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The 87Sr/86Sr of marine carbonates provides a key constraint on the balance of continental weathering and hydrothermal Sr fluxes to the ocean, and mid-Oligocene to mid-Miocene features the most rapid rates of increase in the 87Sr/86Sr of the Cenozoic. Because previous records of the 87Sr/86Sr increase with time were based on biostratigraphically defined age models in diverse locations, it was difficult to unambigiously distinguish m.y. scale variations in the rate of 87Sr/86Sr change from variations in sedimentation rate. In this study, we produce the first 87Sr/86Sr results from an Oligocene to early Miocene site with a precise age model derived orbital tuning of high resolution benthic δ18O, at the Equatorial Pacific Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 1218. Our new dataset resolves transient decreases in 87Sr/86Sr, as well as periods of relative stasis. These changes can be directly compared with the high resolution benthic δ18O in the same site. We find slowing of the rate of 87Sr/86Sr increase coincides with the onset of Antarctic ice expansion at the beginning of the Mid-Oligocene Glacial Interval, and a rapid steeping in the 87Sr/86Sr increase coincides with the benthic δ18O evidence for rapid ice retreat. This pattern may reflect either northward shifts in the Intertropical Convergence Zone precipitation to areas of nonradiogenic bedrock, and/or lowered weathering fluxes from highly radiogenic glacial flours on Antarctic. We additionally generate the first 87Sr/86Sr data from ODP Site 1168 and International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Site 1406 during the Oligocene to early Miocene to improve the precision of age correlation of these Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere mid-latitude sites, and to better estimate the duration of early Miocene hiatus and condensed sedimentation.

This WRI working paper analyzes the full benefits of climate change adaptation investments, divided into three types of dividends. It shows that the benefits that accrue even when the anticipated disaster does not occur are often larger than the “avoided losses” that accrue when disaster does strike. This is important since it shows that the benefits of adaptation investments are much often larger than assumed, and don’t always rely on the probabilities of disaster risk.

Recent advances in geochemical techniques mean that several robust proxies now exist to determine the past carbonate chemistry of the oceans. Foraminiferal δ11B and alkenone carbon isotopes allow us to reconstruct sea-surface pH and pCO2, respectively, and the ability to apply both proxies to the same sediment sample would give strongly paired datasets and reduce sample waste. However, no studies to date have examined whether the solvents and extraction techniques used to prepare alkenones for analysis also impact the geochemistry of foraminifera within those sediments. Here we examine six species pairs of planktic foraminifera, with half being taken from non-treated sediments and half being taken from sediments where alkenones have been extracted. We look for visual signs of contrasting preservation and compare analyses of δ18O, δ13C, δ11B and trace elements (Li, B, Na, Mn, Mg, Sr and U/Ca). We find no consistent geochemical offset between the treatments and excellent agreement in δ11B measurements between them. Our results show that boron isotope reconstructions of pH in foraminifera from alkenone-extracted sediments can be applied with confidence.

In contrast to the dominant ‘vulnerability narrative’ applied to studies of gender, age, and other intersectional characteristics in determining differentiated impacts of climate change, there is growing attention to the agency and voices of young people in the context of their development futures in a changing climate. This paper draws on Feminist Participatory Action Research undertaken by adolescent girls in Zambia and Zimbabwe. Centred on access to education, the findings prompt a reframing of youth agency and empowerment beyond instrumental concerns to integrate intrinsic factors that include self-fulfilment, recognition from others, status, and self-resilience. The research demonstrates how young people’s enquiry can help to surface the underlying structures of inequality shaping both their gendered experience of climate change and the response options available. Tackling structural issues may be beyond the conventional scope of climate change projects and policy, but gender and youth concerns require more than incremental changes. Rather, harnessing opportunities from low-carbon and climate-resilient futures requires understanding and tackling structural drivers of gender inequality that influence development opportunities for young people.

