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how it relates to development pathways. Our analysis emphasizes the potential
of climate change adaptation to be not merely 'mainstreamed' into existing
development paradigms, but to actually transform development paradigms
and practices. We propose adding a fifth normative principle of sustainable
adaptation that focuses on the empowerment of vulnerable groups.
a sustainable adaptation framework
Distinguishing between weak and strong sustainability illuminates the
danger of 'mainstreaming' climate change adaptation into business-as-usual
development models. The concept of weak sustainability is based on the idea
that technology can remove any environmental constraints that limit constant
economic expansion, consistent with ecological modernization, market
environmentalism and technocratic approaches to development that form the
'dominant force in mainstream sustainable development' (Adams 2001:110). It
relies on the assumption that crises can be avoided by applying technological or
procedural innovations (Hajer 1996), making small changes to the conventional
development model of growth-based capitalism.
In contrast, strong sustainability is less optimistic about the potential for
technology to overcome ecological constraints, for example due to lack of
knowledge and means to correct environmental consequences of unsustainable
practices in a timely and efficient way (Douthwaite 1999). In addition, if ecological
modernization principles imply ordering nature to suit human ends by rational
planning, then it is important to reflect on the social construction of the nature
to be ordered and on the diversity and political aspects of 'human ends' and
'rationality'. This requires discussing 'developmentS' (in the plural) as a way of
regaining the political dimension of sustainability (Munck 1999; Swyngedouw
2007). We hold that such approaches are also necessary when analysing adaptation
to climate change and its interrelations with societal development pathways.
Sustainable adaptation is an approach to climate change adaptation
that emphasizes the importance of development pathways built on strong
sustainability. The term is based on an understanding of adaptation not as a
single formal (or informal) measure but as a process involving the interaction
between decisions and practices by many actors to manage climate change as
a part of multiple socio-environmental changes facing them (Eriksen 2013).
Therefore, sustainable adaptation is not a matter of identifying one specific
'sustainable' practice or action, but of developing a set of actions that can
contribute to socially and environmentally sustainable development pathways.
Its conceptual underpinnings draw heavily on a contextual vulnerability
approach (O'Brien et al. 2007), which describes vulnerability as an interaction
between contextual conditions (socio-economic, technical, institutional and
biophysical), the processes that shape these conditions (political, institutional,
social and economic structures and changes, in addition to climate variability
and change), and people's and societies' responses to change. Early elaborations
 
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