Introduction: understanding adaptation in the context of social theory

The past two decades have witnessed significant evolution of the adaptation research enterprise (Preston et al. 2013; Preston et al. 2015). This is evidenced by the expanded treatment of adaptation in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report (IPCC 2014), a development that was enabled by rapid growth in the volume of adaptation literature following the Fourth Assessment Report (IPCC 2009). A similar expansion of adaptation has also been witnessed in adaptation policy and practice. Although once viewed as a taboo topic (Pielke Jr 1998; Pielke et al. 2007), adaptation is now being institutionalized at a range of geopolitical scales. Adaptation, and particularly adaptation finance, is a major subject of debate within international negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and various funding mechanisms have been developed to support adaptation in developing nations (Grasso 2009; Hulme et al. 2011; Petherick 2012; Schipper and Burton 2009). National governments of developed nations have also initiated strategic thinking regarding adaptation as represented by the United Kingdom’s Climate Change Act (UK Stationery Office 2008) the European Union’s Adaptation Strategy (EU 2013) and Australia’s National Climate Resilience and Adaptation Strategy (Commonwealth of Australia 2015). Such top-down approaches to adaptation are complemented by a broad range of bottom-up efforts represented by local/municipal, and state/district adaptation planning (Lindseth 2005; Measham et al. 2011; Preston and Kay 2010; Saavedra and Budd 2009). Given these developments, one might assume that substantive progress is being made in adaptation policy and practice and, moreover, that some of that progress can be attributed to the ability of adaptation scholarship to help support adaptation decision-making while also shedding light on the complexities of adaptation processes. Yet, rather than accept these assumptions at face value, this Research Handbook on Climate Change Adaptation Policy endeavors to view them through a critical lens. To that