Upending the status quo through transformative adaptation: A systematic literature review

Ajulo, Oluwadunsin; Meding, Jason von; Tang, Waiching

doi:10.1016/j.pdisas.2020.100103

Cited by 12 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…Systematic reviews are increasingly used in social science research on climate change (e.g., Berrang‐Ford et al, 2015; Biesbroek et al, 2018; Sherman et al, 2016; Siders, 2019). As the use of transformation‐related terminology has expanded, reviews have been conducted in relation to sustainability transformations (e.g., Feola, 2015; Koch et al, 2018) and, more recently, related concepts such as transformational climate change adaptation (e.g., Ajulo et al, 2020; Deubelli & Mechler, 2021). However, to our knowledge, this article is the first systematic review of the use of transformation‐related concepts in the literature on climate change mitigation.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Future research could examine explanations for the patterns found here as well as the scope for shared transformation frameworks, concepts, and cumulative knowledge syntheses for specific areas and/or topics, such as the energy sector or cities. Similarly, systematic reviews of transformational climate change adaptation are emerging (Ajulo et al, 2020). Research that synthesizes findings from research on transformations for both climate change mitigation and adaptation could deliver broader lessons for climate governance more generally (Hurlimann et al, 2021).…”

Section: Conclusion and New Research Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Transformations for climate change mitigation: A systematic review of terminology, concepts, and characteristics

Moore

Verfuerth

Minas

et al. 2021

WIREs Climate Change

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Deep, broad, and rapid society‐wide changes are urgently required to limit global temperature rise in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement. Since 2005, academics and policy makers have increasingly referred to such changes as transformations. This recent uptake and rapid diffusion of transformation‐related concepts in research on climate change mitigation calls for a systematic and up‐to‐date analysis. In this article, we address this gap by undertaking a systematic review of articles that use transformation‐related terms in the social science literature on climate change mitigation. Drawing on a corpus of 198 articles identified from Scopus, we find a diverse, fragmented research field that strongly focuses on the national, city, and international levels, the energy sector, and high‐income countries. Although the use of transformation terminology has increased rapidly, there are few shared definitions, which arguably constitutes a serious challenge to scholarship and evidence‐based policy making. To facilitate a more cumulative and impactful approach to research, we propose transformational climate change mitigation as a new umbrella term for the varied mitigation‐related societal transformations required to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. We conclude by identifying priorities for future research. This article is categorized under: The Carbon Economy and Climate Mitigation > Benefits of Mitigation

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Conclusion and New Research Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transformations for climate change mitigation: A systematic review of terminology, concepts, and characteristics

Moore

Verfuerth

Minas

et al. 2021

WIREs Climate Change

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Within disaster research these effects have been explored as a community's adaptive capacity (e.g., [100][101][102]) and adaptive resilience (e.g., [98,[103][104][105][106]). As a result, the application of system of systems and properties of complexity has increasingly appeared in the disaster literature (e.g., [46,48,94,98,[107][108][109][110][111][112]). Work addressing complexity has spawned new areas for interdisciplinary theory such as relating critical infrastructure to society's feedback loops in cascading disasters [113].…”

Section: Physical Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Organizing Theories for Disasters into a Complex Adaptive System Framework

2021

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Increasingly urbanized populations and climate change have shifted the focus of decision makers from economic growth to the sustainability and resilience of urban infrastructure and communities, especially when communities face multiple hazards and need to recover from recurring disasters. Understanding human behavior and its interactions with built environments in disasters requires disciplinary crossover to explain its complexity, therefore we apply the lens of complex adaptive systems (CAS) to review disaster studies across disciplines. Disasters can be understood to consist of three interacting systems: (1) the physical system, consisting of geological, ecological, and human-built systems; (2) the social system, consisting of informal and formal human collective behavior; and (3) the individual actor system. Exploration of human behavior in these systems shows that CAS properties of heterogeneity, interacting subsystems, emergence, adaptation, and learning are integral, not just to cities, but to disaster studies and connecting them in the CAS framework provides us with a new lens to study disasters across disciplines. This paper explores the theories and models used in disaster studies, provides a framework to study and explain disasters, and discusses how complex adaptive systems can support theory building in disaster science for promoting more sustainable and resilient cities.

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“…The simple evidence of global ambient temperature rises, changing rainfall patterns and more frequent or extreme weather events will severely impact communities and society as a whole (Bendell 2018;González-Eguino et al 2017, Wallace-Wells 2019Wiseman 2021). Both people and ecosystems have been adapting to these climate-driven changes with the idea to adequately live with climate change and its associated risks and impacts (Ajulo et al 2020). Incremental adaptation and coping strategies do provide communities with short-term solutions to climate risks.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It addresses the root causes of climate risks and sustainability problems, shifting systems away from unsustainable, unjust and unequal trajectories (Ziervogel et al 2021), to achieve more sustainable futures. A major driver of deliberate transformative responses to the current challenges are bottom-up processes in which communities are able to self-organise (Ajulo et al 2020). An increasing and wide variety of grassroots and community initiatives is emerging, responding to climate risks and sustainability problems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transforming places together: transformative community strategies responding to climate change and sustainability challenges

Schreuder

Horlings

2022

Clim Action

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The simple evidence of global temperature rises, changing rainfall patterns and more frequent or extreme weather events are indisputable and will severely impact communities and society as a whole. Conventional strategies and incremental adaptation are not sufficient to address climate risks and sustainability challenges, therefore scholarly attention has shifted to the concept of transformation. A major driver of deliberate transformative responses are bottom-up processes of communities and citizen collectives, able to take the lead. An increasing and wide variety of grassroots community initiatives is emerging, responding to climate risks and sustainability challenges. These bottom-up processes require agents’ capacities to implement place-based transformative solutions aligned with climate goals in different contexts.Based on a literature review and an analysis of online cases the research provides insights into strategies of community initiatives and how their practices illustrate different dimensions of transformative adaptation. Key conditions for transformative adaptation by communities turn out to be capacity-building, leadership, different forms of scaling, and an inclusive, enabling governance. Community initiatives provide an entry point for new novelties and strategies in support of radical transformative ideas. While these initiatives are place-based, there is the need to diffuse and embed these novelties in wider scales to purposely increase their transformative societal impact.

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Upending the status quo through transformative adaptation: A systematic literature review

Cited by 12 publications

References 48 publications

Transformations for climate change mitigation: A systematic review of terminology, concepts, and characteristics

Transformations for climate change mitigation: A systematic review of terminology, concepts, and characteristics

Organizing Theories for Disasters into a Complex Adaptive System Framework

Transforming places together: transformative community strategies responding to climate change and sustainability challenges

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