Climate change research is at an impasse. The transformation of economies and everyday practices is more urgent, and yet appears ever more daunting as attempts at behaviour change, regulations, and global agreements confront material and social-political infrastructures that support the status quo. Effective action requires new ways of conceptualizing society, climate and environment and yet current research struggles to break free of established categories. In response, this contribution revisits important insights from the social sciences and humanities on the co-production of political economies, cultures, societies and biophysical relations and shows the possibilities for ontological pluralism to open up for new imaginations. Its intention is to help generate a different framing of socionatural change that goes beyond the current science-policy-behavioural change pathway. It puts forward several moments of inadvertent concealment in contemporary debates that stem directly from the way issues are framed and imagined in contemporary discourses. By placing values, normative commitments, and experiential and plural ways of knowing from around the world at the centre of climate knowledge, we confront climate change with contested politics and the everyday foundations of action rather than just data.

In recent years, striking a balance between present consumption and resource management has been an important issue both in practice and theory. Although a number of studies have been condu...

Alkenone sea surface temperature records recently observed suggest a substantial long-term and large-magnitude ocean surface cooling during the Late Miocene. At the same time, starting about seven million years ago, both hemispheres on Earth witnessed synchronous cooling and large areas of the continents experienced drying and enhanced seasonality. Coinciding with this climatic shift were significant changes in ecology, including the rise of C4-photosynthesizing terrestrial plants and the emergence of so-called "vital effects" in oceanic coccolithophores. These changes are collectively hypothesized to be induced by declining atmospheric CO2. However, the sparse proxy data available for this time interval limits our understanding of the link between these changes and atmospheric greenhouse gas fluctuations and has let people to propose a "climate-CO2 decoupling".In this study, the alkenone based pCO2 proxy is used to reconstruct atmospheric CO2 for the time interval between 4.5 and 8.5 Ma. Estimations are based on the carbon isotopic fractionation during photosynthesis (εp) and a new statistical multilinear regression model based on an analysis of culture and sediment data. Past coccolithophore growth rates are reconstructed using foraminiferal isotopic-based proxies, related to water column structure which favour or limit nutrient supply to the photic zone. A thorough sensitivity analysis of modern and past εp values and its influencing factors in the Southern Ocean yield to a new, high resolution pCO2 record. Estimated pCO2 concentrations synchronously decline with the observed long-term cooling (5°C) from 6.8 to 5.9 Ma, periodically decreasing to sufficiently low values of 2 concentrations during the Late Miocene Cooling Event are thus successfully reproduced in this study and allow a reasonable interpretation of past conditions as has not yet been previously achieved in the relevant literature.

One way to make development pathways more resilient in the face of a changing climate has been through mainstreaming adaptation into government policies, planning and sectoral decision-making. To date, many of the transferable lessons have taken the form of technical approaches such as risk assessments and toolkits. This article instead draws on evidence from South Asia to emphasise some of the more tacit and informal approaches used to influence adaptation policy. Despite their apparent significance in policy processes, such tactics are often neither planned for nor well reported in resilience-building projects and programme documents. Using evidence to populate a typology of influencing strategies, this article looks particularly at the role of policy entrepreneurs who navigate the political complexity of both formal and informal governance systems to promote successful adaptation mainstreaming. It concludes with recommendations for adaptation and resilience programming that can more effectively harness the breadth of influencing strategies.

The debate about the relationship between adaptation to climate change and development has been ongoing for over two decades. Adaptation is about risk reduction, the pursuit of opportunity and rethinking investments, planning and behaviour, which is also in many ways what development is about. Yet a distinction between the two is necessary for the existing funding architecture, and to ensure that adaptation is more than just business as usual. We summarise a debate held at the Adaptation Futures 2018 conference to explore whether global development is adapting to climate change, with one side arguing for, the other arguing against. The outcome suggests no obvious winner, in part because there is no clear distinction between what qualifies as exclusively adaptation or development, since some dimensions of each put them in opposition to one another, while other dimensions are mutually reinforcing. Yet, to say that adaptation will take place through development does not sufficiently underscore the need for development to be rethought. Adaptation will require transformative development – that is, development that takes everyone into account and places issues of equity and justice in the centre and adheres to principles of sustainability.

