Anti-politics, Apocalypse and Adaptation in Kenya's National Climate Change Response Strategy

Symons, Katherine

doi:10.1080/14702541.2014.907442

Cited by 22 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Kenyan policy on climate change adaptation currently frames adaptation as an issue that can be 'fixed' with technological and managerial interventions requiring large fund transfers from developed countries [45]. Yet, the case of the MMCWP shows that technical interventions such as rehabilitating the water dams and expanding the irrigation scheme, and managerial solutions like restructuring the WC are not sufficient to ensure the success of CBA interventions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

From Herding to Farming under Adaptation Interventions in Southern Kenya: A Critical Perspective

Weesie

García

2018

Sustainability

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Improving water supply for irrigable farming and livestock purposes in communities in Africa is an increasingly popular approach for community-based adaptation interventions. A widespread intervention is the construction of agro-pastoral dams and irrigation schemes in traditionally pastoral communities that face a drying climate. Taking the Maji Moto Maasai community in southern Kenya as a case study, this article demonstrates that water access inequality can lead to a breakdown of pre-existing social capital and former pastoral cooperative structures within a community. When such interventions trigger new water uses, such as farming in former pastoral landscapes, there are no traditional customary institutional structures in place to manage the new water resource. The resulting easily corruptible local water management institutions are a main consolidator of water access inequalities for intervention beneficiaries, where socio-economic standing often determines benefits from interventions. Ultimately, technological adaptation interventions such as agro-pastoral dams may result in tensions and a high fragmentation of adaptive capacity within target communities.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

From Herding to Farming under Adaptation Interventions in Southern Kenya: A Critical Perspective

Weesie

García

2018

Sustainability

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“…A number of scholars from disparate fields point out a very different paradox in the climate debate, namely that the rise of climate change on the political agenda as an urgent issue has coincided with the decrease of contestation over (alternatives to) the social structures which cause the problem. 21 This paradox is understood as the post-political, [24][25][26][27][28][29] post-democratic, 24 or anti-political 30 condition of climate change. These different concepts all refer to processes of depoliticization.…”

Section: The Critical Debate Perspective Problem Diagnosismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…24,25 Studies have also linked the depoliticization of climate change to: the way climate science has been institutionalized in the United Nations' climate process, 28 social scientists' approach of the issue, 26,27,31 the dominant discourses about the. green economy, 25 the governmentality of carbon trading, 32 national adaptation policies, 30 mainstream media's legitimization of governments' technomanagerial approach and marginalization of more transformative discourses, 33 and citizens' everyday experiences and practices with regards to climate change. 29 These analyses stem start from a postfoundational outlook on climate change.…”

Section: The Critical Debate Perspective Problem Diagnosismentioning

confidence: 99%

The politicization of climate change: problem or solution?

Pepermans

Maeseele

2016

WIREs Climate Change

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In the academic literature, two perspectives can be distinguished regarding the climate debate. The dominant consensus-building perspective problematizes the politicization of climate change as an important barrier to climate action and resultantly sets out to develop depoliticizing communication strategies which foster social consensus and public engagement. In contrast to this, the critical debate perspective problematizes climate change's capture in a depoliticized consensus and calls for its repoliticization to revive democratic debate and citizenship. The aim of this article is twofold. First, we will distinguish both perspectives on the basis of their diverging problem diagnoses and recommendations. Second, we will argue how only the critical debate perspective provides the tools for transformative socioecological change based on both democratic debate and democratic citizenship. We conclude by discussing how this divergence is reflective of a larger split in the social sciences between problem-solving and critical theory and how social scientists could contribute to democratic debate and citizenship.

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“…Grounded in the confidence in science, technology, and rationality, this kind of techno-managerial adaptation promotes "disaster preparedness" through standardized governance and planning systems (Brown, 2011, p. 28;Chishakwe et al, 2012;Symons, 2014;Tanner & Allouche, 2011). Consequently, this approach often relies on the construction of artificial, human-built infrastructure (such as coastal protection) and other sizeable technological solutions, as well as lowresolution modelling, and government interventions through various laws and programmes (Ayers & Forsyth, 2009;Chishakwe et al, 2012;Sovacool, 2011).…”

Section: Top-down and Bottom-up Approachesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A number of critical scholars have cautioned that interventions aimed at increasing local communities' adaptive capacity in developing contexts may lead to the emergence of winners and losers of adaptation, with the potential to exacerbate local inequalities and thus hinder inclusive development (Adger, 2006;Adger et al, 2003;Thomas & Twyman, 2005). Consequently, there have been consistent calls to politicize adaptation through a more systematic and focused incorporation of power into research and practice (Dodman & Mitlin, 2013;Eriksen, Nightingale, & Eakin, 2015;Marino & Ribot, 2012;Symons, 2014;Taylor, 2014). For these critical scholars, the exercise of power by actors across multiple scales is seen as a key determinant of unequal adaptation to climate impacts.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Politicizing vulnerability and adaptation: on the need to democratize local responses to climate impacts in developing countries

Mikulewicz

2017

Climate and Development

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Since entering the global agenda in the mid-1990s, adaptation to climate change has moved from being considered a largely technical and environmental issue to one rooted in more social and economic circumstances of vulnerable populations. However, research into adaptation has been scarce in terms of analysing power and the politics that in conjunction with socio-economic factors often determine how people in local communities in the Global South respond to climate change. In light of these considerations, the aim of this paper is to contribute to the wider effort to politicize adaptation to climate change research and, as a result, democratize adaptation policy and practice. It is argued that any kind of social vulnerability to climate change is, in essence, political. Once understood as a political process, adaptation should be studied critically by interrogating the local power structures and the resulting political inequalities that determine people's ability to benefit from programmes and projects that aim to facilitate local adaptation. This is necessary if such interventions are to avoid benefitting some while leaving others, and particularly the poor and marginalized, behind. Democratization is seen as a process that must occur (1) between communities and interventions, and (2) within local communities, themselves. The paper concludes with reflections on how democratizing adaptation could function in theory and practice.

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Anti-politics, Apocalypse and Adaptation in Kenya's National Climate Change Response Strategy

Cited by 22 publications

References 21 publications

From Herding to Farming under Adaptation Interventions in Southern Kenya: A Critical Perspective

From Herding to Farming under Adaptation Interventions in Southern Kenya: A Critical Perspective

The politicization of climate change: problem or solution?

Politicizing vulnerability and adaptation: on the need to democratize local responses to climate impacts in developing countries

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