Resource Management and Geography - Theses
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ItemNegotiating the future: risk, meaning and politics in climate change adaptation in rural Vanuatu( 2015)This thesis examines the multiple constructions of risk, and of local adaptive capacity, shaping climate change adaptation planning and decision-making in rural Vanuatu. Climate change adaptation is often viewed instrumentally as a technical response to climate-related risks. Using a cultural-political approach, I recast it as process of negotiation among diverse actors, meanings and interests. I focus on how actors variously construct risks and local adaptive capacity, and struggle over what constitutes ‘appropriate’ adaptation to climate change. I analyse two climate change adaptation projects involving rural communities in Mota Lava and Tongoa islands in Vanuatu. A combination of semi-structured interviews, focus groups and participant observation were used to capture constructions of risk and local adaptive capacity among actors engaged in the projects, and how these constructions translated into plans and interventions. I hone in on how villagers in Mota Lava and Tongoa talk about changing climatic risks and their capacity to adapt in their own terms. I seek out explanatory narratives that highlight villager’s notions of causality and agency in relation to changing risks. I contrast this with how practitioners and policymakers discuss changing climatic risks and adaptive capacity within rural communities. I identify what they see as adaptation priorities and appropriate types of interventions. I then examine whose constructions gained traction within the project, how and to what effect. I seek out examples of how actors interact, building consensus for or contesting the identified priorities and interventions. Analysis revealed distinct ways of imbuing meaning to risks and adaptive capacity, and issues of power and politics. Notably, villagers constructed and attached significance to changing climatic risks in relation to wider socio-economic changes. Maintaining their livelihoods and valued traditions were key in the face of future uncertainty. Practitioners and policymakers tended to construct these risks as a biophysical problem requiring a technical fix. Tensions arose over efforts to build adaptive capacity within the projects. However, villagers’ concerns were largely sidelined. Practitioners, policymakers and community representatives, such as chiefs and public officials, were able to exert influence due to their access to resources, political status, prevailing cultural norms, and an uneasy alliance. To ensure just and transparent outcomes, close attention is needed to the logic and politics of participation in adaptation planning and decision-making at the community level.