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Using the Foucauldian theoretical framework of governmentality, this paper examines the role of regulative ‘technologies of government’ in climate change adaptation. The paper examines such technologies and underlying rationalities in a multi-level context, in three European countries that represent different stages of adaptation policy development: the UK, Finland and Sweden. Drawing upon policy documents and interviews at different levels, the paper illustrates differences in technologies of government for adaptation between the relatively ‘regulative’ UK state system and Finland and Sweden's traditional legalistic and welfarist systems. The study illustrates that, while the treatment of adaptation as an issue on a national level coheres with national rationalities, local and regional levels show a diversity in the development of bottom-up adaptation technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change adaptation strategies are emerging across Europe as societies attempt to adapt to the challenges of a changing environment. Social constructivist analyses of environmental policy - especially those emphasising 'framing' - can be very useful in teasing out the framings of policy problems such as adaptation. They can also shed light on the underlying assumptions that steer and guide public and environmental policy. Using the theoretical concept of framing to analyse adaptation policies across different scales of governance in four European countries - Sweden, Finland, the United Kingdom and Italy - and drawing on policy documents from those countries, as well as semi-structured interviews with practitioners, the development of adaptation policy processes and especially how adaptation has been defined within these processes are examined. Four major framings of adaptation are identified: 'planning', 'economic risk', 'vulnerability' and 'existing measures'. These frames affect how adaptation is conceptualised, policy problems defined and, ultimately how policy develops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]