Download Linking Climate Change and Adaptive Capacity: The Role of

Ralph Matthews, Ph.D.,
Professor of Sociology,
The University of British Columbia
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◦ Focus on ‘what one should consider’ when examining the social aspects of
climate change
◦ I. CLIMATE CHANGE IS A SOCIAL PROCESS
◦ II. Individual Level Analysis
 The ‘Values and Culture Approach : Cultural and Mental Models
 The C-Five Study – Is the Coast Clear
◦ III. Societal Level Analysis : The Institutional Approach

New Institutional Analysis .
◦ IV. An Integrated Approach: Linking the Ecological, Cultural and
Institutional Perspectives
DO THIS IN CONTEXT OF SOME CURRENT RESEARCH PROJECTS ON
ENVRIONMENTAL CHANGE THAT I AM DIRECTING.
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
The causes of climate change are social:
◦As a result of human behaviour and/or a failure of human
agencies and governance processes.

The impacts of climate change are social.
◦Those in resource occupations; without power.

The responses to climate change are social i.e.
require behaviour / organization changes. Includes
both mitigation and adaptation strategies.
SUM: All aspects of climate change require social, and more
specifically, sociological analysis.
Much of the existing sociological research
Either:
1. Examines how climate change is regarded within
cultural ‘mental models’ or values of the affected
people.
Or:
2. Examines networks and/or social capital resources
respondents use
for obtaining knowledge or to seek assistance.
These are ‘individual level’ studies, rather than
societal level studies.
Example: Is the Coast Clear? (The C-5 Study)
◦ Study I directed of how three First Nation and three
settler communities sharing the same ‘space’
understand local climate changes .
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
Co-Management of Climate Change in
Coastal British Columbia (C-5 Project)
◦ Funded by NRCan
◦ Focused on residents of First Nation and Settler
Communities understood both the environment and
the impacts of climate change
 Lax – Kw’Alaams and Prince Rupert
 Nuxalk Nation and Bella Coola
 Port Alberni and Tseshaht FN
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
Sample consisted of Leaders and resource
managers
◦ Chief and Council – Mayor and Council
◦ Resource Staff (Foresters)
◦ Elders and Long Time Residents

Key focus was on the Cultural / Mental models /
Mazeways
◦ Patterned way of thinking about the environment held
by particular cultures or communities.
◦ Value differences between FN and non-FN communities
◦ Differences in which climate change was understood in
the context of broader cultural models
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
Demonstrated that there were notable value
differences in the way in which FN and Settler
Communities ‘understood’ environmental change
◦ holistic versus instrumental;
◦ Negative or positive

Though respondents were asked about whether
community had the “capacity” to deal with
environmental change – that remained a matter
of opinion.
◦ STUDYING VALUES TELLS YOU LITTLE ABOUT
COMMUNITY CAPACITY TO DEAL WITH CLIMATE
CHANGE
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Need to assess the ‘ADAPTIVE CAPACITY’ of communities,
organizations, or governments to PREPARE FOR AND
RESPOND effectively to climate change.
CAPACITY:
◦ Whether the organizational processes and structures are
adequate to the challenge.
◦ Whether there are social impediments or facilitators that
influence the capacity to respond.
GOVERANCE:
◦ What are the governance processes that affect the capacity
to respond to climate change.
 i.e. the ‘capacity issue’ is particularly a governance issue.
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We argue that ‘institutional processes are critical to
determining both the ‘capacity’ of any social unit, AND
whether its regulatory processes operate effectively.
Many others have made similar arguments, for example:
Bruntland Report, “Our Common Future” makes a similar
point:
◦ “This real world of interlocked economic and
ecological systems will not change; the policies and
institutions concerned must” (Bruntland, 1987:9).
However, little has been done to ‘operationalize’ how
institutional PROCESSES work in this context.
◦ We are attempting to do just that…..
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

Institutions are rules, regulations and decision-making
procedures that give rise to social practices.
Organizations are the entities that are governed by
institutionalized practices, and embody them.
Institutions traditionally seen as the culture of
organizational life - a ‘social glue’.

