The semi-arid urban settlement of Jodhpur, India, stands at a critical juncture where rapid urbanization and climate change threaten its historic resilience mechanisms. This study investigates the efficacy of immersive workshops conducted in co-learning spaces as vehicles for decentralized hyperlocal climate governance and action. Specifically, it examines how participants of such workshops can function as agents of change within their larger communities by leveraging the existing social practice of Hathai—informal gatherings where women discuss community affairs. Adopting a computational social science approach, we integrate primary data from 25 women community leaders into a stochastic Agent-Based Simulation (ABS) to model the contagion of climate resilience across a synthetic network of 300 community members. Furthermore, Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) is employed to map the hierarchical causalities between cognitive and behavioural metrics. Our results reveal a significant paradox: while Climate Knowledge acts as the fundamental structural driver (Level 1) of the resilience ecosystem, it exhibits the lowest transmission rate (24.1% gain). Conversely, Action Intent and Confidence demonstrate the highest contagion potential (38.3% gain), suggesting that behavior propagates faster than information in this cultural context. The study illustrates a plausible structural pathway where traditional ecological wisdom serves as a critical linkage, converting abstract knowledge into tangible reductions in social vulnerability indices (SoVI) and enhancements in Sen’s capability approach. We conclude that such smaller intra-community groups as decentralized, women-led nodes could be a viable strategy for hyper-local climate action.
- Open Access
- Article
From Individual Agency to Community Resilience: Modelling the Effectiveness of Women-Led Co-Learning Spaces on Climate Action in Jodhpur Using Agent-Based Simulation and Interpretive Structural Modelling
- Repaul Kanji 1,*,
- Sriparna Sil 1,
- Jeevan Madapala 2,*
Author Information
Received: 17 Oct 2025 | Revised: 03 Feb 2026 | Accepted: 11 Feb 2026 | Published: 27 Feb 2026
Abstract
Keywords
agent-based simulation | Interpretive structural modelling | women in climate action | contagion modelling for resilience building
References
- 1.
Meghal, A. Charting the course: The water structures in Jodhpur. In Between History and Memory, the Blue Jodhpur; Balzani, M., Jain, M., Rossato, L., Eds.; Maggioli S.p.A.: Santarcangelo di Romagna, Italy, 2019; pp. 79–89.
- 2.
Kanji, R.; Madapala, J.; Sil, S. Culture for climate action in Jodhpur: Reversing the trajectory from fragility to resilience. J. Cult. Herit. Manag. Sustain. Dev. 2024, 14, 787–792. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCHMSD-04-2024-0076.
- 3.
Mahila Housing Trust. [@mahilahsg]. (3 June 2022). Dr. Sharma Sharing Number of #Heatwave Days in Jodhpur. 2022 Is Warmest Year, after the Year 1998. X. Available online: https://x.com/mahilahsg/status/1532614892120702976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw (accessed on 6 February 2026).
- 4.
Singh, J. Storytelling in Jodhpur. Available online: https://india-seminar.com/2023/767/767-15%20JAGNOOR%20SINGH.htm (accessed on 2 December 2025).
- 5.
GRRID Corps. Sanchay. Available online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v5igB2Rlvt7l8 (accessed on 7 December 2025).
- 6.
Saha, B.; Lalrinmawia, V.; Wakram, A. Traditional Construction Knowledge of the Blue City (Jodhpur): Paving Way for a Cooler Future. Available online: https://www.preventionweb.net/publication/traditional-construction-knowledge-blue-city-jodhpurpaving-way-cooler-future (accessed on 2 December 2025).
- 7.
Simon, H.A. Models of Man; Wiley: New York, NY, USA, 1957.
- 8.
Douglas, M.; Wildavsky, A. Risk and Culture: An Essay on the Selection of Technical and Environmental Dangers; University of California Press: Berkeley, CA, USA, 1982.
- 9.
Cutter, S.L.; Boruff, B.J.; Shirley, W.L. Social Vulnerability to Environmental Hazards. Soc. Sci. Q. 2003, 84, 242–261. https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-6237.8402002.
- 10.
Sen, A. Development as Freedom; Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK, 1999.
- 11.
Srikrishnan, V.; Keller, K. Small increases in agent-based model complexity can result in large increases in required calibration data. Environ. Model. Softw. 2021, 138, 104978. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2021.104978.
- 12.
Iacopini, I.; Petri, G.; Barrat, A.; et al. Simplicial models of social contagion. Nat. Commun. 2019, 10, 2485. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-10431-6.
- 13.
De Arruda, G.; Petri, G.; Moreno, Y. Social contagion models on hypergraphs. Phys. Rev. Res. 2020, 2, 023032. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.2.023032.
- 14.
Burgio, G.; Arenas, A.; Gómez, S.; et al. Network clique cover approximation to analyze complex contagions through group interactions. Commun. Phys. 2021, 4, 111. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42005-021-00618-z.
- 15.
Muvunza, T.; Li, Y.; Kuruoglu, E. Stable Probabilistic Graphical Models for Systemic Risk Estimation. In Proceedings of the 2024 IEEE Conference on Artificial Intelligence (CAI), Singapore, 25–27 June 2024; pp. 1340–1345.
- 16.
Kanji, R.; Agrawal, R. Exploring the use of corporate social responsibility in building disaster resilience through sustainable development in India: An interpretive structural modelling approach. Prog. Disaster Sci. 2020, 6, 100089. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pdisas.2020.100089.
- 17.
Ahmad, N.; Qahmash, A. SmartISM: Implementation and Assessment of Interpretive Structural Modeling. Sustainability 2021, 13, 8801. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13168801.
- 18.
Sushil, S. Interpreting the Interpretive Structural Model. Glob. J. Flex. Syst. Manag. 2012, 13, 87–106. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40171-012-0008-3.
- 19.
Hornor, M. Diffusion of Innovation Theory. In The SAGE Encyclopedia of Research Design; SAGE Publications: Thousand Oaks, CA, USA, 2022. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781071812082.n164.
- 20.
Bowden-Green, T.; Vafeas, M. Recognising motivation in others: The effectiveness of using social proof to change driving behaviour. J. Soc. Mark. 2024, 14, 345–362. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSOCM-02-2024-0045.
- 21.
Grusec, J.E. Social learning theory and developmental psychology: The legacies of Robert Sears and Albert Bandura. Dev. Psychol. 1992, 28, 776–786. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.28.5.776.
- 22.
Wu, S.; Lei, Y.; Yang, S.; et al. An Agent-Based Approach to Integrate Human Dynamics into Disaster Risk Management. Front. Earth Sci. 2022, 9, 818913.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Suite 4002 Level 4, 447 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3000, Australia
General Inquiries: info@sciltp.com