Document Type

Research Report

Publication Date

6-2022

Keywords

Climate Adaptation, Equity, Social Network Analysis, Stakeholder Engagement, Climate Resilience Silos

Disciplines

Anthropology | Environmental Studies | Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration | Sociology | Urban Studies and Planning

Abstract

Climate change is already disproportionately impacting historically marginalized populations. Without intentional interventions, adaptation efforts will amplify existing social and economic inequities. At the same time, society will mobilize massive resources to address increasing climate-related threats. This means that climate change also presents opportunities to address persistent and systemic inequities. However, equitable adaptation efforts are impeded by multiple factors. For example, many frontline communities do not have the capacity to work on adaptation efforts if it means diverting attention from addressing existing inequities. Even as policymakers, practitioners, and planners increasingly prioritize climate adaptation, frontline communities are not brought into the process early and deeply enough. And there is a broader issue, which is that knowledge about what equitable adaptation looks like and how to achieve it is still limited. The knowledge gaps are heightened by siloes preventing people in diferent felds - and across academic and community divides - from learning from one another. Given these factors, the Sustainable Solutions Lab Metro Boston Climate Adaptation Stakeholder Mapping Project (henceforth, “SSL” and “ Stakeholder Mapping Project) is one contribution toward efforts to bridge knowledge and practice gaps between different actors in the local climate justice field. The Stakeholder Mapping Project aims to identify a set of people and organizations collaborating in climate adaptation work and to bring together stakeholders to determine paths forward in advancing climate adaptation equity. We show the existing and, by default, the missing connections between climate adaptation actors in the Metro Boston area. By establishing what is, we can then ask questions about what should be and what it would take to get there. While the Stakeholder Mapping Project cannot tell us how practitioners, activists, researchers, and officials establish and nurture various forms of collaborative practices, it does provide a snapshot of the relational outcomes - who works with whom - that result from the existing structures, norms, and policies driving climate adaptation work locally.

Community Engaged/Serving

Part of the UMass Boston Community-Engaged Teaching, Research, and Service Series. //scholarworks.umb.edu/engage

Publisher

Sustainable Solutions Lab

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