Care-full and just: Making a difference through climate change adaptation

Abstract

In the small city of Dunedin, on the south-east coast of Aotearoa New Zealand, sea-level rise and increased flood events are affecting communities. The potential for climate change impacts in South Dunedin to exacerbate existing inequalities is high. Floods in 2015 became a catalyst for a different way of ‘doing’ climate change adaptation suggesting more care-full and just intentions and practices. Drawing from both local authority and community actions, we document how care has become the basis for a meaningful way to bring justice to the forefront of the early stages of adaptation planning. We document how Tronto's (2013) caring with is demonstrated in a significant shift in the relationship between and within affected communities and the Council since the floods. The nature of this partnership work is evident through community initiatives and the Council's approach to community engagement, both of which are providing spaces in which adaptation discussions are becoming easier, the emotional dimensions of climate change impacts can be expressed, and where embodied care work is justice work. We argue that just adaptation invokes care, and that care and justice are co-constituted when the moral dimensions of caring with are institutionalised in both community and local authority adaptive practices.