The praxis of transformation and adaptation to climate change: contestations in uncertain ‘marginal’ environments

This article aims to examine and further develop the concept of praxis – processes to critique the status quo and search for alternatives – in relation to transformative adaptation to climate change. The need for transformative change to support climate change adaptation is clear. However, there are gaps in our understanding of connections between, on the one side, individual and household-level action, and on the other, the broader structural change necessary to support transformative adaptation, and in particular, how these processes unfold on the ground. We use praxis to interrogate these connections, drawing on empirical data from ‘below’ in four sites across India and Bangladesh, all representing uncertain environments, and all considered ‘marginal’: Kutch, Mumbai and the Sundarbans. We focus on praxis as manifest in contestations with the state/capital across these sites, proposing a heuristic of three Cs: confrontation, compromise and coalition. We find that the relative emphasis of these three vary widely across the sites and discuss the characteristics of these unfolding processes in terms of tensions, trade-offs and synergies. We see agency employed and, in some cases, expanded to support transformative change, while in some cases, risks of maladaptive outcomes are observed. The article’s contributions are twofold; first, to expand on the use of praxis in its opening of structure–agency linkages and tensions, and second, to use praxis as a term to better understand processes of adaptation and their transformative prospects, particularly nuancing the notion of maladaptation beyond its common interpretation as ‘unintended’ outcomes of well-intended processes.