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Adaptation and transformation

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  • Mark Pelling
  • Karen O’Brien
  • David Matyas

Abstract

Transformation as an adaptive response to climate change opens a range of novel policy options. Used to describe responses that produce non-linear changes in systems or their host social and ecological environments, transformation also raises distinct ethical and procedural questions for decision-makers. Expanding adaptation to include transformation foregrounds questions of power and preference that have so far been underdeveloped in adaptation theory and practice. We build on David Harvey’s notion of activity space to derive a framework and research agenda for climate change adaptation seen as a political decision-point and as an opportunity for transformation, incremental adjustment or resistance to change in development pathway. Decision-making is unpacked through the notion of the activity space into seven coevolving sites: the individual, technology, livelihoods, discourse, behaviour, the environment and institutions. The framework is tested against practitioner priorities to define an agenda that can make coherent advances in research and practice on climate change adaptation. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

Suggested Citation

  • Mark Pelling & Karen O’Brien & David Matyas, 2015. "Adaptation and transformation," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 133(1), pages 113-127, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:climat:v:133:y:2015:i:1:p:113-127
    DOI: 10.1007/s10584-014-1303-0
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    5. Miriam Teschl & Flavio Comim, 2005. "Adaptive Preferences and Capabilities: Some Preliminary Conceptual Explorations," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 63(2), pages 229-247.
    6. W. Neil Adger & Tara Quinn & Irene Lorenzoni & Conor Murphy & John Sweeney, 2013. "Changing social contracts in climate-change adaptation," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 3(4), pages 330-333, April.
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