Adapting the English suburbs for climate change: A conceptual model of local adaptive capacity

Smith, Ian; Hopkins, Diane

Abstract

Recent climate change modelling suggests that we will all experience changing climatic conditions such as higher temperatures, altered patterns of rainfall and increasingly frequent extreme weather events regardless of the extent of mitigation efforts that may take place. In this paper we seek to conceptualise the potential for adaptation to climate change at the neighbourhood level building on a current research project funded by the UK’s EPSRC (Suburban Neighbourhood Adaptation for a Changing Climate (SNACC) Project). The paper focuses on the capacity of suburban communities/localities to identify and implement adaptation measures by: firstly reviewing the existing literature on adaptive capacity; secondly identifying ‘suburban’ places; and thirdly conceptualising what the adaptive capacity of an English suburban neighbourhood might be. This will draw on literatures associated with neighbourhood governance (Lowndes and Sullivan 2008 and Smith et al 2007) and on insights drawn from actor-network theory in order to make sense of differing conceptualisations of ‘neighbourhood’ that are at play when thinking about collective action within and by ‘neighbourhoods’.

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: AESOP 2010
• Start Date: Jul 7, 2010
• End Date: Jul 10, 2010
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2010
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 8, 2019
• Peer Reviewed: Not Peer Reviewed
• Keywords: English suburbs, climate change
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/988396
• Publisher URL: http://aesop2010.tkk.fi/
• Additional Information: Corporate Creators : University of the West of England, Bristol