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Locally led adaptation is increasingly promoted as an important strategy for addressing the impacts of climate change. However, the understanding of rural realities in the Global South is still limited by insufficient information about the complex and dynamic relationships between rural communities and their environment. These relationships are influenced both by the material aspects of place and by the social and cultural dynamics that shape identities. This paper seeks to address this gap by providing an in-depth examination of how older and younger people are living with environmental change in two rural areas in Vietnam. Recognizing the lack of attention given to older people as important environmental actors, this paper will make three key contributions: move from a focus on the vulnerability of older people to one which highlights their capabilities; introduce an intergenerational approach that builds an inclusive understanding of rural communities; and embrace a complex appreciation of environmental change that looks beyond the usual framings of climate change and impact upon livelihoods' to other aspects of people's relationship with a changing environment. In doing so, this paper calls for an increased appreciation for the multiple values of nature, particularly how different community members engage with and appreciate their environment, to support more relevant and sustainable approaches to addressing local environmental challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Youth participation has become an important element of environmental governance and is also a way that young people learn about the expectations of citizenship. In the global South, young people are confronted with multiple understandings of citizenship as international development organisations may introduce citizenship in a liberal, democratic framing which may differ from national citizenship norms. In Vietnam, state agencies have a history of supporting youth participation linked to nation building and community service. These activities create an imaginary which highlights citizenship as a status and the national scale as being central. More recently, liberalisation policies have opened the door for activities of international organisations which extend imaginaries of citizenship to the global scale and beyond status to a process centred on creating a sense of belonging. Other forms of participation are also flourishing, thanks to the increasing reach of social media. This paper explores how the diversity of this landscape creates liminal spaces of citizenship which young people navigate, working within and between different scales and imaginaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]