TY - CHAP

T1 - Conclusion: Reconceptualising adaptation and comparing experiences

AU - Hulme, David

AU - Roy, Manoj Kumar

AU - Hordijk, Michaela

AU - Cawood, Sally

PY - 2016

Y1 - 2016

N2 - This chapter draws out key ideas and recommendations about ‘the way forward’, bringing the recent policy developments (AR5, the SDGs, COP 21 and Habitat III) into dialogue with the rich material presented in this book. Evidently, context is central to understanding adaptation processes. The types of impact that climate change imposes and the responses of households, communities and municipal authorities to those impacts are very much dependent on the specific environmental, socio-economic and institutional context. In almost all cases presented here, households and communities are actively adapting but the effectiveness of those adaptations varies greatly both within and between cases. Towards the end of the conclusion, we re-engage with the ‘ladder of adaptive capacity’ presented in Chapter 2 , to shape our understanding of the diverse forms of adaptation across the chapters. This framework is proposed as an analytical device rather than a ‘best practice’ prescription. In an ideal world all adaptation would be transformative, but in reality, with households and communities having very different levels of capacity for collective action and highly varied external institutions to partner with, moving from acquiescence to coping and/or from coping to progressive adaptation may be a ‘best fit’ approach.

AB - This chapter draws out key ideas and recommendations about ‘the way forward’, bringing the recent policy developments (AR5, the SDGs, COP 21 and Habitat III) into dialogue with the rich material presented in this book. Evidently, context is central to understanding adaptation processes. The types of impact that climate change imposes and the responses of households, communities and municipal authorities to those impacts are very much dependent on the specific environmental, socio-economic and institutional context. In almost all cases presented here, households and communities are actively adapting but the effectiveness of those adaptations varies greatly both within and between cases. Towards the end of the conclusion, we re-engage with the ‘ladder of adaptive capacity’ presented in Chapter 2 , to shape our understanding of the diverse forms of adaptation across the chapters. This framework is proposed as an analytical device rather than a ‘best practice’ prescription. In an ideal world all adaptation would be transformative, but in reality, with households and communities having very different levels of capacity for collective action and highly varied external institutions to partner with, moving from acquiescence to coping and/or from coping to progressive adaptation may be a ‘best fit’ approach.

M3 - Chapter

SN - 9781138860506

T3 - Routledge Advances in Climate Change Research

SP - 257

EP - 265

BT - Urban poverty and climate change

A2 - Roy, Manoj

A2 - Cawood, Sally

A2 - Hordijk, Michaela

A2 - Hulme, David

PB - Routledge

CY - London

ER -