The purpose of this mixed methods paper is to focus on exploring and analysing the influencing factors on the development of marketing consulting services in Vietnam and thus proposing some practical solutions to promoting this service. The qualitative methodology is used to explore, adjust and provide observation variables for measuring factors. The quantitative methodology is used to test the research model to determine the relationship between factors that affect the development of the marketing consulting services. Using correlations and multiple regressions statistical analysis, the study found that recognition of need, affordability and willingness to pay of service receiver, capability and ability of provider, perceive value of service, and source of information on service providers are correlated with development of marketing consulting services. The study provides direct insight into the factors impacting these developments by having decision-makers focus on these five distinct areas that can help grow these services in Vietnam.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the attitudes toward business ethics of Vietnamese business students based on the five moral philosophies including Machiavellianism, Moral objectivism, legalism, ethical relativism and social Darwinism. Using the 30-item attitudes towards business ethics questionnaire (ATBEQ) developed by Neumann and Reichel (1987) based on the work of Stevens (1979), the authors examined the attitudes toward business ethics of 282 business students at a public university in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. It appeared that there was a significant difference between all five philosophies except legalism. Legalism was found only significantly different from moral objectivism. The respondents scored highest for moral objectivism, followed by ethical relativism, social Darwinism, legalism and Machiavellianism. We found a significant difference between male and female business students for Machiavellianism and ethical relativism, and a partially significant difference for legalism. Finally, we found that code of ethics only made a significant difference for only Machiavellianism and social Darwinism.

The aim of this paper is to analyse the emergence of the concept of ‘urban resilience’ in the literature and to assess its potentials and limitations as an element of policy planning. Using a systematic literature review covering the period 2003–2013 and a combination of techniques derived from narrative analysis, we show that diverse views of what urban resilience means and how it is best used (as a goal or as a conceptual/analytical framework) compete in the literature. Underlying these views are various (and sometimes diverging) interpretations of what the main issues are and what forms of policies or interventions are needed to address these issues. Urban planners need to be better aware of these different interpretations if they want to be in a position to use resilience appropriately and spell out what resilience can bring to their work. The review also highlights that the notion of urban resilience often lacks adequate acknowledgement of the political economy of urbanization and consequently does not challenge the status quo which, some argue, is socially unjust and environmentally unsustainable. As such it runs the risk to be seen as simply making marginalized urban communities more resilient to the shocks and inequity created by the current dominant paradigm.

Summary Interest in prospects for policy processes that contribute to development, climate change adaptation and mitigation, known as ‘climate compatible development’, has been growing in response to increasing awareness of the impacts of climate change. This paper provides insight into the complex political economy of climate compatible development in Ghana's artisanal fisheries, a sector that has received comparatively little attention in climate change literature and policy processes. It focuses on two contentious policy areas where there is potential for climate compatible development, namely the subsidized premix fuel provided to artisanal fishermen, and mangrove protection. Regarding the premix subsidy, while there is theoretical scope for a ‘triple win’ outcome by removing the subsidy to reduce incentives to unsustainable fishing and supporting alternative policies, in practice this is highly problematic. Artisanal fishermen strongly oppose removing the subsidy on the grounds that it would damage their livelihoods, and do not have the confidence that they would be appropriately compensated for any hypothetical reform. Moreover, it is argued that removing it could have negative unintended consequences if fishermen are forced into alternative livelihoods that are themselves unsustainable. There is, however, a need to make considerable improvements to the distribution of the premix fuel so that it reaches the intended beneficiaries and is not siphoned off for contraband. Meanwhile, although improved mangrove protection could have significant ‘triple-win’ benefits, this area suffers from a lack of funding and administrative coordination across ministries and agencies, leading it to be neglected. The case studies reveal, therefore, that the major constraint to climate compatible development is institutional failing, rather than a lack of policies per se. The paper emphasizes the need to conceptualize climate compatible development as a process which is dynamic across space and time, such that potential for triple win outcomes is fluctuate to vary according to changing circumstances. It is necessary to recognize, furthermore, that pressures from a number of actors, including those at the grass roots, may demand short term improvements to current problems rather than aspiring to triple win outcomes in the long term, creating a major challenge for climate compatible development.

