No room to manoeuvre: bringing together political ecology and resilience to understand community-based adaptation decision making

Abstract

ABSTRACT While community-led adaptation is an increasingly important subject in both academic and development circles, the politics behind adaptation decision making receives less attention. Specifically, an absence of adaptive actions is often understood as maladaptation. This study shows how incorporating lessons from political ecology such as an analysis of historically produced socio-political structures can add value to a resilience perspective by making clearer the contextual forces that shape adaptation decision making. Using the case study of urban farming in Phnom Penh, the political reality behind adaptation decision making is explored to reveal that the decision not to adapt may be a rational response to avoid risk in a situation of significant power imbalances. This understanding is important to inform the kind of policy measures and development interventions that are appropriate to support community-led adaptation.