Introduction - Climate Change Adaptation and Development: Transforming Paradigms and Practices - page 5

assessment of climate policies involves going beyond a focus on mitigation
and adaptation policies alone to examine development pathways more broadly,
along with their determinants'. This is consistent with Pelling's (2011: 167)
view that '[c]limate change presents the early twenty-first century with a grand
opportunity to reconfigure the meaning and trajectory of development'.
However, as discussed by Tanner and Horn-Phathanothai (2014),
development may have several different meanings. It can refer to a process , such as
industrial development or modernization, or a project , such as deliberate efforts to
improve human wellbeing through policies, plans and development initiatives.
Development can also refer to a discourse , such as that of social progress (Tanner
and Horn-Phathanothai 2014). Dominant processes, projects and discourses
of development have together resulted in a development paradigm that has
influenced how 'adaptation' is translated into policies and practices.
Development as a discourse emerged in the post-World War II period and
was closely associated with ideas of growth, progress, modernization and
globalization; in short, modern technologies, management systems and values
were expected to lead to growing consumption and prosperity in developing
countries (Brooks, Grist and Brown 2009). Although the political context
changed with the end of the Cold War, the underlying paradigm was kept intact.
Some of the consequences of this approach could be seen by the introduction of
structural policy reforms, which included deregulation, privatization of markets,
and imposition of fees for schools and health services (Kingsbury 2007).
The direct links between the environment and development were emphasized
through the Brundtland Commission Report Our Common Future (WCED 1987),
and global environmental issues and politics increasingly came on the agenda
after the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development.
Nonetheless, both poverty and environmental issues have generally been
framed as externalities of development, and have often been seen as implicit
obstacles to further growth (Brooks, Grist and Brown 2009). Recent years have
seen a growing focus on private-public partnerships and an expanding role for
the business sector, including 'green' investments. The explicit or implicit goal
of development within this paradigm is arguably still economic growth through
a capitalist market system, with socially based indicators often seen solely as a
means towards economic ends (Hamann 2012).
Development as a modernization process has been criticized for its
overarching goals and also for its lack of reflexivity on political and ideological
dimensions (Sachs 1992; Escobar 1995). Many alternative approaches have been
pursued, including those emphasizing Women in Development, Gender and
Development, and Participatory Learning and Action (Ireland and McKinnon
2013). Tanner and Horn-Phathanothai (2014) describe these as people-centred
paradigms, new economic paradigms, and new environmental approaches.
These approaches have influenced the way development interventions are
carried out; nevertheless, development funding and projects are often criticized
for being primarily oriented towards economic growth (Peet and Hartwick