Exploring Social Barriers
to Community-level Adaptation
Lindsey Jones
Research Officer: Climate Change Adaptation and Water Policy
Overseas Development Institute (ODI)
Characterising Limits and Barriers to Adaptation
o Findings based on ODI Background Note- 8 week field research in
Mid & Far Western Nepal
o Explore the role of caste and gender in determining how individuals
and collectives cope with climate hazard/variability/change
Key Definitions:
Barrier: ‘a political, social, or behavioural obstacle to change’
Limit: an absolute obstacle or barrier: i.e. one that is unsurpassable
Institution: shared set of rules and norms which shape individual and
organisational behaviour
What are the Limits and Barriers to Adaptation?
Source: Jones, 2010
What are the Social Barriers to Adaptation?
o Social barriers to adaptation are concerned with the social and cultural
processes that govern how people react and adapt to climate
hazard/variability/ change
o Made up of, amongst others, normative (behavioural) and cognitive
(psychological) restrictions that prevent appropriate adaptation
o Relates to the organisation and structure of social institutions:
Institutions dictate, to a large extent, the appropriate adaptation actions
taken when faced with climate hazard/variability and change
Exploring Social Barriers to Adaptation
Importance of rules and norms: may consist of
various institutional layers
For example: Behavioural environment of lower caste Hindu women in Mid-Western
Nepal will consist of:
o
Local informal institutional ‘rules of the game’ that apply for women:
unequal access to education in comparison to males; inability to participate in
village meetings and politics; limited vocational opportunities: household duties
o
It will also include the appropriate behavioural norms that are afforded to
the lower castes: restrictions in the ability to own land; restrictions in access to
key resources; and ‘untouchability’; compliance with Hindu rituals, values, and
beliefs; abiding by caste structures; and dietary restrictions.
Each of these institutional layers will combine to determine, to a large extent,
the individual’s behaviour, access, and entitlement in the face of climate
stress and shock
Implications of social barriers on Adaptation:
Lessons from Mid-Far Western Nepal
o Restricted Entitlement: Caste inequalities in access and entitlement to key
social safety nets, such as credit and the distribution of aid (both government
and NGOs), as well as a reluctance to support members of the community
outside particular castes.
o Constrained Behaviour: The ways in which individuals react to climate stress
will be shaped largely by what is deemed appropriate and acceptable
behaviour within the cultural setting
o Maladaptation: Difficulties/reluctance/lack of knowledge in changing from
‘traditional’ coping strategies
Policy Responses and relevance to CBA
o Awareness, education and empowerment: Increase education and
awareness in order to overcome social barriers, address institutional
restrictions in behaviour and entitlement, and alter restrictive and
maladaptive perceptions, norms, and cultural constraints- Ethics of
cultural change
o Combining and learning climate adaptation from parallel
approaches: Many approaches deal with similar underlying drivers of
vulnerability, and face same social barriers.
o Supporting informed autonomous adaptation- the role of CBA:
Social Barriers will impact at the local level. Most adaptation actions
will be autonomous. Need for support of informed and logical
autonomous adaptation, build on appropriate cultural norms, prevent
restrictive institution and maladaptation
For more see ODI website:
www.odi.org.uk
Lindsey Jones
Research Officer: Climate Change Adaptation and Water Policy
Overseas Development Institute (ODI)