Singh, C., Tebboth, M. G. L., Spear, D., Ansah, P., and Mensah, A. (2019) Opening up the methodological toolkit on climate change vulnerability and adaptation research: reflections from using life history approaches. Regional Environmental Change; doi.org/10.1007/s10113-019-01562-z
People in developing countries face multiple risks, and their response decisions sit at the complex and often opaque interface of climatic stressors, constrained resource access, and changing livelihoods, social structures, and personal aspirations. Many risk management studies use a well-established toolkit of methodologies—household surveys, focus group discussions, and semi-structured interviews. This paper argues that such methodological conservatism tends to neglect the dynamic and differentiated nature of livelihood decisions. Since different methodologies privilege different portrayals of risk and response. The paper highlights how plural methodological approaches can capture a broader range of perspectives and problematisations and draws on the life-history method of interviews across four countries (Kenya, Namibia, Ghana, and India) to offer one way of expanding current methodological approaches on vulnerability and adaptation.
Conway, D., Nicholls, R. J., Brown, S., Tebboth, M. G. L., Adger, W. N., Bashir, A., Biemans, H., Crick, F., Lutz, A. F., Safra De Campos, R., Said, M., Singh, C., Zaroug, M. A. H., Ludi, E., New, M., and Wester, P. (2019), Recognising the need for bottom-up assessments of climate risks and adaptation in climate-sensitive regions. Nature Climate Change 9: 7, pp 503-511; doi.org/10.1038/s41558-019-0502-0
Studies of climate change at specific intervals of future warming have primarily been addressed through top-down approaches using climate projections and modelled impacts. In contrast, bottom-up approaches focus on the recent past and present vulnerability. Here, we examine climate signals at different increments of warming and consider the need to reconcile top-down and bottom-up approaches. We synthesise insights from recent studies in three climate-sensitive systems where change is a defining feature of the human-environment system. Whilst top-down and bottom-up approaches generate complementary insights into who and what is at risk, integrating their results is a much-needed step towards developing relevant information to address the needs of immediate adaptation decisions.
Tebboth, M. G. L., Conway, D., and Adger, W. N., (2019) Mobility endowment and mobility entitlements mediate resilience in rural livelihood systems. Global Environmental Change 54, pp 174-183; doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2018.12.002
In economically marginal rural areas, choice in livelihood strategy such as decisions to move location mediates levels of individual and household resilience under conditions of environmental change. It is widely recognised that endowments associated with mobility and the entitlement to mobility are unevenly distributed across populations. This paper integrates these insights and conceptualises location choice as a set of mobility endowments and mobility entitlements. Through focussing on endowments and entitlements, the paper explores how choice affects the ability to be mobile and its role in mediating levels of resilience to livelihood shocks associated with changing environmental conditions. The paper affirms that choice and the ability to enact those choices mediates resilience, it highlights the implications of location decisions but also the conditions in which those decisions are made.
Tebboth, M. G. L., Few, R., Assen, M., and Degefu, M. A., (2020) Valuing local perspectives on invasive species management: moving beyond the ecosystem service-disservice dichotomy. Ecosystem Services 42; doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2020.101068
This paper uses the concept of ecosystem disservices to explore and understand how rapid environmental change associated with an invasive plant species is framed and understood by different stakeholders. Through a focus on narratives, the paper explores how socially-differentiated populations understand the causes and consequences of a plant invasion and express preferences for often contrasting management interventions.
Other Selected publications
Few, R., Spear, D., Singh, C., Tebboth, M., Davies, J. and Thompson-Hall, M. (2020) Culture as a mediator of climate change adaptation: neither static nor unidirectional WIREs Climate Change DOI:10.1002/wcc.687
Cundill, G., Harvey, B., Tebboth, M., Cochrane, L., Currie-Alder, B., Vincent, K., Lawn, J., Nichols, R. J., Scodanibbio, L., Prakash, A., New, M., Wester, P., Leone, M., Morchain, D., Ludi, E., DeMaria-Kinney, J., Khan, A., Landry, M., (2019) Large-scale transdisciplinary collaboration: Challenges and Insights. Global Challenges 1700132. https://doi.org/10.1002/gch2.201700132
Tebboth, M. G. L., Conway, D., and Adger, W. N., (2019) Mobility endowment and mobility entitlements mediate resilience in rural livelihood systems. Global Environmental Change 54, pp 174-183. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2018.12.002
Singh, C., Tebboth, M. G. L., Spear, D., Ansah, P., and Mensah, A. (2019) Opening up the methodological toolkit on climate change vulnerability and adaptation research: reflections from using life history approaches. Regional Environmental Change. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-019-01562-z
Tebboth, M. G. L., Few, R., Assen, M., and Degefu, M. A., (2020) Valuing local perspectives on invasive species management: moving beyond the ecosystem service-disservice dichotomy. Ecosystem Services 42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2020.101068
Few R. and Tebboth, M. (2018) Recognising the dynamics that surround drought impacts. Think Note. Journal of Arid Environments, 157, 113-115. DOI: 10.1016/j.jaridenv.2018.06.001