IN CONTRAST, using NEW INSTITUTIONAL ANALYSIS, I
see them as ‘frameworks’ than direct bevaviour within
organizations. i.e. Institutions shape organizational
capacity. They ‘frame’ behaviour.
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

Central to NIA perspective is the view that there are societal
patterns of operation that channel human action.
Focus is on how human behaviour is channeled and constructed
by the institutional context of organizations
◦ I.E. Unit of analysis is the individual ‘actor’ in an institutional and
organizational context.


NIA focuses on the dynamic processes of social behaviour that
go on within institutional contexts and how these create or
inhibit adaptive capacity.
This is the perspective underlying our Whitehorse study
◦ We examine whether actors, operating within institutional
framework, have the flexibility to create new roles with faced
with changing / unique situations.

Funded through International Polar Year (IPY)

Interviews with Elected and Administrative Leaders (City; YG;
FNs; Boards; Federal Departments and Agencies)

Examines:
◦ Whether ‘actors’ operate in institutionalized ways that facilitate or
impede the capacity to deal with climate change.
◦ The potential to respond creatively within the organization and to
make links to other governance units.
◦ The ‘interplay’ between levels of governance (City; YTG; FNs;
Federal)
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CC DIMENSIONS
Physical
 Exposure
 Vulnerability
 Hazards/
 Risks
ADAPTIVE CAPACITY
Institutional
Processes


Social
 Resiliency
 Coping
 Adapting



Events



◦ Unique
◦ Routine

Practices

◦ Actions
Networks
Decision Making
Communication
IHDP DIMENSIONS
Fit
◦ Ecol % Social
Interplay
◦ Levels of gov’t
Scale
◦ Time / Space
Diagnostic Method
4 Ps

Problem;

policies


,
Policies,
practices
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





Ecological Base – The Cut Block Holdings of Coast Tsimshian
Resources (CTR) and managed by Brinkman Forest Resources
Community Base – Lax Kw’Alaams &, P. Rupert; Terrace and
Kitsumkalum
Goals:
1. To link the ecological, cultural / values, and institutional
capacity of communities
2. To develop forest and riparian management strategies in
line with community values
3. To assess community adaptive capacity to respond to the
impacts of climate change in ways consistent with 1 and 2
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


Community Interviews to Identify Institutional
Adaptive Capacity on Dimensions Identified Earlier
Each Interview Develops Matrices of What is Valued
and What will Change with Respect to:
◦ Relative value of Community Resources
◦ Relative value of Environmental Resources
◦ What will Influence Change in the Region
These Community Values with underlie the
Development of Proposed Ecological Strategies for
the Region
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PROJECTS FUNDED:
Co-Management of Climate Change in Coastal BC (The C5 Project)
Funded by Natural Resources Canada
CAVIAR – Community Adaptation and Vulnerability in Arctic Regions
◦ Funded by: International Polar Year (Research Initiative), Government of Canada
An Assessment of Climate Change and Adaptive Capacity in Aboriginal
Communities South of Sixty
Funded by Indian and Northern Affairs Canada $482,000 (First two years)
(Sustainability and Indigenous Communities)
Managing Adaptation to Coastal Environmental Change – Canada and
the Caribbean (Trinidad; Guyana; Belize; Grenadines)

Funded by SSHRC-IDRC – International CURA; (Dan Lane ( PI). Funded: $2,000,000
(Sustainability in International Context)
FFESC: Climate Change Action Plan for NW Skeena Communities. Dirk
Brinkman (PI) for Coast Tsimshian Resources, WWF, Lax Kw’Alaams
Funded by the Future Forest Ecosystem Science Council of BC
(FFESC –BC)
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www.coastalclimatechange.ca
www.whitehorseclimatechange.ca
www.coastalchange.ca
Ralph Matthews:
[email protected]
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