Process-Relational Adaptation to Climate Change (PRAda)

Vulnerability to climate change is a contested concept.

Not only do scholars interpret it differently leading to a disciplinary fragmentation and the production of different types of knowledges. But in addition recent research voiced concerns regarding its ability to induce urgently needed action.

There seems to be a mismatch between knowledges produced and the values, identities and emotions that matter to people.

This project will address this mismatch by making sense of vulnerability in terms of the concrete and lived experiences of people. For this it will draw on assemblage theory developed by French philosophers Deleuze and Guattari.

An assemblage is a collection of radically heterogenous elements (material stuff, norms, people, values, emotions etc.) that organize into a system beyond the dichotomies that often characterise our scientific practice (e.g. discursive and non-discursive, social and ecological, research and action etc).

We will test the theory by applying it to a multi-functional landscape in France (Lac du Salagou) using methods such as relational interviewing, participatory photography, narratives and participatory theater.

Specifically, the project will explore whether assemblage theory can provide us 1) with an understanding of vulnerability that engages people in ways that bridges the research/action divide that has long prevented adaptation measures from being implemented, and 2) with a useful approach for adaptation action at the community level.