Culture and Climate Resilience: A Comparative Analysis of Experiences and Practices in Four Case Studies Across Europe

Abstract

The case studies presented in Chaps. 3, 4, 5, and 6 show the biophysical diversity of Europe’s coasts and islands, mountains, and plains in urban and peripheral settings. However, they differ in terms of their culture, institutional organization, political structures, and economies, and hence they portray how cultures—which are understood as values, knowledge, beliefs, and in turn behaviours from individual or institutional standpoints—shape local and regional responses to climate change. The historical, social, political, and economic structures are part of the process through which those cultures were formed in specific ecosystems and through which climate change adaptation and eventually building of resilience occurred. We took a practical approach, examining the values, knowledge, beliefs, and behaviours that are especially relevant for social groups’ attitudes toward climate change perceptions and how and why the people in the areas studied have adapted to changing environmental conditions and built resilience or failed to do so.