Resilience is receiving substantial traction as a concept to inform climate change and development policies and programmes. At the same time, a number of critiques have emerged that question its use as a framing concept for tackling urban climate change. This paper reflects on climate resilience and its critiques through an examination of the Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network (ACCCRN) initiative in two cities in India. We illustrate aspects of the resilience critique and, using evidence of transformational aspects of the initiative, we argue that resilience thinking must be coupled with the concept of transformation in order to bring issues of people, politics and power to the fore. In the process, the conceptual strength of resilience can be combined with a more radical agenda that engages with underlying political structures and trade-offs that determine risk and vulnerability.

To secure development gains and help eradicate poverty in the long run, it is critical to strengthen ex-ante disaster risk management (DRM) measures that build resilience at the household, firm and macro level. Decision-makers however often view DRM investments as a gamble that pays off only in the event of a disaster. This is despite increasing evidence that building resilience yields significant and tangible benefits, even if a disaster does not happen for many years. This chapter outlines the Triple Dividend of Resilience as a new analytical method to enhance the business case for investments in building resilience. The three benefits that are outlined are: (1) avoiding losses when disasters strike; (2) unlocking development potential by stimulating economic activity thanks to reduced disaster-related investment risks; and (3) social, environmental and economic co-benefits associated with investments. The second and third dividends in particular are typically overlooked in appraisals around investment decisions, and can accrue even in the absence of disaster events. Presenting evidence of additional dividends to policy-makers and investors can provide a stronger case for investment in DRM, helping to reconcile short- and long-term objectives. This chapter sets the conceptual basis for the more detailed assessments of the resilience streams and implications for decision-makers provided in the following chapters.

Globalisation has increased the demand for an international group of leaders who can lead multinational corporations across cultures successfully. Understanding the leadership orientations of the international workforces becomes a necessity for these companies. This paper distinctively examines the task and relationship orientations of working adults in Japan and Oman. Through the analysis of 419 responses including 231 respondents from Japan and 188 respondents from Oman, it appears that Omani working adults are more task-oriented than Japanese working adults. Gender is not a factor in either the task or the relationship orientations of all respondents. However, there is a significant interaction in the relationship scores based on gender between the two cultures: Omani male respondents are more relationshiporiented than their Japanese counterparts while Japanese female respondents are more relationship-oriented than their Omani counterparts. In this paper, managerial implications, recommendations for future research and limitations are discussed.

Young people regularly face great hurdles to get their voices heard, while research and practice in the disaster and climate change community commonly represent young people as passive victims requiring protection. Consequently, their capacities to inform decision-making processes, communicate risks to their communities and take direct action to reduce risks have been neglected. This paper presents empirical data from participatory video (PV) methods with groups of young people in three communities in Eastern Samar, the Philippines. Producing these videos enabled groups to research, document and raise awareness of disaster risk, and use screening events to mobilise and advocate for risk reduction measures in their communities. The results suggest that the PV process was an effective tool for empowering young people to raise important issues with decision-makers and advocate change on behalf of their communities.

The term ‘resilience’ is increasingly used in the context of discussion, policies and programming around climate change adaptation1\ud This paper works with the following definition of climate change adaptation, ‘is a process by which strategies to moderate, cope with and take advantage of the consequences of climatic events are enhanced, developed, and implemented’ (Levina & Tirpak, 2006).\ud View all notes\ud (‘adaptation’) and disaster risk reduction2\ud Disaster risk reduction is ‘a systematic approach to identifying, assessing and reducing the risks of disaster. It aims to reduce socio-economic vulnerabilities to disaster as well as dealing with the environmental and other hazards that trigger them’ (Wisner, Blaikie, Cannon, & Davis, 2004 Wisner, B., Blakie, P., Cannon, T. and Davis, I. 2004. At risk: Natural hazards, people's vulnerability and disasters, London: Routledge.\ud [Google Scholar]\ud ).\ud View all notes\ud . It has become particularly popular to describe the intersection between these two fields and those of poverty and development, and ‘climate resilient development’ is rapidly becoming a catch-all for tackling climate change impacts in a development context. This paper reviews academic use of the concept of ‘resilience’ in social, ecological and socio-ecological systems and its application to the climate, disaster and development nexus. From this review, we distil 10 key characteristics of resilience: high diversity; effective governance and institutions; the ability to work with uncertainty and change; community involvement and the inclusion of local knowledge; preparedness and planning for disturbances; high social and economic equity; robust social values and structures, acknowledging non-equilibrium dynamics, continual and effective learning and the adoption of a cross-scalar perspective. Finally, we highlight knowledge gaps and suggest directions for further research.

