Concept of adaptive capacity in climate action discussions: A critical evaluation

Shah, Bindi (2024) Concept of adaptive capacity in climate action discussions: A critical evaluation. BSA Virtual Annual Conference 2024: Crisis, Continuity and Change, Virtual. 03 - 05 Apr 2024.

Abstract

Social scientists addressing the climate crisis, and specifically action to mitigate impacts and adaptation at community levels, have focused on adaptive capacity - conditions that enable people to anticipate and respond to change, and recover from and minimise the consequences of change (Adger and Vincent 2005). In this agentic approach, scholars agree that social capital plays a role in building adaptive capacity. Recently scholars have translated abstract discussions of social capital to identify five social dimensions that can contribute to community-level adaptive capacity. This certainly offers policymakers and practitioners a useful ‘toolkit’ for identifying obstacles and opportunities for building capacities to adapt and innovate in the face of climate change. However, there is inadequate consideration of politics and power relations. Here I draw on my own research and wider debates in sociology to offer a critical evaluation of a focus on adaptive capacity at 3 levels: a) scholarship has identified gender differentiation in access to social capital, but I argue for an intersectional perspective in understanding access as well as ability to mobilise resources and networks or indeed create new ones; b) A focus on building adaptive capacity constructs a neo-liberal frame, shifting responsibility for adaptation to communities and affirming the stability of existing socio-economic-political-bio frames of development and growth; c) relatedly, if we are to take decolonisation seriously, we have to acknowledge that prioritising community resilience upholds Western concepts of agency and adaptive capacity. Different epistemologies of sustainability and human well-being can lead to transformation rather than just adaptation.

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Contributors

Author: Bindi Shah

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