Adaptation to climate change in agricultural production: habitus, field, and capital from a Bourdieu perspective

Climate change has significantly affected agricultural production and farmers’ livelihoods, requiring continuous adaptation to changing environmental conditions. Drawing on Bourdieu’s concepts of field, habitus, and capital, this study examines how farmers adapt to climate change and how different forms of capital shape their adaptive capacity. A qualitative phenomenological design was employed, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 farmers in the Çatalca district of Istanbul, Türkiye. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis with the support of MAXQDA 24, generating five themes and 23 subthemes. The findings indicate that farmers combine inherited local knowledge with modern agricultural practices, while adaptation is influenced by unequal access to economic, cultural, and social capital. Farmers with stronger economic resources, broader social networks, greater access to scientific knowledge, and higher symbolic status demonstrate greater adaptive capacity. The findings further show that climate change is gradually transforming farmers’ habitus as traditional agricultural practices become increasingly misaligned with changing environmental conditions. From a Bourdieusian perspective, the agricultural field both shapes and is shaped by farmers’ forms of capital, while habitus mediates adaptation strategies and is continuously reconstructed through this process. By extending Bourdieu’s theoretical framework to climate change adaptation, this study demonstrates that adaptation is not merely a technical or environmental response but a socially structured process shaped by power relations, unequal capital, and the transformation of habitus. The findings contribute to the growing literature on the social dimensions of climate change adaptation and provide implications for socially inclusive and culturally sensitive adaptation policies.