Reframing Adaptation: A Multi-level Analysis of Collective Action, Power, and Politics of Climate Change Adaptation in Climate Vulnerable Communities

Author

Suman Acharya, University of MaineFollow

Date of Award

Summer 8-16-2024

Level of Access Assigned by Author

Open-Access Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Anthropology and Environmental Policy

Advisor

Cynthia Isenhour

Second Committee Member

Christine Beitl

Third Committee Member

Paul Mayewski

Additional Committee Members

Prem Neupane

Sandra de Urioste-Stone

Abstract

Current approaches to climate change adaptation aim to engage multiple stakeholders across different levels to achieve sustainability, equality, and inclusiveness, addressing the social, environmental, economic, and political needs of both present and future generations. While advancements have been made in materialistic and technocratic adaptation strategies to address biophysical changes, the socio-political dimensions influenced by political drivers, which can exacerbate long-term vulnerability, are frequently overlooked; moreover, the interconnections between social and ecological systems in shaping climate change adaptation is frequently overlooked. This dissertation draws upon multi-scalar analysis of individuals and institutions to investigate the political nature of climate change adaptation by elucidating how power and political structure limit or foster transformative adaptation at the local level. This dissertation utilizes ethnographic fieldwork, incorporating interviews, focus group discussions, oral histories, and participant observation within agrarian communities in Nepal's Karnali region, engaging diverse stakeholders such as government officials at local, provincial, and federal levels, civil societies, politicians, NGOs/INGOs, donors, and community-based institutions, to trace the evolving discourse of climate vulnerability and adaptation as it interfaces with local social, cultural, political, and environmental contexts.

Through this research, I offer a critical interpretive analysis of contemporary, capitalist, and rationalist approaches to climate change knowledge, planning and implementation, revealing that adaptation initiatives in one of the world's most climate-vulnerable regions promote hegemonic practices, reproducing unequal power structures and marginalizing alternative perspectives on understanding and responding to climate change. I have structured this dissertation into five chapters. In the first chapter, I provide a broad opening of my dissertation by introducing climate change vulnerability, adaptation, and collective efforts in facing this complex problem. The second chapter tries to expand the concept of differential vulnerability by introducing the biophysical and sociopolitical dimensions of climate vulnerability and arguing that biophysical climate changes are always mediated and structured by multiple social and political vulnerabilities. In the third chapter, I have comprehensively analyzed multi-scalar power dynamics and politics in authority, knowledge, and resource access and governance within the realm of climate change adaptation. Here, I move beyond the generic concept and understanding of inclusive adaptation as apolitical/neutral process and argue that adaptation governance as a political phenomenon governed through power hierarchies from historical and sociopolitical structures and institutional mechanisms within governing systems that reproduce social inequalities and reshape climate vulnerability. The fourth chapter expands the understanding of collective action in climate change adaptation, focusing on its multi-scalar occurrence for achieving successful, inclusive, and equitable community-based climate adaptation. I further investigate how local-level collective actions challenge the influence of external power and politics in climate change adaptation policies and programs to foster collective action within the community and across scales. The final chapter presents the conclusion of the dissertation project and some crucial policy recommendations for developing vulnerability assessments and implementing adaptation programs.

Recommended Citation

Acharya, Suman, "Reframing Adaptation: A Multi-level Analysis of Collective Action, Power, and Politics of Climate Change Adaptation in Climate Vulnerable Communities" (2024). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 4044.
https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/etd/4044