Adaptive Social Protection refers to efforts to integrate social protection (SP), disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation (CCA), the need for which is increasingly recognised by practitioners and academics. Relying on 124 agricultural programmes implemented in five countries in Asia, this article considers how these elements are being brought together, and explores the potential gains of these linkages. It shows that full integration is still relatively limited but that, when it occurs, it helps to shift the time horizon beyond short-term interventions aimed at supporting peoples’ coping strategies and/or graduation objectives, towards longer-term interventions that can help promote transformation towards climate and disaster resilient livelihood options.

This working paper identifies and explores the issues that should be considered when undertaking ethical research involving children in humanitarian settings. Research grounded in sound ethical principles is critical in ensuring that children’s rights are respected throughout the process and beyond and that the research itself is relevant, useful and valid. This paper examines both the universal (i.e. relevant to all research involving children) and specific ethical issues that may arise when involving children in research in humanitarian settings. This is undertaken through an examination of the literature, a review of relevant case studies and a reflection on the ethical issues highlighted in UNICEF’s Procedure for Ethical Standards in Research, Evaluation, Data Collection and Analysis (the Ethics Procedure). The latter is used as a baseline for generic ethical standards when involving children in research.

The development progress achieved by many countries, and particularly by low-income countries, is at risk of being undermined or even wiped out by the range of shocks and resulting crises they face. Since the turn of the millennium, there has been growing recognition of the importance of climate and disaster risks for development progress; the global financial crisis of 2007/08 also had profound implications for economies around the world. Partly in response to this experience, anticipatory risk management systems have become an increasingly popular approach to tackling both economic and disaster resilience. This chapter examines the impacts of financial crises on development at the national level and the responses of major international institutions in terms of coping with and anticipating such shocks. It then examines the lessons from these risk management mechanisms for understanding and recognising the dividends of resilience emerging from disaster risk management.

The Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (known collectively as REDD+) initiative has emerged as a means through which individuals, projects and communities in developing countries can be financially rewarded for reducing emissions from deforestation, forest degradation and enhancement of carbon stock. In this article, we analyse the various framings and actor coalitions around REDD+ and institutional dynamics within the conceptualisation and development of REDD+. We conclude with a reflection on the key aspects for the political economy of REDD+ under a post‐Kyoto agreement, arguing that increased institutional recognition and support to less powerful forest voices is needed if equity rights as social justice are to be considered as key aspects of the future global climate change regime.

Children and young people are commonly treated in the climate change and disasters literature as victims of natural events requiring protection by adults. This article critiques that narrative, drawing on examples from the Philippines and El Salvador that explore how children’s groups have responded to such issues through child-centred initiatives. This highlights the importance of understanding children’s perception and communication of risks facing their lives and livelihoods, their potential as agents of change in preventing disasters and adapting to climate change, and the implications for the theory and practice of child participation, particularly in developing countries. � 2010 The Author(s). Journal compilation � 2010 National Children’s Bureau and Blackwell Publishing Limited.

