants,
perceptions of climate risk and continuing to live in that
environment were elucidated differently. Those who stayed,
women more commonly, linked the term “mobility” with
the history of partition, mentioning the “liberation war of
1971” and “movement across borders with India since partition in 1947”, giving a sense of uprooting and displacement.
Bangladesh’s history of migration and its strong connections
with the rural coastal villages reflects not merely the mass
movement related to independence but the annual movements of people and households within and beyond their
villages affected by recurring climate disasters.
“Some of my family fled to India during partition. We
are Hindus [minority religious group in Bangladesh], yet
we stayed in Bangladesh. This is our grandfather’s place.
Many of our families got separated during partition and we
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Table 5 Author discussion responses to staying in climate vulnerable conditions (focus group discussions)
Q. Why do people continue living in a climate vulnerable condition?
Responses by male migrants
Responses by female non-migrants
“Someone has to stay. I can move, it’s
easier. Women have to stay, it isn’t
safe for them outside the village.”
“I am old and cannot work outside the village. My daughter-in-law
“There are risks related to cyclones
is here, taking care of our family.”
and river erosion. But should that be
a reason to leave your own home?
There is more risk for me in leaving
home.”
“This is my home. My family and
“Women don’t have much choice. They have to stay. For me, I
work are here. I can’t change that.”
like living in my village. I feel good
“I [man] am migrating isn’t that
enough? If they leave, then what is
left of home?”
“They should stay here. If they
[women] don’t then who will look
after home and the family?”
Responses by male non-migrants
“I have lived with floods, cyclones and “I will leave when my brother is back from the city. Men who
are here, either don’t have education or not fit to work. Else
poverty. I will fight it here. I am not
I don’t see any reason to stay here when there are so many
leaving my place.”
risks. For women, what is there outside the village?”
Further questions on why people live in climate-fragile
conditions revealed the gendered aspect of immobility and
possibly an explanation of women’s positive outlook on climate that regularly poses a hazard to the rural community
(Table 5).
Male migrant’s attitudes to women’s risks appear to be
internalized by women, who have not had the opportunity
or intention to be mobile. Immobile male migrants have a
strong displeasure with female migration, with village and
home seen as a natural and safe place for women. Exploring life outside the village is perceived as a greater risk
for women than climate vulnerabilities. This view is held
by migrants and non-migrants alike, making immobility a
gendered decision bound by socio-cultural influences. The
inability of women to choose where they live and experience
what lies beyond their realm of rural life makes immobility
a safer, almost cushioned environment where climate vices
must be valiantly fought. This puts greater burden on immobile people who are at the frontline of climate uncertainties
yet push the boundaries within the framework of patriarchy,
taking on new roles, managing expectations and keeping the
identity of home intact.
The question then arises: is the female standpoint the
same as that of men? Is this because men have a greater
agency or social authority in a patriarchal setup? Women’s
standpoint is different to men, to the extent that it is more
focused on climate response than climate risk. They are
aware of climate affecting their daily lives, but have found
ways to counter that perspective, putting forward a more
solutions or response-oriented framework. Risk is substituted for “life” almost using it as an euphemism, for the
limitations of being a woman in a patriarchal society, who
as elaborated by the respondent “has to learn to live with
it”. As Slovic (1999:95) puts it in his seminal work on risk,
“danger is real, but risk is socially constructed”. The risks of
“other” threats—security, compromising honour, deteriorating family ties, disconnect with home and place—that must
be faced once they leave the village are deemed greater for
women and the community at large.
Discussion
Our findings show that immobility or persistence in staying
in a climate-related context was gendered and dependent
on three major factors: (i) home and belonging (ideas of
place attachment), (ii) identity constructions (changing role
of women) and (iii) risk perception (gendered differential
risks and internalizing ideas of risk propagated by men).
Emotions, choices and desires
Power and patriarchy in rural Bangladesh streams gendered
roles for men and women in public and private spaces.
There seems to be a gendered attachment to place, where
men staying back emphasize the roles of “home” and
“rootedness”, while women see it as a part of their “social
identity—playing the role of a good partner” and security.
Women’s responsibilities are familial and nurturing, dictated by those in power (men). Women’s embodied emotions are represented in their everyday practices as noted
by Anika and Farida in the examples above. By “staying”,
women safeguard themselves in retaining the family honour by conforming to the norms. This is internalized by
women in many cases who do not see mobility as an available choice but immobility as their way of life. This would
be partially in line with what certain scholars identify as
voluntary immobility (Carling 2002; Farbotko and McMichael 2019) yet goes beyond its current usage and is more
nuanced. “Voluntary immobility” relates to a pronounced
choice and inclination to immobility. It is linked to “agency
and rights” perspective, involving placed-based connections,
identity constructions and culture (Farbotko et al. 2020).
While voluntary immobility covers certain parts of agency
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and choices, it does not completely ascertain the availability of different choices or the nuances of the immobility
discourse. There is a nuance here between what she would
have liked and what she can realistically desire.
Since mobilities are influenced by a variety of economic,
social and political conditions, to what extent can we consider
immobility as voluntary? Here women make the choice to be
immobile, but if they do have a choice to be mobile is dependent on many different factors. It is not easy to determine when
people do not wish to move versus their ability to move. Gender blurs this distinction as cultural factors influence choices
and constraints. This leads to the next question: Would women
move if the obstacles to their movement are removed? There is
no direct answer to this. If the obstacles were to be removed, the
society, their home and the village would not remain the same.
