To enhance understanding of the process of climate change adaptation and to facilitate the planning and implementation of sustainable adaptation strategies deeper consideration of the factors that impede adaptation is required. Barriers to climate change adaptation are, consequently, being increasingly reported. But, despite this progress, knowledge of barriers that hamper adaptation in developing countries remains limited, especially in relation to underlying causes of vulnerability and low adaptive capacity. To further improve understanding of barriers to adaptation and identify gaps in the state-of-the-art knowledge, we undertook a synthesis of empirical literature from sub-Saharan Africa focusing on vulnerable, natural resource dependent communities and livelihoods. Our review illustrates that: 1) local level studies that reveal barriers to adaptation are diverse, although there is a propensity for studies on small-holder farmers; 2) many of the studies identify several barriers to adaptation, but appreciation of their interactions and compounded impacts remains scarce; and 3) most of the barriers uncovered relate broadly to biophysical, knowledge and financial constraints on agricultural production and rural development. More hidden and under-acknowledged political, social and psychological barriers are rarely mentioned, unless captured in studies that specifically set out to investigate these. We finish our review by highlighting gaps in understanding and by suggesting future research directions, focussing on issues of social justice. We argue that research on barriers needs to start asking why these barriers emerge, how they work together to shape adaptation processes, who they affect most, and what is needed to overcome them.

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Although growing in popularity in other countries, the business professional doctorate has yet to gain traction in the U.S. Such programs, intended to offer advanced disciplinary and research training to individuals who later plan to apply that training to employment in industry, are frequently seen to be inferior to their academically-focused Ph.D. program counterparts. Furthermore, if the sole purpose of a doctorate is to develop individuals focused on producing scholarly research articles, that assessment may well be correct. We argue, however, that such a narrowly focused view of the purpose of doctoral programs is self-defeating; by exclusively focusing on scholarly research and writings, we virtually guarantee that our research will never make it into practice. The paper begins by identifying a variety of types of doctoral programs that exist globally and placing these in a conceptual framework. We then present a detailed case study of the information systems (IS) doctoral programs offered in Osnabrueck, Germany-where as many as 90% of candidates choose careers in industry in preference to academia. Finally, we proposesupported using both conceptual arguments drawn from the study of complex informing and observed examples-that the greatest benefit of business professional doctorates may be the creation of enduring informing channels between practice and industry. Presented in this light, the business professional doctorate should be viewed as an essential part of the broader research ecology, rather than as a weak substitute for the disciplinary Ph.D.

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