Climate change adaptation and resilience: sociotechnical and knowledge dimensions

Adaptation and resilience refer to social responses to risks posed by climate change. STS research on these themes highlights that these terms do not exist in separate categories but are relational and self-enforcing. Representing risk in terms of global systemic atmospheric change simplifies both how people experience climate change and options for effective adaptation. Similarly, predefined ideas of community agency also hide how risk occurs within complex societies or how to reduce the risk without reproducing social inequalities. STS research seeks to make the assumptions and values underlying adaptation and resilience more transparent and to make both more socially inclusive.