Climate Change = Discourse Change? Development and Relief Organizations’ Use of the Concept of Resilience

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Abstract

Climate change impacts especially the Global South. Humanitarian/development organizations are therefore incorporating a climate change dimension into their work. New concepts are introduced and old concepts used in new ways, potentially changing organizational discourse and thus development issues and goals. To elucidate the possible direction of the new discourse, this chapter examines, on the basis of interviews with developers, concepts employed when discussing climate change, focusing on ‘resilience.’ Resilience has the potential of including a dimension of local agency, thus involving local communities that have been largely ignored in climate change mitigation initiatives. Many definitions of resilience in relation to climate change exist since it is a complex subject matter approached from different sectors and a politicized issue that has become a central concern only recently. Official definitions are still being negotiated and several organizations have not yet determined an operational definition of resilience. A discussion of definitions and their implications for local agency is therefore timely.
OriginalsprogEngelsk
TitelThe Question of Resilience : Social Responses to Climate Change
RedaktørerKirsten Hastrup
UdgivelsesstedCopenhagen
ForlagDet Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes Selskab
Publikationsdato2009
Sider314-335
Kapitel15
ISBN (Trykt)978-87-7304-350-9
StatusUdgivet - 2009
Udgivet eksterntJa

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