Adaptation spinoffs From technological and socio-economic Changes - Climate Change Adaptation and Development: Transforming Paradigms and Practices - page 165

table 9.1 The three spinoff cases placed in the two-dimensional classification
framework

Spinoff stemming from:

Technological change Socio-economic change

Orchestrated
change

The empowerment case

Spinoff
stemming from:

Opportunity-
driven change

The ICT case The lifestyle case

A framework for categorizing spinoffs

We categorized spinoffs according to a two-dimensional framework describing
whether they stem primarily from orchestrated or opportunity-driven changes,
or from technological or socio-economic changes ( Table 9.1 ). While insufficient
from an empirical perspective, this allows a simple analysis of different types of
spinoffs.
The first dimension of the framework maps whether the emerging change
has arisen from planned or organized development initiatives, or from
opportunities arising from more general unplanned societal change. As Biggs
(2008:40) has highlighted and we reiterate, there is a long tradition of learning
from development successes, but this strand of research often '(1) gives a
privileged position to the idea that “successful” development comes about
primarily as a result of planned development, (2) places undue attention on
attributing causation to outside actors and funders, and (3) portrays development
as a gradual process that goes through stages', that may or may not be linear.
Emphasizing principles rather than prescriptions of innovation, it is often
rewarding to distinguish between orchestrated and opportunity-driven innovation
trajectories (Biggs 2008; Hall et al. 2007). Orchestrated changes are often initiated
and catalysed by state actors on the national or regional level in a top-down
manner, but are implemented by various grassroots development organizations.
In the context of climate change adaptation, Seidl and Lexer (2013:461) hold
that 'climate change adaptation needs to balance between anticipating expected
future conditions and building the capacity to address unknowns and surprises'.
This implies that any recommendations for capitalizing on spinoffs would
require attention to the capacity to detect and respond to what is currently
uncertain. Opportunity-driven changes give prominence to responses taken by
private actors. Tompkins and Eakin (2011) have elaborated on private and public
actor provision of adaptation goods, noting that the individuals who bear the
costs are seldom the same as those who benefit, particularly over time. They
therefore suggest encouraging private production of public adaptation goods by
social appeal, financially incentivizing local action or implementing adequate
regulation.