Summary Reliance on subsistence agriculture means the impact of stresses and shocks (such as droughts or floods) are felt keenly by rural poor people, who depend directly on food system outcomes for their survival, with profound implications for the security of their livelihoods and welfare. However, such stresses and shocks will not necessarily lead to negative impacts, as risks and uncertainties, often associated with seasonality, are embedded in the practice of agriculture and there is considerable experience of coping and risk management strategies among people working in this sector. With climate change, the magnitude and frequency of stresses and shocks is changing and approaches such as social protection, disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation (CCA) will be needed to bolster local resilience and supplement people's experience. This study examines the opportunities for linking social protection, CCA and DRR in the context of agriculture and rural growth, exploring whether linking these three approaches together will help enhance resilience to shocks and stresses in agriculture-dependent rural communities. The study does this by (i) reviewing conceptual and policy-related similarities and differences between the three disciplines, by (ii) collecting evidence from case studies where climate change-resilient social protection approaches have been trialled and by (iii) developing an adaptive social protection framework that highlight opportunities better coordination. This paper suggests social protection and DRR measures designed to limit damages from shocks and stresses may not be sufficient in the longer term. For social protection to be resilient to climate change impacts, it will need to consider how reducing dependence on climate sensitive livelihood activities can be part of adaptive strategies. Similarly, CCA and DRR cannot effectively address the root causes of poverty and vulnerability without taking a differentiated view of poverty, something that further integration with social protection can help with.

In the context of climate change, the poorest people are commonly seen as having the least capacity to adapt. However, to date, there has been a limited examination of the dynamic and differentiated nature of poverty. Through bringing together both the chronic poverty and adaptation literature, this article presents a new pro-poor adaptation research agenda underpinned by a more nuanced understanding of poverty. Whilst recognising that poverty reduction efforts are threatened by climate change, this article investigates ways in which proactive adaptation could offer opportunities to create pathways out of chronic poverty through targeted vulnerability reduction and adaptation efforts.

Summary Rapidly expanding urban settlements in the developing world face severe climatic risks in light of climate change. Urban populations will increasingly be forced to cope with increased incidents of flooding, air and water pollution, heat stress and vector-borne diseases. This research, undertaken with a set of partner research institutes, examines how to manage climate-related impacts in an urban context by promoting planned and autonomous adaptation in order to by improve resilience in a changing climate. It investigates the linkages between the characteristics of pro-poor good urban governance, climate adaptation and resilience, and poverty and sustainable development concerns. The paper develops an analytical framework by combining governance literature with rapid climate resilience assessments conducted in ten Asian cities. Based on this empirical data, we argue that a number of key characteristics can be identified to assess and build urban resilience to climate change in a way that reduces the vulnerability of the citizens most at risk from climate shocks and stresses. These characteristics form the basis of a climate resilient urban governance assessment framework, and include (1) decentralisation and autonomy, (2) accountability and transparency, (3) responsiveness and flexibility, (4) participation and inclusion and (5) experience and support. This framework can help to assist in the planning, design and implementation of urban climate change resilience-building programmes in the future.

Despite the growth in work linking climate change and national level development agendas, there has been limited attention to their political economy. These processes mediate the winners, losers and potential trade-offs between different goals, and the political and institutional factors which enable or inhibit integration across different policy areas. This paper applies a political economy analysis to case studies on low carbon energy in Kenya and carbon forestry in Mozambique. In examining the intersection of climate and development policy, we demonstrate the critical importance of politics, power and interests when climate-motivated initiatives encounter wider and more complex national policy contexts, which strongly influence the prospects of achieving integrated climate policy and development goals in practice. We advance the following arguments: First, understanding both the informal nature and historical embeddedness of decision making around key issue areas and resource sectors of relevance to climate change policy is vital to engaging actually existing politics; why actors hold the positions they do and how they make decisions in practice. Second, we need to understand and engage with the interests, power relations and policy networks that will shape the prospects of realising climate policy goals; acting as barriers in some cases and as vehicles for change in others. Third, by looking at the ways in which common global drivers have very different impacts upon climate change policy once refracted through national levels institutions and policy processes, it is easier to understand the potential and limits of translating global policy into local practice. And fourth, climate change and development outcomes, and the associated trade-offs, look very different depending on how they are framed, who frames them and in which actor coalitions. Understanding these can inform the levers of change and power to be navigated, and with whom to engage in order to address climate change and development goals.

