A cross-disciplinary perspective on the factors shaping North American adaptation research

Abstract

This chapter highlights a number of factors and inquiries shaping the development of adaptation research in North America. While some of these steering factors are unique to the institutions and geography of North America, others are poised to resonate among the global academy. In addition, this chapter provides a narrative review of the trends and trajectories of research in North America that represent unique developments for the emerging field of adaptation. While the production of North American adaptation scholarship has lagged behind the rest of the world, an emergent local academy is wrestling with the growing pains of various unresolved aspects of parallel bodies of research in disaster risk reduction and community resilience. These growing pains offer insight into the struggle to operationalize and make practical, feasible and equitable the knowledge of adaptation science.