Environmental knowledge and human experience: using a historical analysis of flooding in Ireland to challenge contemporary risk narratives and develop creative policy alternatives

Jeffers, J.M

doi:10.1080/17477891.2014.902800

Cited by 19 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…Hazards research aims to be holistic by adopting a genuinely interdisciplinary approach in order to examine the physical, social, political, economic and cultural aspects of risk production, experiences and responses (Chatterjee and Mitchell, 2014;Jeffers, 2014;Leckner, et. al.…”

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confidence: 99%

Editorial — Researching Hazards: Keeping Pace with Changing Contexts

2016

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confidence: 99%

Editorial — Researching Hazards: Keeping Pace with Changing Contexts

2016

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“…This awareness may evolve through direct experience (such as aforementioned flooding affecting individual dwellings) or through repeated exposure to media coverage of impacts (Akerlof et al, 2013;Koerth et al, 2013). Biased perceptions of local vulnerability may persist, even when differing significantly from historical climate records or physical evidence (Jeffers, 2014). Individuals may alternatively process impacts through a lens of 'psychological distance', conceiving of climate change as "a set of uncertain events that might occur far in the future, impacting distant places and affecting people dissimilar to themselves" (Jones et al, 2017, p. 331; see also Spence et al, 2012;Weber, 2016).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous scholarship has demonstrated that individual understandings of vulnerability to climate change may involve doubt or denial that is determined in part by the degree to which individuals accept the legitimacy of expert climate change projections (Connor & Higginbotham, 2013;Howe & Leiserowitz, 2013). This situation is further complicated by challenges in directly attributing specific weather events or conditions to overall climate change trends (Jeffers, 2014). One Halifax resident suggested an unwillingness to incur personal costs to undertake adaptive actions within their home site "until the problem was staring me in the face.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As municipalities consider the substantial proportion of residential property and other private lands that comprise urban areas, some have moved towards greater co-governance of stormwater management efforts with citizens (Mees et al, 2012;Mees, 2017;Mees et al, 2017;Zidar et al, 2017). Within contemporary neoliberal paradigms, scholars have examined how governments increasingly call on the self-governing citizen to undertake action at the scale of the individual home site in response to climate change and other environmental concerns (Brand, 2007;Jeffers, 2014). The academic scholarship exploring citizen responses to this call have examined varied influences among residents in undertaking sustainability or risk mitigation action within home sites, including individual aesthetic or environmental values, neighbourhood norms, or personal experience with intense weather events (Baptiste et al, 2015;Lim, 2018;Porter et al, 2014;Vaisanen et al, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Climate change scholars and adaptation practitioners suggest that measures undertaken on private lands to adapt to climate change impacts may provide a significant counterpart to public adaptation initiatives (Bichard & Kazmiercak, 2009;Jeffers, 2014).…”

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Bringing adaptation home: Citizen engagements with climate change at home site scales in Ottawa and Halifax

Goemans¹

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Climate change impacts are becoming increasingly evident in cities, generating hazards such as heatwaves and flooding events that may cause discomfort or trauma for residents. Climate change scholars suggest that measures undertaken on private lands provide a significant counterpart to public adaptation initiatives, and increasingly position the home site as an important scale of analysis within climate change research (Bichard & Kazmiercak, 2009; Jeffers, 2014; Pyhala et al., 2016; Wilson et al., 2014). Select scholars have also considered how municipalities may effectively engage with citizens to encourage greater home-based responses to climate-related hazards (Groulx et al., 2014; Hjerpe et al., 2014; Klein, 2014). This thesis explores citizen perspectives of climate change impacts, risk and opportunities for adaptation that are based at the scale of the urban home site in two midsized Canadian cities, Ottawa and Halifax. Through a qualitative research approach of discourse analysis, this thesis explores several distinct but related sub-themes: (1) how residents understand local places of climate change impacts and risk; (2) how residents engage with home site natures within a context of emerging ecosystem-based adaptation practices; and (3) how residents conceptualize the residential property in situating responsibility for managing neighbourhood stormwater flows. Within these sub-themes, I argue: (1) that places of significant climate change impacts are frequently conceptualized by residents beyond the home site; (2) that residents hold multiple conceptualizations of local natures, as reducing climate change impacts (through stormwater absorption and home cooling benefits) but also potentially contributing to additional risk (through treefalls during storms) from climate-related hazards; and (3) that ideas of property autonomy and boundaries are enacted in fluid ways by residents, as they situate obligation for neighbourhood TABLE OF CONTENTS: Abstract i Acknowledgements iii List of Tables vi List of Figures vii List of Appendices viii Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Toward an enriched climate change adaptation scholarship at the scale of the urban home site 1.2 The study context 1.3 Research questions and key arguments 1.4 Thesis structure Chapter 2: Research Methodology 2.1 Introduction 2.2 A qualitative methodology to access citizen perspectives of climate change 2.3 The research settings 2.4 The research data: Characteristics and data collection 2.5 Methods of data analysis, measures to enhance research rigour, and research limitations 2.6 Conclusion Chapter 3: Adapting in (or out of) place? Citizen perspectives of climate change impacts and risk in Ottawa and Halifax v Chapter 4: Is adaptation in our nature? Citizen engagements with urban natures and climate change in Ottawa and Halifax 4.1 Introduction 4.2 A typology and examination of ecosystem-based climate change adaptation strategies in Ottawa and Halifax 4.3 Citizen engagements with local natures in the scholarly literature 4.4 Citizen perspectives i...

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Dammed if you do, dammed if you don't: The impact of economic rationalist imperatives on the adaptive capacity of public infrastructure in Brisbane, Australia and Cork, Ireland

Tangney

2020

Env Pol Gov

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This paper presents a comparative analysis of catchment management dams in Cork, Ireland and Brisbane, Australia to demonstrate how interactions between municipal government and expert advisors for public infrastructure administration can constrain community climate adaptation. The analysis highlights how neoliberal economic rationalism can appropriate public value choice under the guise of technocratic expertise. Experts are often considered responsible agents for the effective administration of public infrastructure, even when ostensibly technical decisions concerning infrastructure management seem to demand normative, political input. Technocratic administration arising from economic rationalist priorities can thereby exacerbate the hazards presented by climate variability and advancing climate change. Climate risk managers in both cases over-relied on operating protocols and the expertise of engineers to administer public infrastructure in pursuit of economic priorities. When operating protocols proved insufficient in the face of climate extremes, however, blame was assigned to experts despite their making all available attempts to avert disaster. Through analysis of these cases, the paper discusses the need for normative transparency in expert-led public administration and better integration of multi-level governance for climate resilience when pursuing economic rationalist imperatives.

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Environmental knowledge and human experience: using a historical analysis of flooding in Ireland to challenge contemporary risk narratives and develop creative policy alternatives

Cited by 19 publications

References 48 publications

Editorial — Researching Hazards: Keeping Pace with Changing Contexts

Editorial — Researching Hazards: Keeping Pace with Changing Contexts

Bringing adaptation home: Citizen engagements with climate change at home site scales in Ottawa and Halifax

Dammed if you do, dammed if you don't: The impact of economic rationalist imperatives on the adaptive capacity of public infrastructure in Brisbane, Australia and Cork, Ireland

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