The resilience concept requires greater attention to human livelihoods if it is to address the limits to adaptation strategies and the development needs of the planet's poorest and most vulnerable people. Although the concept of resilience is increasingly informing research and policy, its transfer from ecological theory to social systems leads to weak engagement with normative, social and political dimensions of climate change adaptation. A livelihood perspective helps to strengthen resilience thinking by placing greater emphasis on human needs and their agency, empowerment and human rights, and considering adaptive livelihood systems in the context of wider transformational changes.

How should we measure a household’s resilience? As resilience gathers momentum on the international stage, interest in this question continues to grow. So far, efforts to measure resilience have largely focused on the use of ‘objective’ frameworks and methods of indicator selection. These typically depend on a range of observable socio-economic variables, such as levels of income, the extent of a household’s social capital or its access to social safety nets. Yet, while objective methods have their uses, they suffer from well-documented weaknesses. Biases, such as the choice of indicators, the context-specific nature of resilience and the difficulties of capturing the less tangible processes that contribute to a person’s resilience, all make the task of measurement difficult. Alternative approaches are therefore sought. This paper advocates for the use of one such alternative: the measurement of ‘subjective’ resilience at the household level. The concept of subjective resilience stems from the premise that people have a good understanding of the factors that contribute to their ability to anticipate, buffer and adapt to disturbance and change. Subjective household resilience, therefore, relates to an individual’s cognitive and affective self-evaluation of their household’s capabilities and capacities in responding to risk. In this paper, we discuss the advantages of measuring subjective household resilience. First, we put forward different options for the design and delivery of survey questions on subjective resilience at the household level. We then outline some of the key limitations and methodological challenges of asking subjective questions and explore possible ways of overcoming various biases. Finally, we highlight how subjective household resilience can be used to improve policy and decision-making, through the evaluation and targeting of resilience-building activities, national and international resilience measurement, and the inclusion of bottom-up perspectives in decision-making processes at various levels of governance.

Structural adjustment and neoliberal policy implementation in Latin America have had dramatic consequences for livelihoods and patterns of natural resource use in mountain regions. Restructuring of the agricultural economy has increased socio-economic hardship and reduced industrial labour requirements, altering traditional patterns of seasonal migration from these areas. This paper examines the implications of recent economic and political transformation for Andean livelihoods in the mountains of northwest Argentina. Case study material illustrates the local impacts of such changes on socio-economic dynamics, patterns of urban–rural interaction, and natural resource use. The research highlights the influence of agro-industrial restructuring, protected areas creation, and the distribution of social funds in the region. It reveals that local development is constrained and controlled not only by distant policies but also by contemporary local networks of political clientalism. The influence of both distant and proximate factors governing livelihoods and environmental impacts reinforces the value of geographical study in mountain areas, given its acute spatial and scalar awareness. The paper reaffirms the conception of mountain livelihoods as diverse and dynamic, shaped by economic, political, social and cultural factors as well as physical eality, and critiques the economic rationality of resource use assumed by policymakers and economic models.

This paper examines the process of building resilience to climate change in urban areas by scrutinising the manner in which initiatives to build resilience interact with the urban policy environments in which they unfold. The urban policy environment is broken into three analytical areas of actors, spaces and discourses. This illustrates the influence of actor networks, epistemic communities and policy entrepreneurs in helping climate change resilience gain traction in urban settings, how discourses attached to Resilience urban resilience are dissonant with those prevailing in ossified Discourses urban policy environments, and the dynamic interaction of interest, agendas and power in decision making that accompanies resilience building processes. The paper applies this framework to case studies of two Indian cities within a major international urban climate change resilience initiative. Using data gathered through a variety of rigorous qualitative research methods, the paper provides insights into the politics of policy processes around urban climate change initiatives. Findings from this study can inform urban development policies and allow resilience project planners to calibrate their efforts to better suit urban policy environments. The paper highlights how issues of politics and power are more significant determinants of such policy processes than conventional, science-led analyses would suggest.