Perceived adaptive capacity and natural disasters: A fisheries case study

Seara, Tarsila; Clay, Patricia M.; Colburn, Lisa L.

doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2016.01.006

Cited by 65 publications

(60 citation statements)

References 47 publications

(49 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Addressing a complex challenge like climate change requires an interdisciplinary, systems‐oriented perspective (see, for example, Frumkin, Hess, Luber, Malilay, & McGeehin, ; Füssel & Klein, ); however, some non‐profit organizations have approached environmental work as if it were a technical problem with a mechanistic solution. The shift from technical to systems‐oriented solutions is evident in how researchers and agencies are approaching environmental interventions (see, for example, Robinson, James, & Whitehead, ; Seara, Clay, & Colburn, ). This shift has implications for fundraising: Non‐profit organizations can only implement climate change interventions if sufficient funding exists, and sufficient funding will exist only if donors understand and have confidence in the intervention.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Funder's meaning making regarding complex, adaptive projects: Findings from a developmentally oriented feasibility study

Jones

Daniel

2018

J of Philanthropy and Mktg

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Environmental non‐profit organizations need to raise billions of dollars in the coming years to support climate change initiatives. Many of these initiatives are complex in nature and markedly different from traditional environmental projects such as land conservation. These interventions are dependent on sufficient funding, and sufficient funding is dependent upon whether donors understand the problem and the intervention. Understanding the nature of complex problems is related to what developmental theorists call an individual's developmental level. Using a qualitative case study methodology, we conducted interviews with donors from one chapter of a large environmental organization, The Nature Conservancy, to (a) determine how high‐level donors react to capital campaign materials presenting systems‐oriented interventions and (b) test the utility of a developmentally informed feasibility study interview. The findings indicate that a developmental approach to feasibility study interviews is useful. Donors expressed interest about the idea of systemic change but are unclear as to how to measure the success of complex, adaptive initiatives. The developmentally informed interview process deepened the conversations between donors and staff and to provide what many interviewees described as a rare and much‐needed opportunity for reflection. Although the results from a single case study are not generalizable, the study nevertheless makes a theoretical contribution and has practical implications for fundraisers of organizations addressing climate change and, potentially, other complex issues.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Funder's meaning making regarding complex, adaptive projects: Findings from a developmentally oriented feasibility study

Jones

Daniel

2018

J of Philanthropy and Mktg

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Thus, PAC describes the internal dimension of adaptive capacity, i.e., the individual's perception of the suitability of available resources (financial, technical, institutional, etc.) needed for facilitating adaptation . It highlights the “extent to which people feel they are prepared to endure changes or impacts and undertake steps to cope with them.”…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…needed for facilitating adaptation . It highlights the “extent to which people feel they are prepared to endure changes or impacts and undertake steps to cope with them.”…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatially Representing Vulnerability to Extreme Rain Events Using Midwestern Farmers’ Objective and Perceived Attributes of Adaptive Capacity

Gardezi

Arbuckle

2017

Risk Analysis

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Potential climate-change-related impacts to agriculture in the upper Midwest pose serious economic and ecological risks to the U.S. and the global economy. On a local level, farmers are at the forefront of responding to the impacts of climate change. Hence, it is important to understand how farmers and their farm operations may be more or less vulnerable to changes in the climate. A vulnerability index is a tool commonly used by researchers and practitioners to represent the geographical distribution of vulnerability in response to global change. Most vulnerability assessments measure objective adaptive capacity using secondary data collected by governmental agencies. However, other scholarship on human behavior has noted that sociocultural and cognitive factors, such as risk perceptions and perceived capacity, are consequential for modulating people's actual vulnerability. Thus, traditional assessments can potentially overlook people's subjective perceptions of changes in climate and extreme weather events and the extent to which people feel prepared to take necessary steps to cope with and respond to the negative effects of climate change. This article addresses this knowledge gap by: (1) incorporating perceived adaptive capacity into a vulnerability assessment; (2) using spatial smoothing to aggregate individual-level vulnerabilities to the county level; and (3) evaluating the relationships among different dimensions of adaptive capacity to examine whether perceived capacity should be integrated into vulnerability assessments. The result suggests that vulnerability assessments that rely only on objective measures might miss important sociocognitive dimensions of capacity. Vulnerability indices and maps presented in this article can inform engagement strategies for improving environmental sustainability in the region.

show abstract

“…It is important to examine an individual's perceived adaptive capacity because people's perceptions of available options and their own capacities as agents of change can influence their disaster preparedness [26,27]. Much of the discourse on individual adaptive capacity has centred on objective indicators of adaptive capacity, such as people's access to external resources [26,29,30]. However, there is now increasing recognition that even if resources to facilitate adaptation are available, if people perceive barriers to adaptation then their adaptive actions may be limited [26,30].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, there is now increasing recognition that even if resources to facilitate adaptation are available, if people perceive barriers to adaptation then their adaptive actions may be limited [26,30]. Therefore, given that people often act upon their subjective perceptions rather than their objective adaptive capacity [26,29], complementary research on people's perceptions of their own adaptive capacity is required [26].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceptions of Cyclone Preparedness: Assessing the Role of Individual Adaptive Capacity and Social Capital in the Wet Tropics, Australia

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Given projections of future climate-related disasters, understanding the conditions that facilitate disaster preparedness is critical to achieving sustainable development. Here, we studied communities within the Wet Tropics bioregion, Australia to explore whether people's perceived preparedness for a future cyclone relates to their: (1) perceived individual adaptive capacity (in terms of flexibility and capacity to plan and learn); and (2) structural and cognitive social capital. We found that people's perceived cyclone preparedness was only related to their perceived individual flexibility in the face of change. Given that people's perceived cyclone preparedness was related to individualistic factors, it is plausible that individualism-collectivism orientations influence people's perceptions at an individual level. These results suggest that in the Wet Tropics region, enhancing people's psychological flexibility may be an important step when preparing for future cyclones. Our study highlights the need to tailor disaster preparedness initiatives to the region in question, and thus our results may inform disaster risk management and sustainable development policies.

show abstract

Perceived adaptive capacity and natural disasters: A fisheries case study

Cited by 65 publications

References 47 publications

Funder's meaning making regarding complex, adaptive projects: Findings from a developmentally oriented feasibility study

Funder's meaning making regarding complex, adaptive projects: Findings from a developmentally oriented feasibility study

Spatially Representing Vulnerability to Extreme Rain Events Using Midwestern Farmers’ Objective and Perceived Attributes of Adaptive Capacity

Perceptions of Cyclone Preparedness: Assessing the Role of Individual Adaptive Capacity and Social Capital in the Wet Tropics, Australia

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About