The context would change and with it their decision to move.
The emotional bond of women with place is not between
the physical place and women but its association with a partner and family. We learn from the interviews that women’s
strong connection with home is not always based on time
and materiality but on acceptance of home because it is their
husband’s. The immobility of women makes the mobility of
men more probable, while women can be “effectively imprisoned by it”, signifying differentiated mobilities (Massey 1994:
156). According to Massey, place has a symbolic meaning
that is gendered and strongly related to identity. Women’s limitation of mobility can be seen as spatial control by men, “and
through that, a social control on identity” (Massey 1994: 179).
Bargaining with patriarchy
Not all factors associated with immobility are negative for
women. Immobility contributed to new roles for women
as head of households, receiving skills and knowledge on
agriculture and managing finances for the household. The
positive aspect of immobility, where women’s struggles
to resist or renegotiate within the patriarchal boundaries,
is rarely acknowledged. In our analysis, we find women in
the research area live with the constraints of patriarchy but
negotiate different strategies within this framework that
helps them deal with the situation. For example, Shaheen
moving out of her in-laws’ house to have a new home of her
own later uses her immobile status to rear animals for financial benefits, enjoying her “freedoms” of being on her own.
This positive phenomenon is in sync with the idea of “bargaining with patriarchy” (Kandiyoti 1988) which attends to
agency deployed by women in embracing of male power,
yet resisting the social rules in different ways. Bangladeshi
women’s active or passive resistance to patriarchy shapes their
gendered subjectivity which in this case influences immobility. Such an approach is consistent with the performative view
by Butler (1990), where everyday practices shape gendered
emotions, providing women an opportunity to employ agency
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in implicit ways, to reinterpret power relations. The findings
highlight the capability and agency of women guided by affective and emotional notions suggesting autonomy and local
dependency. In light of using Mahmood’s study (2005), we
reflect on women’s immobility choices and its performative
aspect. The emotions and act of staying establish loyalty to
home and family. Men in a similar situation have more agencies in managing desires and choices available to them. Immobility does not simply mean non-movement, but an agency led
action that seeks to give the stayers perspective.
Balancing risks
Emotions regulated and embedded in society were important
in understanding risk perceptions. Our data indicates many
in rural Bangladesh do not migrate despite compelling evidence of changing climate and other deteriorating social indicators, because of a gendered response to risk. Immobility of
women, even if it meant living with climate risks, was seen as
an appropriate choice by male migrants, who had dislocated
themselves from the risk. Women in general were in agreement
with this viewpoint. The masculine perspective on climate risk,
it appears, was imprinted on women who dismissed spatiality
as a consequence of climate vulnerabilities for themselves.
Immobile women’s optimistic outlook to climate risks
has been an important finding of the study. Women’s positive approach to climate risks despite acknowledging it
keeps them rooted to the place. This has also been found
in other studies where place attachment to the individual
can have benefits such as greater satisfaction with one’s
physical environment (Tartaglia 2013; Khalil et al. 2021).
It is in contradiction to Slovic’s (1999) findings where the
less powerful a respondent’s position in society (class, gender, race), the more fearful they were of risks. However,
the study has similarities to Slovic’s understanding of the
relationship between risk and decision-making: “Risk often
has no direct implications for decision-making. Risk-management decisions depend on the balancing of options, benefits, and other costs-not just risk. In this sense, we need
to look beyond measurement of something called ‘risk’ to
make risk-management decisions” (Slovic 1999:96). If we
apply this to the Bangladesh context, women too took their
decisions “balancing options” and considering social and
cultural costs attached to im(mobility).
Conclusion
One of the major lacunae in climate mobility studies has
been the absence of engagement with gendered dimensions
of power, identity and agency relate to desires and decisions of im(mobility). These considerations would appear
Regional Environmental Change
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vital when women and men are embodied constituencies,
whose non-movements are patterned by specific social and
cultural contexts and impacts of changing climate, as in this
case. This paper brings focus on emotions, their effects on
individuals and the collective and elaborates on the process
of staying and its intersection with mobility. A gendered
lens to understand immobility helps us move beyond the
male–female polarized analysis, to include fresh perspectives of place attachment, identities and risks that have gendered nuances. While trying to disentangle the binaries of
immobility/mobility and male/female perspectives, the paper
constructs similar categorizations to draw distinctions but
captures the relational aspect to gendered decision-making.
Gender shapes immobility and vice versa. While immobility can be empowering for women, the positive consequences of immobility have long been overshadowed by
“mobility empowers, hence more mobility for women means
more empowerment” discourse. This paper notes women’s
empowerment and agency in Bangladesh by dissecting the
power differentials between leavers/stayers and men/women,
negotiating which women form their identities and changing
roles. Gender intersects with different axes such as identity, marital status, age and wealth, to create conditions that
influence immobility. Therefore, immobility decisions can
be conceived as a process. It does not take place in a single
point in time but builds itself through a range of smaller
decisions and considerations.
Funding This study was supported by the NUFFIC Netherlands Fellowship Programme (Grant decision NFP-PhD.17/0019) funded by the
Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Project number 2100233100 – 460).
Declarations
Conflict of interest The authors declare no competing interests.
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long
as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source,
provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes
were made. The images or other third party material in this article are
included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated
otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in
the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not
permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will
need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a
copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
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