Climate change adaptation has grown rapidly in prominence in development practice and scholarship. Alongside this growth, adaptation has been folded into the world of development. This article reviews the ways that adaptation has become a concern for the world of development, suggesting three important trends: problematizations of vulnerability, the financial architecture of adaptation, and the tool of climate change mainstreaming'. Given that adaptation has entered the development arena, this article reviews relevant critical development literature that might helpfully shed light on the operation of adaptation. The article first reviews a tripartite typology of development scholarship: pro-development/instrumental, post-development, and critical development studies. Then, it reviews the analogous research on adaptation according to this typology, showing the limits to both the instrumental and post-adaptation scholarship. Finally, the article engages a vein of critical development studies - concerned particularly with the churning of development priorities and their management and governance - in order examine how adaptation works as an organizing principle.
Webber, S
Climate Change Adaptation as a Growing Development Priority: Towards Critical Adaptation Scholarship
Geography Compass