Synthesising and Identifying Emerging Issues in Adaptiveness Research within the Earth System Governance Framework (1998–2018)

doi:10.1017/9781108782180.004

2 - Synthesising and Identifying Emerging Issues in Adaptiveness Research within the Earth System Governance Framework (1998–2018)

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 June 2021

Bernd Siebenhüner and

Riyanti Djalante

Edited by

Riyanti Djalante and

Bernd Siebenhüner

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Riyanti Djalante: Affiliation:
United Nations University, Tokyo
Bernd Siebenhüner: Affiliation:
Carl V. Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Germany

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Summary

The Earth System Governance (ESG) Project developed a Science and Implementation Plan in 2009. Adaptiveness has been introduced as an umbrella term for vulnerability, resilience, adaptation, robustness, adaptive capacity, and social learning. Adaptiveness refers to changes taken by social groups in response to, or in anticipation of, challenges created through environmental change. This chapter employs a systematic literature review (SLR) method to answer the question of how adaptiveness has been taken in the literature related to earth system governance. It first analyses research progress over time including conducting a keyword analysis. Through analysis of the most-cited papers, the chapter tries to answer the 2009 Science Plan questions: What are the politics of adaptiveness? Which governance processes foster adaptiveness? What attributes of governance systems enhance capacities to adapt? How, when, and why does adaptiveness influence earth system governance? The chapter finds that adaptiveness has not been taken up as a term, but rather as an umbrella concept. The political nature and the conflicts of adaptiveness recognise that responses to massive changes in the ecological systems substantially impact on political relations and power structures on different governance levels. The learning processes in adaptation governance have a particular interest in transformative change.

Keywords

adaptiveness climate change systematic literature review governance earth system governance

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Type: Chapter
Information: Adaptiveness: Changing Earth System Governance , pp. 26 - 49
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108782180.004 [Opens in a new window]
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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