Disrupting the imaginaries of urban action to deliver just adaptation

Abstract

Urban adaptation relates to how people imagine plausible and desirable urban futures. Adaptation imaginaries refer to collective representations of how society should act and towards which goal in the context of unprecedented climate change impacts. However, the existing narratives of adaptation action tend to entrench actions that may not be beneficial in the long term and may lead to maladaptation and inequities. This is the case, for example, of flood protection barriers that displace natural barriers, such as mangroves, or water distribution networks that supply water by depleting reserves elsewhere. New adaptation imaginaries will facilitate just adaptation and enable radical changes in the relationship between humans and their environment. One step to do so is to disrupt the dominant understandings of adaptation. The aim of this special issue is to demonstrate the multiple ways in which such disruption can happen. Three areas where disruption can happen are: (1) in international political narratives, (2) in the relationship between climate change and urbanisation and (3) in the implementation of action on the ground when action encounters the realities of infrastructure and service delivery. This special issue argues that the first step in delivering climate change adaptation is to foster new ways of imagining what adaptation is needed and how it should be delivered. First, there should be efforts to understand the assumptions embedded in dominant imaginaries of urban adaptation. Second, there is a need to understand how urbanisation changes how we imagine urban areas and their resilience. Third, radical attempts to reimagine adaptation are already taking place in daring adaptation practices. Fourth, disruptive frameworks exist to challenge dominant imaginaries, but there is a need for more practical, embedded experiences of urban adaptation alternatives. © 2024 The Author(s).