The Political Ecology of Climate Change Adaptation : Livelihoods, agrarian change and the conflicts of development

This book is the first to provide a focused examination of climate change adaptation in rural regions of the global South. By employing an interdisciplinary approach rooted in the traditions of political economy and political ecology, it argues that current approaches to climate change adaptation need to engage more systematically with the variety of power relations that shape the social and ecological parameters of rural livelihoods. It examines the contested narratives and practices of climate change adaptation in a series of case studies relating to four different agrarian settings in Asia: namely, Pakistan, India and Mongolia.

This book provides the first systematic critique of the concept of climate change adaptation within the field of international development. Drawing on a reworked political ecology framework, it argues that climate is not something ‘out there’ that we adapt to. Instead, it is part of the social and biophysical forces through which our lived environments are actively yet unevenly produced. From this original foundation, the book challenges us to rethink the concepts of climate change, vulnerability, resilience and adaptive capacity in transformed ways. With case studies drawn from Pakistan, India and Mongolia, it demonstrates concretely how climatic change emerges as a dynamic force in the ongoing transformation of contested rural landscapes. In crafting this synthesis, the book recalibrates the frameworks we use to envisage climatic change in the context of contemporary debates over development, livelihoods and poverty.

With its unique theoretical contribution and case study material, this book will appeal to researchers and students in environmental studies, sociology, geography, politics and development studies.