Unequal Loss: Social Inequality, Lived Experience, and the Politics of Climate Damage in Urban America

Climate harms are typically defined in technical or economic terms, but lived experiences of loss vary by race, class, and place. Focusing on Asheville, North Carolina—a city often framed as a climate haven but marked by deep inequalities—this qualitative study explores how residents experience flooding, heat, housing insecurity, and displacement, and how those experiences connect to national climate and disaster governance. Grounded in risk culture, emotional geography, and political ecology, the research treats climate loss as socially produced and politically mediated. Through interviews, participant observation, and policy analysis, the project examines which forms of loss are recognized or excluded in policy and community discourse, and offers recommendations for more equitable climate governance that centers unequal lived experiences in policy design.