Thread by @EbbaHBrink

Why do people resist #climateadaptation? Our new paper uses a sociological resistance lens to identify overt and covert #popularresistance in 56 adaptation papers and analyses the Sites, Repertoires and Consequences of resistance to adaptation (1/X) doi.org/10.1016/j.gloe…

Societal responses to risks of #floods, #droughts, or #hurricanes – even those using a language of participation – might follow historical development pathways, strive to maintain the status quo, and directly or indirectly serve elite interests (2/X)

In recent years, we have seen an upsurge of civil society actors who co-produce adaptation solutions directly and mobilise for increased action, compensation, and reparation by those in power, for instance under the banner of #climatejustice (3/X)

But by centring this study on resistance TO adaptation, we target the less intuitive question: why do people at risk oppose interventions intended & urgently needed to help them? This isolated some of the power aspects inherent in the modern #climateadaptation agenda (4/X)

We identified overt and covert resistance in 56 case-study articles on adaptation, which together concentrated on 5 ‘sites’ of resistance: Rural livelihoods, Urban informal settlements, Islands, First Nations, and Institutional landscapes (5/X)

Across the five ‘sites’, three findings stand out: 1) resistance to adaptation occurs globally, 2) it is most commonly reported in response to relocation, and 3) while #participation is often used to lessen resistance, participatory adaptation was frequently resisted (6/X)

Failure to understand resistance has maladaptive outcomes as resistance lock-ins or traps, where a) people’s resistance is ignored or quenched (thus neglecting how today’s adaptation doesn't serve them), or b) people stall/opt out of adaptation (facing hazards on their own) (7/X)

Conversely, we argue that a resistance lens can help understand contemporary political behaviours (e.g., more emergent and urbanised forms), shed light on dynamic and compound vulnerability, and ‘unlock’ more context-sensitive and even transformative adaptation (8/X) 💪🏽

We invite scholars to join the emerging research agenda on #resistancetoadaptation, and to view people’s resistance not as an anomaly or failure, but as an everyday and historically-laden reaction to adaptation regulation from above, with important political implications (9/X)

While this study targeted popular resistance ‘from below’, opposition to climate adaptation frequently occurs as resistance ‘from above’ from the powerful&wealthy. A pertinent area for future research is exposing the actors&mechanisms of such top-down adaptation resistance (10/X)

In addition, we put forth methodological questions for future research about how overt, and even more so, covert resistance to adaptation can be studied, and how it is constructed in interactions between resister, target, and (in this case, multiple layers of) observers (11/X)

Thanks to my wonderful co-authors @AnaMariaVargasF @EGKBoyd and to the many other scholars who provided inspiration and/or constructive comments and discussion along the way! <3 @StephenWoroniec @jamespatt10 @schipper_lisa @BjornOlaLinner @milliongeb @karenphenrique @MMikulewicz