Abstract
It is becoming clear that increasingly complex global challenges cannot simply be solved by new technology or governments alone. We also need to develop new social practices and encourage a broader cultural shift towards sustainability. Against this background, this paper explores the role of mindfulness in adapting to increasing risk and climate change. Based on a literature review, it assesses current research on ‘mindful climate adaptation’, and explores how individual mindfulness is linked to climate adaptation. While in practice mindfulness-based approaches to climate adaptation have gained widespread recognition (e.g., by the United Nations), the results show that related research is scarce and fragmented. There is almost no research into the role of mindfulness in climate adaptation. At the same time, new scientific domains are opening up in cognate fields that illuminate the mindfulness–adaptation nexus from certain perspectives. These fields include: (1) disaster management; (2) individual well-being; (3) organisational management; (4) environmental behaviour; (5) social justice; and (6) knowledge production. As new concepts and approaches emerge, they require critical construct validation and empirical testing. The importance of further investigation is supported by a complementary empirical study, which shows that individual mindfulness disposition coincides with increased motivation to take (or support) climate adaptation actions. The paper concludes that mindfulness has the potential to facilitate adaptation at all scales (through cognitive, managerial, structural, ontological, and epistemological change processes) and should, therefore, become a core element in climate and associated sustainability research. Finally, it sketches the conceptual trajectories of the mindfulness–adaptation nexus and presents a pioneering, comprehensive framework for ‘mindful climate adaptation’.
Highlights
Climate change is creating increasingly complex sustainability challenges that require new pathways and innovation (Kates et al 2001; Sol and Wals 2015)
In general, mindfulness research is rapidly growing (AMRA 2016) with a 30% annual increase (Ericson et al 2014), this literature review shows a clear lack of scientific research on mindfulness in climate adaptation
There are an increasing number of studies that address fragments of the mindfulness–adaptation nexus. These were found at the interface between the cognate fields of: (1) disaster management; (2) individual wellbeing; (3) organisational management; (4) environmental behaviour; (5) social justice; and (6) knowledge production. They illuminate aspects of the mindfulness–adaptation nexus under different terms and concepts (Table 1) that relate to different phases and scales regarding the underlying
Summary
Climate change is creating increasingly complex sustainability challenges that require new pathways and innovation (Kates et al 2001; Sol and Wals 2015). Mindfulness is intentional, non-judgmental attentiveness to the present moment This inherent capacity of the human organism is rooted in the fundamental activities of consciousness (Baer 2003; Condon et al 2013; Kabat-Zinn 1990), and is linked to established theories of attention, awareness, and emotional intelligence (Buss 1980; Brown et al 2007; Carroll 2016; Goleman 2011). It is often viewed as a pre-requisite to the development of compassion, and involves a fundamental shift in the way we think about, and act on, local and global economic, social, and ecological crises (Carroll 2016; Ericson et al 2014; Scharmer 2009/2016)
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