Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Adaptation and the poor: development, resilience and transition

Jerneck, Anne LU and Olsson, Lennart LU (2008) In Climate Policy 8(2). p.170-182
Abstract
Risk minimization is no longer a sufficient survival strategy for poor people in livelihood systems increasingly exposed to frequent extreme events. This calls for comprehensive adaptation to climate change. Within the climate change regime, adaptation is as central as mitigation but needs to be much more explicitly addressed at local, national and global levels. There is also a need for policy renewal in other international regimes that are central to adaptation, such as environment, human rights, development and trade. Accordingly, this article addresses poverty-relevant adaptation through the medium of three discourses: development, resilience, and transition theory. Development, as a post-war project of theories, strategies and... (More)
Risk minimization is no longer a sufficient survival strategy for poor people in livelihood systems increasingly exposed to frequent extreme events. This calls for comprehensive adaptation to climate change. Within the climate change regime, adaptation is as central as mitigation but needs to be much more explicitly addressed at local, national and global levels. There is also a need for policy renewal in other international regimes that are central to adaptation, such as environment, human rights, development and trade. Accordingly, this article addresses poverty-relevant adaptation through the medium of three discourses: development, resilience, and transition theory. Development, as a post-war project of theories, strategies and policies, spells out the links between rich and poor countries and offers modernization trajectories but few solutions for adaptation and sustainability transitions. Resilience, as an analytical framework emerging in ecology in the 1970s in reaction to ideas of equilibrium, depicts incremental changes and capacity to preserve systems within given frames but does not recognize that social change mainly implies transitions to renewed forms of production, consumption and distribution with new combinations of organization, institutions and technology. Transition theory focuses on profound multilevel changes in complex (sub)systems, thereby offering a powerful framework for theorizing empirical findings and promoting adaptation as a transition to sustainability. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
adaptation, development, insurance, poverty, alleviation, transition theory, resilience, climate change
in
Climate Policy
volume
8
issue
2
pages
170 - 182
publisher
Taylor & Francis
external identifiers
  • wos:000255767100006
  • scopus:43449084072
ISSN
1469-3062
DOI
10.3763/cpol.2007.0434
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
6a377974-52d4-4628-b226-29a7f00eaa69 (old id 1204260)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 12:15:13
date last changed
2022-02-18 20:00:43
@article{6a377974-52d4-4628-b226-29a7f00eaa69,
  abstract     = {{Risk minimization is no longer a sufficient survival strategy for poor people in livelihood systems increasingly exposed to frequent extreme events. This calls for comprehensive adaptation to climate change. Within the climate change regime, adaptation is as central as mitigation but needs to be much more explicitly addressed at local, national and global levels. There is also a need for policy renewal in other international regimes that are central to adaptation, such as environment, human rights, development and trade. Accordingly, this article addresses poverty-relevant adaptation through the medium of three discourses: development, resilience, and transition theory. Development, as a post-war project of theories, strategies and policies, spells out the links between rich and poor countries and offers modernization trajectories but few solutions for adaptation and sustainability transitions. Resilience, as an analytical framework emerging in ecology in the 1970s in reaction to ideas of equilibrium, depicts incremental changes and capacity to preserve systems within given frames but does not recognize that social change mainly implies transitions to renewed forms of production, consumption and distribution with new combinations of organization, institutions and technology. Transition theory focuses on profound multilevel changes in complex (sub)systems, thereby offering a powerful framework for theorizing empirical findings and promoting adaptation as a transition to sustainability.}},
  author       = {{Jerneck, Anne and Olsson, Lennart}},
  issn         = {{1469-3062}},
  keywords     = {{adaptation; development; insurance; poverty; alleviation; transition theory; resilience; climate change}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{2}},
  pages        = {{170--182}},
  publisher    = {{Taylor & Francis}},
  series       = {{Climate Policy}},
  title        = {{Adaptation and the poor: development, resilience and transition}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.3763/cpol.2007.0434}},
  doi          = {{10.3763/cpol.2007.0434}},
  volume       = {{8}},
  year         = {{2008}},
}