Adaptation and development: issues, evidence and policy relevance

This paper introduces a new volume on Adaptation, Poverty and Development: The Dynamics of Subjective Well-Being (Clark, 2012), sponsored by the ESRC Global Poverty Research Group (Universities of Manchester and Oxford) and the Brooks World Poverty Institute (University of Manchester). The book draws on conceptual and empirical work and utilises a range of methodologies to investigate ‘adaptation’ – in its various guises and forms – in the context of economic and social development in poor countries. This paper is divided into five parts. Following a brief introduction, Section 2 reviews some key concepts and issues associated with adaptation from across diverse and fragmented literatures. Section 3 provides a brief overview of existing theories and empirical evidence. Section 4 considers the rationale and contribution of the book and places it in the context of existing work. And Section 5 provides a brief introduction to the structure, contents, key findings and policy conclusions of the book.